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J 
HISTORY 



•& a l 



ST. JOSEPH COUNTY 



INDIANA; 



TOGETHER WITH SKETCHES OF ITS CITIES, VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS, EDU- 
CATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, CIVIL, MILITARY, AND POLITICAL HISTORY; 
PORTRAITS OP PROMINENT PERSONS, AND BIOGRAPHIES 
OP REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA, 



EMBRACING ACCOUNTS OF THE PRE-HISTORIC RACES, ABORIGINES, FRENCH, 

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN CONQUESTS, AND A GENERAL REVIEW 

OF ITS CIVIL, POLITICAL AND MILITARY HISTORY. 



ILLUSTRATED. 



CHICAGO: 

CHAS. C CHAPMAN & CO., 
1880 






BLAKELT, BROWN & MARSH, 
PRINTERS, 
■ 55 * 157 DEARBORN ST., CHICAGO. 



DONOHUE * HENNEBERRY, 
BOOKBINDERS, 
105 & 109 MADISON STREET., CHICACO 



PREFACE. 

Over half a century has rolled its years away since this section of 
Indiana was first chosen for a home by the white man. Trials, suf- 
ferings and struggles which were experienced in converting even 
this fertile land from its virgin wiidness into the luxuriant and 
densely populated country now existing can never be fully portrayed. 
Although, as in many frontier settlements, the ground was not con- 
secrated by the blood of pioneers and their families, yet human 
tongue or pen can never accurately picture the vicissitudes and 
trials of the van-guard of civilization who "pitched their tents " in 
St. Joseph county. Their labors were as trying to their minds as 
to their bodies. Physical and mental strength waste together, and 
the memory of names, dates and events is gradually lost under the 
confusion of accumulating years. Events that were fresh in mem- 
ory ten to twenty years after their occurrence are almost if not 
entirely forgotten when fifty years have passed. 

As a consequence there will be many irreconcilable statements 
concerning the matters of pioneer history, and it becomes a labori- 
ous task to compile a full and satisfactory account of many affairs 
in the career of the community. We have particular trouble with 
the spelling of names. We once saw in a cemetery the name 
" Orvillee " on the headstone of a certain grave, and " Orval Lee " 
on the footstone. Of course, then, some errors will be detected here 
and there by parties who happen to know the truth concerning such 
and such little items. We have not flinched from the labor and 
expense required to make the history as full and accurate as any 
history ever published, — indeed, we have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that our local histories are more reliable than general histories 
are, as we are exposed to the crucial test of a local patronage. 

We desire our readers" first to scan the table of contents, to become 
acquainted with the arrangement, and to make it easy for themselves 



PREFACE. 



to find anything in the volume. The history of the respective town- 
ships is given alphabetically, and the biographical matter is also 
arranged alphabetically under the respective headings of the town- 
ships. For example, the sketches of South Bend parties will all 
be found under the general heading of " Portage Township," and 
under the specific heading of " Biographical." The first portion 
of this work gives the most complete history of the State of Indiana 
yet published, while the remainder of the volume, by far the largest 
portion, is strictly the history of St. Joseph county. 

As one of the most interesting features of this work, we present 
the portraits of several representative citizens. It has been our aim 
to have the prominent men of the day, as well as the pioneers, rep- 
resented in this department. Of course we could not give portraits 
of all the leading men of the county, nor even half, but we have 
done our best to give a fair representation. 

In conclusion, we render our heartiest thanks to those who have 
so freely aided us in collecting material. To the county officials, 
pastors of churches, officers of societies, pioneers, and the editors of 
the press, we are particularly grateful for the many kindnesses and 
courtesies shown us while laboring in the county; but most of all, 
we wish to thank those who have so liberally and materially aided 
the work by becoming subscribers for it, for without such aid no 
history of St. Joseph county could have been published. 

C. C. CHAPMAN & CO. 

Chicago, December, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



HISTORY OF IXDIA>:A 



FORMER OCCUPANTS 1? 

The First Immigration 18 

Tqj Second Immigration 20 

The Tartars ii 

Relics of th3 Mound-Builders 23 

Indians 31 

Manners and Customs 34 

EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES.... 87 

Earliest Explorers 37 

Ouabache 39 

Viucennes 89 

NATION A L POLICIES 41 

The Great French Scheme 41 

Pontiac'e War 46 

British Policy 46 

American Policy 46 

Indian Savagery 47 

EXPEDITIONS OF COL. GEORGE 

ROGERSCLARK 52 

Clara's Ingenious Rus. 1 64 

Subsequent Career of Hamilton 64 

Gibault 65 

Vigo 66 

GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTH- 
WEST 67 

Ordinance of 1787 70 

Liquor and Gaming Laws 74 

MILITARY" HISTORY, 1790TO 1800 75 

Expeditions of Harmar, Scott and Wil- 
kinson 75 

Expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne 78 

Wavue's Great Victory 79 

TERRITORIAL HISTORY" 82 

Organization of Indiana Territory 82 

First Territorial Legislature 84 

The Western Bun 84 

Indiana in 1810 84 

GOVERNOR HARRISON AND THE 

INDIANS 87 

Harrison's Campaign 92 

Battle of Tippecanoe 98 

WAR OF 1812 101 

E xpeditiou against the Indians 103 

Close of the War 108 

TECUMSEH Ill 

CIVIL MATTERS 1812-'5 116 

Population in 1815 118 

General Vie \ 1 18 

ORGANIZATION" OF THE STATE ... . 121 

BLACK HAWK WAR 123 

LAST EXODUS OF INDIANS 131 

INDIAN TITLES 132 

LAND SALES 188 

HARMONY COMMUNITY 134 

PIONEER LIFE 136 

The Log Cabin 136 

Sleeping Accommodations 138 

Cooking 141 

Women's Work i 142 

Dress and Manners 143 

Family Worship 145 

Hospitality 147 

Trade 148 

Money 148 

Milling 150 

Agricultural Implements 150 

Hog-Killing 151 

Prairie Fires 152 

Wild Hogs 156 

Native Animals 157 

Wolf Hunts 157 

Bee-Hunting 158 

Snakes 158 

Shakes 159 



Education 160 

'•Past the Pictures." 164 

Spelling-School 165 

Singing-School 167 

Guarding against Indians 168 

The Bright Side 171 

What the Pioneers Have Done 173 

Military Drill 175 

"Jack, the Philosopher of the 19ih Cen- 
tury." 176 

"Too Full lor Utter nee." 177 

Thieving and Lynch-Law 179 

Cuiingtne Druuken Husba::d 180 

The "Choke Trap." 181 

MICHIGAN BOUNDARY 185 

MEXICAN WAR 186 

SLAVERY 194 

15th Amendment 197 

THE WAR FOR THE UNION 198 

Lincoln did not seek the Presidency 198 

States Seceding 199 

The Fa 1 of Sumter '.. ... 200 

A Vast Army Raised in 11 Davs 201 

Sherman's March to the Sea.'. 202 

Character of Abraham Lincoln 202 

The War Euded-The Union Restored. 204 

The Morgan-Raid Regiments 227 

Six Months' Regiments 229 

The 100-Davs'Volui teers 233 

The President's Call of Jul v, 1864 234 

" Dec, " 234 

Independent Cavalry Company of Indi- 
ana Vol unleere." 238 

Our Colored Troops 239 

Batteries of Light Artillery 239 

AftertheWar 246 

DIVORCE LAWS 250 

FINANCIAL 251 

State Bank 253 

Wealth and Progress . 254 

Internal Improvements 256 

GEOLOGY '.162 

COAL 264 

AGRICULTURE 286 

State Board of Agriculture 266 

The Exposition 267 

Indiana Hor.icultnral Society 269 

" Pomological " 270 

EDUCATION 272 

Public Schools 272 

Indiana State University 279 

Purdue University 281 

Imlbina State Normal School 285 

Normal School, etc., at Valparaiso 286 

Denominational and Private Institutions 287 
BENEVOLENT AND PENAL INSTI- 
TUTIONS 291 

Institute for the Education of the Blind 291 

Institute for the Deaf and Dumb 293 

Hospital for the Insane 295 

The State Prison South 296 

" " North 297 

Female Prison and Reformatory 298 

Indiana House of Relnge 300 

STATE CAPITOL 301 

STATE OFFICERS 302 

U. S. SENATORS FROM INDIANA... 806 
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 307 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: 

Of Governors 310 

Of U.S. Senators 316 

THE SUPREMACIES 319 

STATES OF THE UNION 319 



CONTENTS. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COIXTY 



CHAPTER I. 

First White Men in the County 331 

Original Inhabitants 333 

Area of the County 336 

Topography 337 

The Watershed 337 

Rivers of St. Joseph County 338 

First Entries or Land 33S 

First Road 339 

CHAPTER II. 
NATURAL HISTORY 340 

§uadrupeds 340 
irds 340 

Reptiles 344 

Fish 344 

Botany 345 

CHAPTER HI. 

Organization of St. Joseph County 35$ 

Acts of the Board of J usiices 359 

Arts of the Board of County Com'rs. . . 361 

CHAPTER IV. 

PIONEER LIFE 370 

CHAPTER V. 

Circuit Court 374 

Common Pleas Court 377 

Probate Court 378 

The Bar 37S 

The Present Bar 3S0 

St. Joseph Bar Association 381 

The Bar In a New Role 3S6 

CHAPTER VI. 

Northern Indiana Medical Society 389 

St. Joseph County Medical Society. ... 390 

st. Joseph Valley Medical Society 395 

Diseases of the St. Joseph Valley 397 

CHAPTER VII. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN THE WAR... 40S 

9th Infantry 414 

15th '• 417 

29th " 419 

48th " 422 

73d " 420 

-Till " 430 

128th " 433 

ISSth " 437 

165th " 438 

12th Cavalry. 439 

2lst Battery 442 

Roll of Honor 444 

Officers.... 44-1 

Non-commis'n'd Officers and Privates 445 

The First Martyr 44s 

Black Hawk War 449 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Railroads 454 

Terrible "Railroad Accident 4.vj 

The Telegraph 460 

Ferries 400 

CHAPTER IX. 

BIOGRAPHICAL: 

Alexis Coquillard 462 

Hon. Mark Whlnery 467 

Hon. Wm. Miller. 40s 

Dr. Louis Humphreys . 4711 

Jacob Harris 473 



Solomon W. Palmer. 473 

1 < il. Norman Eddy 477 

Mis. Hannah D. Matthews 479 

Father Laurence 481 

Rev. Augustus Lemonnier 4S2 

Rev. N. H. Gillespie 483 

-Frof. Benj. Wilcox . . : 4-84 

Elder C. Wenger 486 

Judge Powers Greene 486 

John Studebaker 487 

John Mack , 4SS 

Ariel E. Drapier 490 

Geo. W. Matthews 492 

Col. Alfred B. Wade 493 

Horatio Chapin 495 

Samuel Byerly 496 

Elisha Egbert 498 

Dwight rieming 500 

John A. Henricks 502 

Mrs. Frances < '. Coquillard 503 

John M. stover 504 

John T. Lindsey 504 

Isaac Eaton 505 

Judge Johnson. 505 

Charles M. Tint 506 

Archibald Defrees 506 

J. G. Bartlett 507 

JamesA. Ireland 507 

Henry Stull 507 

CHAPTER X. 
REMINISCENCES : 

By Judge Stanfleld 509 

My I>r. Jai ob Hardman 512 

By Thomas P. Bulla 514 

By Dr. E. W. H. Ellis 517 

By John D. Defrees 519 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: 

Rev. P. Dillon 523 

Rev. Wm. i :orby 524 

Very Rev. Alexis Granger 524 

Rev. Francis Cointet 525 

Rev. Richard Shortls 526 

Rev. X. II. Gillespie 526 

Rev. James Dillon 626 

Prof. J. A.Lyons 527 

Rev. Michael B. Brown 527 

Rev. D. J. Splllard 528 

Prof. Michael A. J. Baasen 529 

Prof. Michael T. Corby 529 

Prof. Wm. Ivers 529 

1 lev. Joseph c. Carrier 530 

Lucius G. Tong 530 

Rev. J. A. Zahm 531 

Mrs. Flora L. Stanfleld 531 

Prof. T. E. Howard 532 

Daniel Kotz 532 

Prof. Lulgi Gregori 532 

Alfred Bryant Miller. 532 

E. Burke Fisher 532 

CHAPTEE XI. 

Public Buildings 534 

Navigation of the St. Joseph Elver. .. . 535 

Marriages Licenses 536 

A Counterfeiting Reminiscence 536 

still- Born Villages 537 

Flood 539 

Gold-Hunters 540 

Map and Atlas of the county 543 

CHAPTER XII. 

POLITICAL HISTORY 544 

Election Returns 555 

CHAPTER XIII. 

AGRICULTURE OF THE COUNTY 561 

Agrfcultral societies 561 



CONTENTS. 



Products 568 

Taxable property etc 567 

County Expenditures 567 

Census ■ ■ ■ ■ 56S 

Aged Persons 56s 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PRESS. 571 

CHAPTER XV. 

COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY 6S0 

County Total Abstinence Society 580 

What a Pint of Whisky Cost 582 

The Temperance Crusade 582 

Red-Ribbon Movement 5S5 

CHAPTER XVI. 

DARK DEEDS 5S6 

ST. JO.. RIVER AND ITS VICTIMS: 

Pour Young People Drowned 592 

Mysterious Disappearance ot Henry P. 

Porter 592 

Henry Sherman 593 

Found a Watery Grave 594 

Katy Fleck's Tragic Death 594 

Mysterious Disappearance of J. C. Mar- 
vin 695 

Death In the River 596 

Drowning of Jacob Bauer 597 

Strange Disappearance 597 

John Schuman 598 

Whisky Did It 598 

Another victim 599 

CHAPTER XVII. 

County Historical Society 601 

The First Brick House In South Bend.. . 603 
Pioneer Meetings 60S 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
SOUTH BEND FUGITIVE SLAVE CASK. 
CHAPTER XIX. 



61S 



University of Notre Dame 627 

St. Mary's Academy 634 

Northern Indiana College 636 

CHAPTER XX. 
AUTHORS AND SELECTIONS. 

Mrs. Flora L. Stanfleld 63S 

Miss Eleanor J. Wilson 642 

Prof. T. E. Howard 044 

Alfred Bryant Miller 04s 

E. Burke Fisher 651 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Public Schools 656 

County Examiners and Supts 658 

County Seminary 659 

Congressional Representation 660 

State senators and Representatives 661 

County Officers 662 

A Retrospect 664 

St. Joseph County of To-Day 006 

TOWNSHIP HISTORIES : 

Centre 668 

Clay 676 

German 0S2 

Greene 696 

Harris 713 

Liberty 718 

Lincoln 733 

Madison 751 

Olive 764 

Penn 7SS 

Portage 843 

Union 950 

Warren 965 



ILLISTRATIOXS. 



Scene on the Ohio River 25 

Hieroglyphics of the Mound Builders . . 29 
La Salle Landing at the Mouth of the St. 

Joseph's River 43 

Gen. George Rogers Clark 53 

Gen. Arthur St. Clair S9 

Tecurnseh 109 

India qs Attacking Frontiersmen 123 

A Pioneer Dwelling 139 

Hunting Prairie Wolves 153 



Trapping 169 

Pontlac 183 

The Shawnee Prophet 195 

Lincoln Monument at Springfield 204 

Opening an Indiana Forest 235 

view on the Wabash River 247 

Surrender of Indians to Wilkinson 289 

Court-House 329 

Jail 541 

Notre Dame University 721 



PORTRAIT!*. 



Colfax, Schuyler 475 

Coquillard, Alex Frontispiece 

Coquillard, A. T 7ii3 

Coquillard, A 739 

Corby, Wm 793 

Ham, L. J 757 

Holloway, W. J 917 



Howard, T. E 847 

Knobloek, J. c : 865 

Longlev, W. H : 811 

Led! rer, John N 883 

Miller, Wm B29 

Partridge, J. m., a. m.,m. d 93r> 

Sorin, E 775 



K-Jt i r^ K IV ft. 

— T7 — 1~ — r: — Tii — -.-r— t m — i -vl -— 




UNTY, 



SKI® 



HISTORY OF INDIANA: 

FORMER OCCUPANTS. 



PREHISTORIC RACES. 



Scientists have ascribed to the Mound Builders varied origins ) 
and though their divergence of opinion may for a time seem incom- 
patible with a thorough investigation of the subject, and tend to 
a confusion of ideas, no doubt whatever can exist as to the compar- 
ative accuracy of conclusions arrived at by some of them. Like 
the vexed question of the Pillar Towers of Ireland, it has caused 
much speculation, and elicited the opinions of so many learned 
antiquarians, ethnologists and travelers, that it will not be found 
beyond the range of possibility to make deductions that may 
suffice to solve the problem who were the prehistoric settlers of 
America. To achieve this it will not be necessary to go beyond the 
period over which Scripture history extends, or to indulge in those 
airy flights of imagination so sadly identified witli occasional 
writers of even the Christian school, and all the accepted literary 
exponents of modern paganism. 

That this continent is co-existent with the world of the ancients 
cannot be questioned. Every investigation, instituted under the 
auspices of modern civilization, confirms the fact and leaves no 
channel open through which the skeptic can escape the thorough 
refutation of his opinions. China, with its numerous living testi- 
monials of antiquity, with its ancient, though limited literature 
and its Babelish superstitions, claims a continuous history from 
antediluvian times; but although its continuity may be denied 
with every just reason, there is nothing to prevent the transmission 
of a hieroglyphic record of its history prior to 165(5 anno mundi, 
since many traces of its early settlement survived the Deluge, and 
became sacred objects of the first historical epoch. This very sur- 
vival of a record, such as that of which the Chinese boast, is not 
at variance with the designs of a God who made and ruled the 
universe; but that an antediluvian people inhabited this continent, 



18 HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 

will not be claimed; because it is not probable, though it may be 
possible, that a settlement in a land which may be considered a 
portion of the Asiatic continent, was effected by the immediate 
followers of the first progenitors of the human race. Therefore, on 
entering the study of the ancient people who raised these tumu- 
lus monuments over huge tracts of the country, it will be just 
sufficient to wander back to that time when the flood-gates of 
heaven were swung open to hurl destruction on a wicked world; 
and in doing so the inrpiiry must be based on legendary, or rather 
upon many circumstantial evidences; for, so far as written narra- 
tive extends, there is nothing to show that a movement of people 
too far east resulted in a Western settlement. 

THE FIEST IMMIGRATION. 

The first and most probable sources in which the origin of the 
Builders must be sought, are those countries lying along the east- 
ern coast of Asia, which doubtless at that time stretched far beyond 
its present limits, and presented a continuous shore from Lopatka 
to Point Cambodia, holding a population comparatively civilized, 
and all professing some elementary form of the Boodhism of later 
days. Those peoples, like the Chinese of the present, were bound 
to live at home, and probably observed that law until after the con- 
fusion of languages and the dispersion of the builders of Babel in 
1757, a. m. ; but subsequently, within the following century, the 
old Mongolians, like the new, crossed the great ocean in the very 
paths taken by the present representatives of the race, arrived on 
the same shores, which now extend a very questionable hospitality 
to them, and entered at once upon the colonization of the country 
south and east, while the Caucasian race engaged in a similar move- 
ment of exploration and colonization over what may be justly 
termed the western extension of Asia, and both peoples growing 
stalwart under the change, attained a moral and physical eminence 
to which they never could lay claim under the tropical sun which 
shed its beams upon the cradle of the human race. 

That mysterious people who, like the Brahmins of to-day, wor- 
shiped some transitory deity, and in after years, evidently embraced 
the idealization of Boodhism, as preached in Mongolia early in the 
35th century of the world, together with acquiring the learning of 
the Confucian and Pythagorean schools of the same period, spread 
all over the land, and in their numerous settlements erected these 
raths, or mounds, and sacrificial altars whereon they received their 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. ID 

periodical visiting gods, surrendered their bodies to natural absorp- 
tion or annihilation, and watched tor the return of some transmi- 
grated soul, the while adoring the universe, which with all beings 
they believed would be eternally existent. They possessed religious 
orders corresponding in external show at least with the Essenes or 
Theraputas of the pre-Christian and Christian epochs, and to the 
reformed Theraputae or monks of the present. Every memento 
of their coming and their stay which has descended to us is an evi- 
dence of their civilized condition. The free copper found within 
the tumuli; the open veins of the Superior and Iron Mountain 
copper-mines, with all the modus operandi of ancient mining, such 
as ladders, levers, chisels, and hammer-heads, discovered by the 
French explorers of the Northwest and the Mississippi, are conclu- 
sive proofs that those prehistoric people were highly civilized, and 
that many flourishing colonies were spread throughout the Missis- 
sippi valley, while yet the mammoth, the mastodon, and a hundred 
other animals, now only known by their gigantic fossil remains, 
guarded the eastern shore of the continent as it were against sup- 
posed invasions of the Tower Builders who went west from Babel; 
while yet the beautiful isles of the Antilles formed an integral 
portion of this continent, long years before the European Northman 
dreamed of setting forth to the discovery of Greenland and the 
northern isles, and certainly at a time when all that portion of 
America north of latitude 45° was an ice-incumbered waste. 

Within the last few years great advances have been made toward 
the discovery of antiquities whether pertaining to remains of organic 
or inorganic nature. Together with many small, but telling 
relics of the early inhabitants of the country, the fossils of pre- 
historic animals have been unearthed from end to end of the land, 
and in districts, too, long pronounced by geologists of some repute 
to be without even a vestige of vertebrate fossils. Among the 
collected souvenirs of an age about which so very little is known, 
are twenty five vertebras averaging thirteen inches in diameter, 
and three vertebras ossified together measure nine cubical feet; a 
thigh-bone five feet long by twenty-eight, by twelve inches in 
diameter, and the shaft fourteen by eight inches thick, the entire 
lot weighing 600 lbs. These fossils are presumed to belong to the 
cretaceous period, when the Dinosaur roamed over the country from 
East to West, desolating the villages of the people. This animal 
is said to have been sixty feet long, and when feeding in cypress 
and palm forests, to extend himself eighty-five feet, so that he may 



20 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

devour the budding tops of those great trees. Other efforts in this 
direction may lead to great results, and culminate probably in the 
discovery of a tablet engraven by some learned Mound Builder, 
describing in the ancient hieroglyphics of China all these men and 
beasts whose history excites so much speculation. The identity of 
the Mound Builders with the Mongolians might lead us to hope 
for such a consummation; nor is it beyond the range of probability, 
particularly in this practical age, to find the future labors of some 
industrious antiquarian requited by the upheaval of a tablet, written 
in the Tartar characters of 1700 years ago, bearing on a subject 
which can now be treated only on a purely circumstantial basis. 

THE SECOND IMMIGRATION 

may have begun a few centuries prior to the Christian era, and 
unlike the former expedition or expeditions, to have traversed north- 
eastern Asia to its Arctic confines, and then east to the narrow 
channel now known as Behring's Straits, which they crossed, and 
sailing up the unchanging Yukon, settled under the shadow of 
Mount St. Elias for many years, and pushing South commingled 
with their countrymen, soon acquiring the characteristics of the 
descendants of the first colonists. Chinese chronicles tell of such 
a people, who went North and were never heard of more. Circum- 
stances conspire to render that particular colony the carriers of a 
new religious faith and of an alphabetic system of a representative 
character to the old colonists, and they, doubtless, exercised a most 
beneficial influence in cither respects ; because the influx of immi- 
grants of such culture as were the Chinese, even of that remote 
period, must necessarily bear very favorable results, not only in 
bringing in reports of their travels, but also accounts from the 
fatherland bearing on the latest events. 

With the idea of a second and important exodus there are many 
theorists united, one of whom says: " It is now the generally 
received opinion that the first inhabitants of America passed over 
from Asia through these straits. The number of small islands 
lying between both continents renders this opinion still more 
probable; and it is yet further confirmed by some remarkable traces 
of similarity in the physical conformation of the northern natives 
of both continents. The Esquimaux of North America, the 
Samoieds of Asia, and the Laplanders of Europe, arc supposed to 
be of the same family; and this supposition is strengthened by the 
affinity which exists in their languages. The researches of Hum- 



HISTOKY OK INDIANA. 21 

boldt have traced the Mexicans to the vicinity of Behring's Straits; 
whence it is conjectured that they, as well as the Peruvians and 
other tribes, came originally from Asia, and were the Hiongnoos, 
who are, in the Chinese annals, said to have emigrated under Puno, 
and to have been lost in the North of Siberia." 

Since this theory is accepted by most antiquaries, there is every 
reason to believe that from the discovery of what may be called an 
overland route to what was then considered an eastern extension of 
that country which is now known as the " Celestial Empire," many 
caravans of emigrants passed to their new homes in the land of 
illimitable possibilities until the way became a well-marked trail 
over which the Asiatic might travel forward, and having once 
entered the Elysian fields never entertained an idea of returning. 
Thus from generation to generation the tide of immigration poured 
in until the slopes of the Pacific and the banks of the great inland 
rivers became hives of busy industry. Magnificent cities and 
monuments were raised at the bidding of the tribal leaders and 
populous settlements centered with happy villages sprung up 
everywhere in manifestation of the power and wealth and knowl- 
edge of the people. The colonizing Caucasian of the historic 
period walked over this great country on the very ruins of a civil- 
ization which a thousand years before eclipsed all that of which he 
could boast. He walked through the wilderness of the West over 
buried treasures hidden under the accumulated growth of nature, 
nor rested until he saw, with great surprise, the remains of ancient 
pyramids and temples and cities, larger and evidently more beauti- 
ful than ancient Egypt could bring forth after its long years of 
uninterrupted history. The pyramids resemble those of Egypt in 
exterior form, and in some instances are of larger dimensions. The 
pyramid of Cholula is square, having each side of its base 1,335 
feet in length, and its height about 172 feet. Another pyramid, 
situated in the north of Vera Cruz, is formed of large blocks 
of highly-polished porphyry, and bears upon its front hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions and curious sculpture. Each side of its 
square base is 82 feet in length, and a flight of 57 steps conducts to 
its summit, which is 65 feet in height. The ruins of Palenque are 
said to extend 20 miles along the ridge of a mountain, and the 
remains of an Aztec city, near the banks of the river Gila, are 
spread over more than a square league. Their lirerature consisted 
of hieroglyphics; but their arithmetical knowledge did not extend 
farther than their calculations by the aid of grains of corn. Yet, 



_-J HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

notwithstanding all their varied accomplishments, and they were 
evidently many, their notions of religious duty led to a most demo- 
niac zeal at once barbarously savage and ferociously cruel. Each 
visiting, god instead of bringing new life to the people, brought 
death to thousands; and their grotesque idols, exposed to drown 
the senses of the beholders in fear, wrought wretchedness rather 
than spiritual happiness, until, as some learned and humane Monte- 
zumian said, the people never approached these idols without fear, 
and this fear was the great animating principle, the great religious 
motive power which sustained the terrible religion. Their altars 
were sprinkled with blood drawn from their own bodies in large 
quantities, and on them thousands of human victims were sacri- 
ficed in honor of the demons whom they worshiped. The head 
and heart of every captive taken in war were offered up as a bloody 
sacrifice to the god of battles, while the victorious legions feasted 
on the remaining portions of the dead bodies. It has been ascer- 
tained that during the ceremonies attendant on the consecration of 
two of their temples, the number of prisoners offered up in sacri- 
fice was 12,210; while their own legions contributed voluntary 
victims to the terrible belief in large numbers. Nor did this 
horrible custom cease immediately after 1521, when Cortez entered 
the imperial city of the Montezumas; for, on being driven from 
it, all his troops who fell into the hands of the native soldiers were 
subjected to the most terrible and prolonged suffering that could be 
experienced in this world, and when about to yield up that spirit 
which is indestructible, were offered in sacrifice, their hearts and 
heads consecrated, and the victors allowed to feast on the yet warm 
flesh. 

A reference is made here to the period when the Montezumas 
ruled over Mexico, simply to gain a better idea of the hideous 
idolatry which took the place of the old Boodhism of the Mound 
Builders, and doubtless helped in a great measure to give victory 
to the new comers, even as the tenets of Mahoraetanism urged the 
ignorant followers of the prophet to the conquest of great nations. 
It was not the faith of the people who built the mounds and the 
pyramids and the temples, and who, 200 years before the Christian 
era, built the great wall of jealous China. No: rather was it that 
terrible faith born of the Tartar victory, which carried the great 
defenses of China at the point of the javelin and hatchet, who 
afterward marched to the very walls of Rome, under Alaric, and 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



spread over the islands of Polynesia to the Pacific slopes of South 
America. 

THE TARTARS 

came there, and, like the pure Mongols of Mexico and the Missis- 
sippi valley, rose to a state of civilization bordering on that attained 
by them. Here for centuries the sons of the fierce Tartar race con- 
tinued to dwell in comparative peace until the all-ruling ambition 
of empire took in the whole country from the Pacific to the Atlan- 
tic, and peopled the vast territory watered by the Amazon with a 
race that was destined to conquer all the peoples of the Orient, 
and only to fall before the march of the arch-civilizing Caucasian. 
In course of time those fierce Tartars pushed their settlements 
northward, and ultimately entered the territories of the Mound 
Builders, putting to death all who fell within their reach, and 
causing the survivors of the death-dealing invasion to seek a refuge 
from the hordes of this semi-barbarous people in the wilds and fast- 
nesses of the North and Northwest. The beautiful country of the 
Mound Builders was now in the hands of savage invaders, the quiet, 
industrious people who raised the temples and pyramids were gone; 
and the wealth of intelligence and industry, accumulating forages, 
passed into the possession of a rapacious horde, who could admire 
it only so far as it offered objects for plunder. Even in this the 
invaders were satisfied, and then having arrived at the height of 
their ambition, rested on their swords and entered upon the luxury 
and ease in the enjoyment of which they were found when the van- 
guard of European civilization appeared upon the scene. Mean- 
time the southern countries which those adventurers abandoned 
after having completed their conquests in the North, were soon 
peopled by hundreds of people, always moving from island to 
island and ultimately halting amid the ruins of villages deserted 
by those who, as legends tell, had passed eastward but never returned; 
and it would scarcely be a matter for surprise if those emigrants 
were found to be the progenitors of that race found by the Spaniards 
in 1532, and identical with the Araucaniaus, Cuenehes and Huil- 
tiches of to-day. 

RELICS OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. 

One of the most brilliant and impartial historians of the Republic 
stated that the valley of the Mississippi contained no monuments. 
So far as the word is entertained now, he was literally correct, but 



24 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

in some hasty effort neglected to qualify his sentence by a refer- 
ence to the numerous relics of antiquity to be found throughout 
its length and breadth, and so exposed his chapters to criticism. 
The valley of the Father of Waters, and indeed the country from 
the trap rocks of the Great Lakes southeast to the Gulf and south- 
west to Mexico, abound in tell-tale monuments of a race of people 
much farther advanced in civilization than the Montezumas of the 
sixteenth century. The remains of walls and fortifications found 
in Kentucky and Indiana, the earthworks of Yincennes and 
throughout the valley of the Wabash, the mounds scattered over 
Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Virginia, and those found in Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, are all evidences of the univer- 
salit} 7 of the Chinese Mongols and of their advance toward a com- 
parative knowledge of man and cosmology. At the mouth of 
Fourteen Mile creek, in Clark county, Indiana, there stands one of 
these old monuments known as the " Stone Fort." It is an 
unmistakable heirloom of a great and ancient people, and must 
have formed one of their most important posts. The State Geolo- 
gist's report, filed among the records of the State and furnished 
by Prof. Cox. says: "At the mouth of Fourteen-Mile creek, and 
about three miles from Charleston, the county-seat of Clark county, 
there is one of the most remarkable 6tone fortifications which has 
ever come under my notice. Accompanied by my assistant, Mr. 
Borden, and a number of citizens of Charleston, I visited the 'Stone 
Fort' for the purpose of making an examination of it. The locality 
selected for this fort presents many natural advantages for making 
it impregnable to the opposing forces of prehistoric times. It 
occupies the point of an elevated narrow ridge which faces the 
Ohio river on the east and is bordered by Fourteen-Mile creek on 
the west side. This creek empties into the Ohio a short distance 
below the fort. The top of the ridge is pear-shaped, with the 
part answering to the neck at the north end. This part is not 
over twenty feet wide, and is protected by precipitous natural walls 
of stone. It is 2S0 feet above the level of the Ohio river, and the 
slope is very gradual to the south. At the upper field it is 2J.0 feet 
high and one hundred steps wide. At the lower timber it is 120 
feet high. The bottom land at the foot of the south end is sixty 
feet above the river. Along the greater part of the Ohio river 
front there is an abrupt escarpment rock, entirely too steep to be 
scaled, and a similar natural barrier exists along a portion of the 
northwest side of the ridge, facing the creek. This natural wall 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 27 

is joined to the neck of an artificial wall, made by piling up, mason 
fashion but without mortar, loose stone, which had evidently been 
pried up from the carboniferous layers of rock. This made wall, at 
this point, is about 150 feet long. It is built along the slope of the 
hill and had an elevation of about 75 feet above its base, the upper 
ten feet being vertical. The inside of the wall is protected by a 
ditch. The remainder of the hill is protected by an artificial stone 
wall, built in the same manner, but not more than ten feet high. 
The elevation of the side wall above the creek bottom is 80 feet. 
Within the artificial walls is a string of mounds which rise to the 
height of the wall, and are protected from the washing of the hill- 
sides by a ditcli 20 feet wide and four feet deep. The position of 
the artificial walls, natural cliffs of bedded stone, as well as that of 
the ditch and mounds, are well illustrated. The top of the enclosed 
ridge embraces ten or twelve acres, and there are as many as five 
mounds that can be recognized on the flat surface, while no doubt 
many others existed which have been obliterated by time, and 
though the agency of man in his efforts to cultivate a portion of 
the ground. A trench was cut into one of these mounds in search 
of relics. A few fragments of charcoal and decomposed bones, and 
a large irregular, diamond-shaped boulder, with a small circular 
indentation near the middle of the upper part, that was worn quite 
smooth by the use to which it had been put, and the small pieces 
of fossil coral, comprised all the articles of note which were revealed 
by the excavation. The earth of which the mound is made resem- 
bles that seen on the hillside, and was probably in most part taken 
from the ditcli. The margin next to the ditch was protected by 
slabs of stone set on edge, and leaning at an angle corresponding to 
the slope of the mound. This stone shield was two and one-hall' 
feet wide and one foot high. At intervals along the great ditcli 
there are channels formed between the mounds that probably served 
to carry off the surplus water through openings in the outer wall. 
On the top of the enclosed ridge, and near its narrowest part, there 
is one mound much larger than any of the others, and so situated 
as to command an extensive view up and down the Ohio river, as well 
as affording an unobstructed view east and west. This is designated 
as ' Look-out Mound.' There is near it a slight break in the cliff 
of rock, which furnished a narrow passageway to the Ohio river. 
Though the locality afforded many natural advantages for a fort or 
stronghold, one is compelled to admit that much skill was displayed 
and labor expended in making its defense as' perfect as possible at 



28 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

all points. Stone axes, pestles, arrow-heads, spear-points, toturns, 
charms and flint flakes have been found in great abundance in 
plowing the field at the foot of the old fort." 

From the " Stone Fort " the Professor turns his steps to Posey 
county, at a point on the Wabash, ten miles above the mouth, 
called li Bone Bank," on account of the number of human bones 
continually washed out from the river bank. " It is," he states 
"situated in a bend on the left bank of the river; and the ground 
is about ten feet above high-water mark, being the only land along 
this portion of the river that is not submerged in seasons of high 
water. The bank slopes gradually back from the river to a slough. 
This slough now seldom contains water, but no doubt at one time 
it was an arm of the Wabash river, which flowed around the Bone 
Bank and afforded protection to the island home of the Mound 
Builders. The Wabash has been changing its bed for many years, 
leaving a broad extent of newly made land on the right shore, and 
gradually making inroads on the left shore by cutting away the 
Bone Bank. The stages of growth of land on the right bank of the 
river are well defined by the cottonwood trees, which increase in size 
as you go back from the river. Unless there is a change in the cur- 
rent of the river, all trace of the Bone Bank will be obliterated. 
Already within the memory of the white inhabitants, the bank has 
been removed to the width of several hundred yards. As the bank 
is cut by the current of the river it loses its support, and when the 
water sinks it tumbles over, carrying with it the bones of the 
Mound Builders and the cherished articles buried with them. No 
locality in the country furnishes a greater number and variety of 
relics than this. It has proved especially rich in pottery of 
quaint design and skillful workmanship. I have a number of jugs 
and pots and a cup found at the Bone Bank. This kind of work 
has been very abundaut, and is still found in such quantities that 
we are led to conclude that its manufacture formed a leading indus- 
try of the inhabitants of the Bone Bank. It is not in Europe 
alone that we find a well-founded claim of high antiquity for the 
art of making hard and durable stone by a mixture of clay, lime, 
sand and stone; for I am convinced that this art was possessed by 
a race of people who inhabited this continent at a period so remote 
that neither tradition nor history can furnish any account of them. 
They belonged to the Neolithic, or polished-stone, age. They lived 
in towns and built mounds for sepulture and worship and pro- 
tected their homes by surrounding them with walls of earth and 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



29 



stone. In some of these mounds specimens of various kinds of 
pottery, in a perfect state ol preservation, have from time to time 
been found, and fragments are so common that every student of 
archaeology can have a bountiful supply. Some of these fragments 
indicate vessels of very great size. At the Saline springs of Gal- 
latin I picked up fragments that indicated, by their curvature, ves- 
sels five to six feet in diameter, and it is probable they are frag- 
ments of artificial stone pans used to hold brine that was manufac- 
tured into salt by solar evaporation. 

" Now, all the pottery belonging to the Mound Builders' age, 
which I have seen, is composed of alluvial clay and sand, or a mix- 
ture of the former with pulverized fresh-water shells. A paste 
made of such a mixture possesses, in high degree, the properties of 
hydraulic Puzzuoland and Portland cement, so that vessels formed 
of it hardened without being burned, as is customary with modern 
pottery." 

The Professor deals very aptly with this industry of the aborig- 
ines, and concludes a very able disquisition on the Bone Bank in 
its relation to the prehistoric builders. 




HIEROGLYPHICS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 

The great circular redoubt or earth-work found two miles westot 
the village of New Washington, and the " Stone Fort," on a ridge 
one mile west of the village of Deputy, offer a subject for the anti- 
quarian as deeply interesting as any of the monuments of a 
decayed empire so far discovered. 



30 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

From end to end of Indiana there are to be found many other rel- 
ics of the obscure past. Some of them have been unearthed and now 
appear among thecollectedantiquities at Indianapolis. The highly 
finished sandstone pipe, the copper ax, stone axes, flint arrow-heads 
and magnetic plummets found a few years ago beneath the soil of 
Cut-Off Island near New Harmony, together with the pipes of rare 
workmanship and undoubted age, unearthed near Covington, all 
live as it were in testimony of their owner's and maker's excel- 
lence, and hold a share in the evidence of the partial annihilation 
of a race, with the complete disruption of its manners, customs 
and industries; and it is possible that when numbers of these relics 
are placed together, a key to the phonetic or rather hieroglyphic 
system of that remote period might be evolved. 

It may be asked what these hieroglyphical characters really are. 
Well, they are varied in form, so much so that the pipes found in 
the mounds of Indians, each bearing a distinct representation of 
some ftnimal, may be taken for one species, used to represent the 
abstract ideas of the Mound Builders. The second form consists 
of pure hieroglyphics or phonetic characters, in which the sound is 
represented instead of the object; and the third, or painted form of 
the first, conveys to the mind that which is desired to be repre- 
sented. This form exists among the Cree Indians of the far North- 
west, at present. They, when departing from their permanent vil- 
lages for the distant hunting grounds, paint on the barked trees in 
the neighborhood the figure of a snake or eagle, or perhaps huskey 
dog; and this animal is supposed to guard the position until the 
warrior's return, or welcome any friendly tribes that may arrive 
there in the interim. In the case of the Mound Builders, it is un- 
likely that this latter extreme was resorted to, for the simple reason 
that the relics of their occupation are too high in the ways of art to 
tolerate such a barbarous science of language; but the sculptured 
pipes and javelins and spear-heads of the Mound Builders may be 
taken as a collection of graven images, each conveying a set of 
ideas easily understood, and perhaps sometimes or more generally 
used to designate the vocation, name or character of the owner. 
That the builders possessed an alphabet of a phonetic form, and 
purely hieroglyphic, can scarcely be questioned; but until one or 
more of the unearthed tablets, which bore all or even a portion of 
such characters, are raised from their centuried graves, the mystery 
which surrounds this people must remain, while we must dwell in 
a world of mere speculation. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 31 

Yigo, Jasper, Sullivan, Switzerland and Ohio counties can boast 
of a. most liberal endowment in this relation; and when in other 
days the people will direct a minute inquiry, and penetrate to the 
very heart of the thousand cones which are scattered throughout 
the laud, they may possibly extract the blood in the shape of metal- 
lic and porcelain works, with hieroglyphic tablets, while leaving 
the form of heart and body complete to entertain and delight un- 
born generations, who in their time will wonder much when they 
learn that an American people, living toward the close of the 59th 
century, could possibly indulge in such an anachronism as is im- 
plied iu the terra "New World." 

THE INDIANS. 

The origin of the Red Men, or American Indians, is a subject 
which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite with the eth- 
nologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. 
A review of two works lately published on the origin of the Indians 
treats the matter in a peculiarly reasonable light. It says: 

•' Recently a German writer has put forward one theory on the 
subject, and an English writer has put forward another and directly 
opposite theory. The difference of opinion concerning our aborig- 
j : i ils among authors who have mftde a profound study of races is at 
once curious and interesting. Blumenbach treats them in his 
classifications as a distinct variety of the human family; but, in the 
threefold division of Dr. Latham, they are ranked among the Mon- 
s*olidse. Other writers on race regard them as a branch of the great 
Mongolian family, which at a distant period found its way from 
Asia to this continent, and remained here for centuries separate 
from the rest of mankind, passing, meanwhile, through divers 
phases of barbarism and civilization. Morton, our eminent eth- 
nologist, and his followers, Nott and Gliddon, claim for our native 
Red Men an origin as distinct as the flora and fauna of this conti- 
nent. Prichard, whose views are apt to differ from Morton's, finds 
reason to believe, on comparing the American tribes together, that 
they must have formed a separate department of nations from the 
earliest period of the world. The era of their existence as a distinct 
and insulated people must probably be dated back to the time 
which separated into nations the inhabitants of the Old World, and 
gave to each its individuality and primitive language. Or. Robert 
Brown, the latest authority, attributes, in his " Races of Mankind," 
an Asiatic origin to our aboriginals. He says that the Western In- 
dians not only personally resemble their nearest neighbors — the 
N ortheastern Asiatics — but they resemble them in language and 
traditions. The Esquimaux on the American and the Tchuktchis 
on the Asiatic side understand one another perfectly. Modern an- 



32 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

thropologists, indeed, are disposed to think that Japan, the Kuriles, 
and neighboring regions, may be regarded as the original home of 
the greater part of the native American race. It is also admitted 
by them that between the tribes scattered from the Arctic sea to 
Cape Horn there is more uniformity of physical features than is 
seen in any other quarter of the globe. The weight of evidence 
and authority is altogether in favor of the opinion that our so- 
called Indians are a branch of the Mongolian family, and all addi- 
tional researches strengthen the opinion. The tribes of both North 
and South America are unquestionably homogeneous, and, in all 
likelihood, had their origin in Asia, though they have been altered 
and modified by thousands of years of total separation from the 
parent stock." 

The conclusions arrived at by the reviewer at that time, though 
safe, are too general to lead the reader to form any definite idea on 
the subject. No doubt whatever can exist, when the American In- 
dian is regarded as of an Asiatic origin; but there is nothing in the 
works or even in the review, to which these works were subjected, 
which might account for the vast difference in manner and form 
between the Red Man, as he is now known, or even as he appeared 
to Columbus and his successors in the field of discovery, and the 
comparatively civilized inhabitants of Mexico, as seen in 1521 by 
Cortez, and of Peru, as witnessed by Pizarro in 1532. The fact is 
that the pure bred Indian of the present is descended directly 
from the earliest inhabitants, or in other words from the survivors 
of that people who, on being driven from their fair possessions, re- 
tired to the wilderness in sorrow and reared up their children under 
the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing 
them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed home of their de- 
clining years, a sullen silence, and a rude moral code. In after 
years these wild sons of the forest and prairie grew in numbers and 
in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of 
the station which their fathers once had known, and of the riotous 
race which now reveled in wealth which, should be theirs. The 
fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scat- 
tered bands marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, 
driving them onward to the capital of their Iucas, and consigning 
their homes to the flames. Once in view of the great city, the 
hurrying bands halted in surprise; but Tartar cunning took in the 
situation and offered pledges of amity, which were sacredly ob- 
served. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing pre- 
cisely the same relation to them that the Hudson's Bay Company's 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 33 

villages do to the Northwestern Indians of the present; obtaining 
all, and bestowing very little. Tbe subjection of the Mongolian 
race represented in North America by that branch of it to which 
the Tartars belonged, represented in tbe Southern portion of tbe con- 
tinent, seems to have taken place some five centuries before the 
advent of the European, while it may be concluded that the war of 
the races which resulted in reducing the villages erected by the 
Tartar hordes to ruin took place between one and two hundred 
years later. These statements, though actually referring to events 
which in point of time are comparatively modern, can only be sub- 
stantiated by the facts that, about the periods mentioned the dead 
bodies of an unknown race of men were washed ashore on the Eu- 
ropean coasts, while previous to that time there is no account 
whatever in European annals of even a vestige of trans-Atlantic hu- 
manity being transferred by ocean currents to the gaze of a won- 
dering people. Towards the latter half ot the 15th century two 
dead bodies entirely free from decomposition, and corresponding 
with the Red Men as they afterward appeared to Columbus, were 
cast on the shores of the Azores, and confirmed Columbus in his be- 
lief in the existence of a western world and western people. 

Storm and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks 
of the Indian since the occupation of the country by the white man. 
These natural causes have conspired to decimate the race even more 
than the advance of civilization, which seems not to affect it to any 
material extent. In its maintenance of the same number of rep- 
resentatives during three centuries, and its existence in the very 
face of a most unceremonious, and, whenever necessary, cruel con- 
quest, the grand dispensations of the unseen Ruler of the universe 
is demonstrated; for, without the aborigines, savage and treach- 
erous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times 
would have so many natural difficulties to contend with, that their 
work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions 
of the continent saved for the plowshares of generations yet un- 
born. It is questionable whether we owe the discovery of this con- 
tinent to the unaided scientific knowledge of Columbus, or to the 
dead bodies of the two Indians referred to above; nor can their ser- 
vices to the explorers of ancient and modern times be over-esti- 
mated. Their existence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity 
for the government of the world, and it will not form subject for 
surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of 
liberty into every corner of the republic, will, in the near future, 



34 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

devise some method under which the remnant of a great and an- 
cient race may taste the sweets of public kindness, and feel that, 
after centuries of turmoil and tyranny, they have at last found a 
shelter amid a sympathizing people. Many have looked at the In- 
dian as the pessimist does at all things; they say that he was never 
formidable until the white man supplied him with the weapons of 
modern warfare; but there is no mention made of his eviction from 
his retired home, and the little plot of cultivated garden which 
formed the nucleus of a village that, if fostered instead of being 
destroyed, might possibly hold an Indian population of some im- 
portance in the economy of the nation. There is no intention what- 
ever to maintain that the occupation of this country by the favored 
races is wrong even in principle; for where any obstacle to advanc- 
ing civilization exists, it has to fall to the ground; but it may be 
said, with some truth, that the white man, instead of a policy of 
conciliation formed upon the power of kindness, indulged in bel- 
ligerency as impolitic as it was unjust. A modern writer says, 
when speaking of the Indian's character: ' - He did not exhibit that 
steady valor and efficient discipline of the American soldier; and 
to-day on the plains Sheridan's troopers would not hesitate to 
attack the bravest band, though outnumbered three to one." This 
piece of information applies to the European aud African, as well 
as to the Indian. The American soldier, and particularly the 
troopers referred to, would not fear or shrink from a very legion of 
demons, even with odds against them. This mode of warfare seems 
strangely peculiar when compared with the military systems of 
civilized countries; yet, since the main object of armed men is to 
defend a country or a principle, and to destroy anything which may 
oppose itself to them, the mode of warfare pursued by the savage 
will be found admirably adapted to their requirements in this con- 
nection, and will doubtless compare favorably with the systems of 
the Afghans and Persians of the present, and the Caucasian people 
of the first historic period. 

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 

The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, 
like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. 
The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and 
strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot 
birds and other small game. Success in killing a large quadruped 
required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 35 

sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are 
the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common 
schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the 
dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise 
of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding 
soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching 
scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the 
direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it 
had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because 
they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily 
taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is 
endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and 
look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of 
this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow. 

Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. 
When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the 
speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions 
that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast 
in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with 
the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being 
lighted it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, 
thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly the several councilors, 
each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with 
as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts. 

The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest 
character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near 
an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, con- 
structed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed 
to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes 
more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same 
materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. 
Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the 
uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small 
patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within 
itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown 
to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied 
upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and 
the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge 
for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to 
innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination where such 
were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's 



36 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



glory and delight, — war, not conducted as civilization, but war 
where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime 
requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make 
great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance trulv heroic; 
but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, un- 
occupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his 
more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating 
his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the 
manufacture of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of 
bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder 
from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, ath- 
letic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the ora- 
tory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he 
remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of 
the forests and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy 
imprinted an habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his gen- 
eral deportment. 

The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon 
the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, 
making mats and baskets, carrying burdens, — in fact, all things of 
the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but 
little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of 
bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the 
bride. In general they had but few children. They were sub- 
jected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine 
and pestilence swept away whole tribes. 



EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES. 

EARLIEST EXPLORERS. 

The State of Indiana is bounded on the east by the meridian line 
which forms also the western boundary of Ohio, extending due 
north from the mouth of the Great Miami river: on the south by 
the Ohio river from the mouth of the Great Miami to the mouth 
of the Wabash; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of 
the Wabash river from its mouth to a point where a due north 
line from the town of Vincennes would last touch the shore of said 
river, and thence directly north to Lake Michigan; and on the north 
by said lake and an east and west line ten miles north of the ex- 
treme south end of the lake, and extending to its intersection with 
the aforesaid meridian, the west boundary of Ohio. These bound- 
aries include an area of 33,809 square miles, lying between 37° 
47' and 41° 50' north latitude, and between 7° 45' and 11° 1' west 
longitude from Washington. 

After the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, more than 
150 years passed away before any portion of the territory now com- 
prised within the above limits was explored by Europeans. Colo- 
nies were established in Florida, Virginia and Nova Scotia by the 
principal rival governments of Europe, but not until about 1670-'2 
did the first white travelers venture as far into the Northwest as 
Indiana or Lake Michigan. These explorers were Frenchmen by 
the names of Claude Allouez and Claude Dablon, who then visited 
what is now the eastern part of Wisconsin, the northeastern portion 
of Illinois and probably that portion of this State north of the Kan- 
kakee river. In the following year M. Joliet, an agent of the 
French Colonial government, and James Marquette, a good and 
simple-hearted missionary who had his station at Mackinaw, ex- 
plored the country about Green Bay, and along Fox and Wiscon- 
sin rivers as far westward as the Mississippi, the banks of which 
they reached June 17*, 1673. They descended this river to about 
33° 40', but returned by way of the Illinois river and the route 
they came in the Lake Region. At a village among the Illinois In- 
dians, Marquette and his small band of adventurers were received 

(37) 



38 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

in a friendly manner and treated hospitably. They were made the 
honored guests at a great feast, where hominy, fish, dog meat and 
roast buffalo meat were spread before them in great abundance. In 
16S2 LaSalle explored the West, but it is not known that he entered 
the region now embraced within the State of Indiana. He took 
formal possession, however, of all the Mississippi region in the 
name of the King of France, in whose honor he gave all this Mis- 
sissippi region, including what is now Indiana, the name " Louisi- 
ana." Spain at the same time laid claim to all the region about 
the Gulf of Mexico, and thus these two great nations were brought 
into collision. But the country was actually held and occupied by 
the great Miami confederacy of Indians, the Miamis proper (an- 
ciently the Twightwees) being the eastern and most powerful tribe. 
Their territory extended strictly from the Scioto river west to the 
Illinois river. Their villages were few and scattering, and their 
occupation was scarcely dense enough to maintain itself against in- 
vasion. Their settlements were occasionally visited by Christian 
missionaries, fur traders and adventurers, but no body of white men 
made any settlement sufficiently permanent for a title to national 
possession. Christian zeal animated France and England in mis- 
sionary enterprise, the former in the interests of Catholicism and 
the latter in the interests of Protestantism. Hence their haste to 
preoccupy the land and proselyte the aborigines. No doubt this 
ugly rivalry was often seen by Indians, and they refused to be 
proselyted to either branch of Christianity. 

The " Five Nations," farther east, comprised the Mohawks, 
Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondaguas and Senecas. In 1677 the number 
of warriors in this confederacy was 2,150. About 1711 the Tusca- 
roras retired from Carolina and joined the Iroquois, or Five Na- 
tions, which, after that event, became known as the " Six Nations." 
In 1689 hostilities broke out between the Five Nations and the 
colonists of Canada, and the almost constant wars in which France 
was engaged until the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 combined to 
check the grasping policy of Louis XIV., and to retard the plant- 
ing of French colonies in the Mississippi valley. Missionary efforts, 
however, continued with more failure than success, the Jesuits 
allying themselves with the Indians in habits and customs, even 
encouraging inter-marriage between them ' and their white fol- 
lowers. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 39 



OUABACUE. 



The Wabash was first named by the French, and spelled by them 
Ouabache. This river was known even before the Ohio, and was 
navigated as the Ouabache all the way to the Mississippi a long time 
before it was discovered that it was a tributary of the Ohio (Belle 
Riviere). In navigating the Mississippi they thought they passed 
the mouth of the Ouabache instead of the Ohio. In traveling from 
the Great Lakes to the south, the French always went by the way of 
the Ouabache or Illinois. 

VINCENNES. 

Francois Morgan de Vinsenne served in Canada as early as 1720 
in the regiment of " De Carrignan " of the French service, and 
again on the lakes in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie in the same 
service under M. de Vaudriel, in 1725. It is possible that his ad- 
vent to Vincennes may have taken place in 1732; and in proof of 
this the only record is an act of sale under the joint names of him- 
self and Madame Vinsenne, the daughter of M. Philip Longprie, 
and dated Jan. 5, 1735. This document gives his military position 
as commandant of the post of Ouabache in the service of the French 
King. The will of Longprie, dated March 10, same year, bequeaths 
him, among other things, 40S pounds of pork, which he ordered to 
be kept safe until Vinsenne, who was then at Ouabache, returned 
to Kaskaskia. 

There are many other documents connected with its early settle- 
ment by Vinsenne, among which is a receipt for the 100 pistoles 
granted him as his wife's marriage dowry. In 1736 this officer was 
ordered to Charlevoix by D'Artagette, viceroy of the King at New 
Orleans, and commandant of Illinois. Here M. St. Vinsenne re- 
ceived his mortal wounds. The event is chronicled as follows, in 
the words of D'Artagette: " We have just received very bad news 
from Louisiana, and our war with the Chickasaws. The French 
have been defeated. Among the slain is M. de Vinsenne, who 
ceased not until his last breath to exhort his men to behave worthy 
of their faith and fatherland." 

Thus closed the career of this gallant officer, leaving a name 
which holds as a remembrancer the present beautiful town of Vin- 
cennes, changed from Vinsenne to its present orthography in 1749. 

Post Vincennes was settled as early as 1710 or 1711. In a letter 
from Father Marest to Father Germon, dated at Kaskaskia, Nov. 9, 
1712, occurs this passage: "Zes Francois itoient if abli un fort sur 



40 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

lefleuve Ouabache / He demanderent iin missionaire } et le Pere 
Mermet leur fat envoy e. Ce Pere crut devoir travailler a la 
conversion des Mascoutens qui avoient fait un village sur les 
bords dumeme jleuve. Cest une nation Indians qui entend la 
langue lllinoise.' 1 '' Translated: " The French have established a 
fort upon the river Wabash, and want a missionary; and Father 
Mermet has been sent to them. That Father believes he should 
labor for the conversion of the Mascoutens, who have built a vil- 
lage on the banks of the same river. They are a nation of Indians 
who understand the language of the Illinois." 

Mermet was therefore the first preacher of Christianity in this 
part of the world, and his mission was to convert the Mascoutens, 
a branch of the Miamis. "The way I took," says he, " was to con- 
found, in the presence of the whole tribe, one of these charlatans 
[medicine men], whose Manitou, or great spirit which he wor- 
shiped, was the buffalo. After leading him on insensibly to the 
avowal that it was not the buffalo that he worshiped, but the Man- 
itou, or spirit, of the buffalo, which was under the earth and ani- 
mated all buffaloes, which heals the sick and has all power, I asked 
him whether other beasts, the bear for instance, and which one of 
his nation worshiped, was not equally inhabited by a Manitou, 
which was under the earth. 'Without doubt,' said the grand medi- 
cine man. ' If this is so,' said I, ' men ought to have a Manitou 
who inhabits them.' ' Nothing more certain,' said he. ' Ought 
not that to convince you,' continued I, 'that you are not very 
reasonable? For if man upon the earth is the master of all animals, 
if he kills them, if he eats them, does it not follow that the Mani- 
tou which inhabits him must have a mastery over all other Mani- 
tous? Why then do you not invoke him instead of the Manitou 
of the bear and the buffalo, when you are sick?' This reasoning 
disconcerted the charlatan. But this was all the effect it 
produced." 

The result of convincing these heathen by logic, as is generally 
the case the world over, was only a temporary logical victory, and 
no change whatever was produced in the professions and practices 
of the Indians. 

But the first Christian (Catholic) missionary at this place whose 
name we find recorded in the Church annals, was Meurin, in 1S-19. 

The church building used by these early missionaries at Vin- 
cennes is thus described by the " oldest inhabitants:" Fronting on 
Water street and running back on Church street, it was a plain 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 41 

building with a rough exterior, of upright posts, chinked and 
daubed, with a rough coat of cement on the outside; about 20 feet 
wide and 60 long; one story high, with a small belfry and an equally 
small bell. It was dedicated to St. Francis Xavier. This spot is 
now occupied by a splendid cathedral. 

Vincennes has ever been a stronghold of Catholicism. The 
Church there has educated and sent out many clergymen of her 
faith, some of whom have become bishops, or attained other high 
positions in ecclesiastical authority. 

Almost contemporaneous with the progress of the Church at 
Vincennes was a missionary work near the mouth of the Wea river, 
among the Ouiatenons, but the settlement there was broken up in 
early day. 

NATIONAL POLICIES. 

THE GREAT FRENCH SCHEME. 

Soon after the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La- 
Salle in 1682, the government of France began to encourage the 
policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary 
stations extending through the "West from Canada to Louisiana; 
and this policy was maintained, with partial success, for about 75 
years. The traders persisted in importing whisky, which cancelled 
nearly every civilizing influence that could be brought to bear upon 
the Indian, and the vast distances between posts prevented that 
strength which can be enjoyed onlv by close and convenient inter- 
communication. Another characteristic of Indian nature was to 
listen attentively to all the missionary said, pretending to believe 
all he preached, and then offer in turn his theory of the world, of 
religion, etc., and because he was not listened to with the same 
degree of attention and pretense of belief, would go off disgusted. 
This was his idea of the golden rule. 

The river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan was called " the river 
Miamis" in 1679, in which year LaSalle built a small fort on its 
bank, near the lake shore. The principal station of the mission 
for the instruction of the Miamis was established on the borders of 
this river. The first French post within the territory of the 
Miamis was at the mouth of the river Miamis, on an eminence 
naturally fortified on two sides by the river, and on one 6ide by a 



42 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

deep ditch made by a fall of water. It was of triangular form. 
The missionary Hennepin gives a good description of it, as he was 
one of the company who built it, in 1679. Says he: " We fell the 
trees that were on the top of the hill; and having cleared the same 
from bushes for about two musket shot, we began to build a 
redoubt of 80 feet long and 40 feet broad, with great square pieces 
of timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great number of 
stakes of about 25 feet long to drive into the ground, to make our 
fort more inaccessible on the riverside. We employed the whole 
month of November about that work, which was very hard, though 
we had no other food but the bear's flesh our savage killed. These 
beasts are very common in that place because of the great quantity 
of grapes they find there; but their flesh being too fat and luscious, 
our men began to be weary of it and desired leave to go a hunting 
to kill some wild goats. M. LaSalle denied them that liberty, 
which caused some murmurs among them; and it was but unwill- 
ingly that they continued their work. This, together with the 
approach of winter and the apprehension that M. LaSalle had that 
his vessel (the Griffin) was lost, made him very melancholy, though 
he concealed it as much as he could. We made a cabin wherein 
we performed divine service every Sunday, and Father Gabriel and 
I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were 
suitable to our present circumstances and fit to inspire us with 
courage, concord and brotherly love. * * * The fort was at 
last perfected, and called Fort JVIiamis." 

Id the year 1711 the missionary Chardon, who was said to be 
very zealous and apt in the acquisition of languages, had a station 
on the St. Joseph about 60 miles above the mouth. Charlevoix, 
another distinguished missionary from France, visited a post on 
this river in 1721. In a letter dated at the place, Aug. 16, he says: 
" There is a commandant here, with a small garrison. His house, 
which is but a very sorry one, is called the fort, from its being sur- 
rounded with an indifferent palisado, which is pretty near the case 
in all the rest. We have here two villages of Indians, one of the 
Miamis and the other of the Pottawatomies, both of them mostly 
Christians; but as they have been for a long time without any pas- 
tors, the missionary who has been lately sent to them will have no 
small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of their re- 
ligion." He speaks also of the main commodity for which the In. 
dians would part with their goods, namely, spirituous liquors, 
which they drink and keep drunk upon as long as a supply lasted. 



p 



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CO 

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HISTORY OF INDIANA. 45 

More than a century and a half has now passed since Charlevoix 
penned the above, without any change whatever in this trait of In- 
dian character. 

In 1705 the Miami nation, or confederacy, was composed of four 
tribes, whose total number of warriors was estimated at only 1,050 
men. Of these about 250 were Twiglitwees, or Miamis proper, 
300 Weas, or Ouiatenons,300 Piankeshawsand 200 Shockeys; and 
at this time the principal villages of the Twiglitwees were situated 
about the head of the Maumee river at and near the place where 
Fort "Wayne now is. The larger Wea villages were near the banks 
of the Wabash river, in the vicinity of the Post Ouiatenon; and 
the Shockeys and Piankeshaws dwelt on the banks of the Vermil- 
lion and on the borders of the Wabash between Vincennes and 
Ouiatenon. Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and 
Kickapoo tribes were permitted at different times to enter within 
the boundaries of the Miamis and reside for a while. 

The wars in which France and England were engaged, from 1688 
to 1697, retarded the growth of the colonies of those nations in 
North America, and the efforts made by France to connect Canada 
and the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of trading posts and colonies 
naturally excited the jealousy of England and gradually laid the 
foundation for a struggle at arms. After several stations were estab- 
lished elsewhere in the West, trading posts were started at the 
Miami villages, which stood at the head of the Maumee, at the Wea 
villages about Ouiatenon on the Wabash, and at the Piankeshaw vil- 
lages about the present sight of Vincennes. It is probable that before 
the close of the year 1719, temporary trading posts were erected at the 
sites of Fort Wayne, Ouiatenon and Vincennes. These points were 
probably often visited by French fur traders prior to 1700. In the 
meanwhile the English people in this country commenced also to 
establish military posts west of the Alleghanies, and thus matters 
went on until they naturally culminated in a general war, which, 
being waged by the French and Indians combined on one side, was 
called " the French and Indian war." This war was terminated in 
1763 by a treaty at Paris, by which France ceded to Great Britain 
all of North America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans 
and the island on which it is situated; and indeed, France had the 
preceding autumn, by a secret convention, ceded to Spain all the 
country west of that river. 



46 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

PONTIAC'S WAR. 

In 1762, after Canada and its dependencies had been surrendered 
to the English, Pontiac and his partisans secretly organized a pow- 
erful confederacy in order to crush at one blow all English power 
in the West. This great scheme was skillfully projected and cau- 
tiously matured. 

The principal act in the programme was to gain admittance into 
the fort at Detroit, on pretense of a friendly visit, with short- 
ened muskets concealed under their blankets, and on a given signal 
suddenly break forth upon the garrison; but an inadvertent remark 
of an Indian woman led to a discovery of the plot, which was con- 
sequently averted. Pontiac and his warriors afterward made many 
attacks upon the English, some of which were successful, but the 
Indians were finally defeated in the general war. 

BRITISH POLICY. 

In 1765 the total number of French families within the limits of 
the Northwestern Territory did not probably exceed 600. These 
were in settlements about Detroit, along the river Wabash and the 
neighborhood of Fort Chartres on the Mississippi. Of these fami- 
lies, about 80 or 90 resided at Post Vincennes, 14 at Fort Ouiate- 
non, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St. 
Alary and St. Joseph rivers. 

The colonial policy of' the British government opposed any meas- 
ures which might strengthen settlements in the interior of this 
country, lest they become self-supporting and independent of the 
mother country; hence the early and rapid settlement of the North- 
western territory was still further retarded by the short-sighted 
selfishness of England. That fatal policy consisted mainly in hold- 
ing the land in the hands of the government and not allowing it to 
be subdivided and sold to settlers. But in spite of all her efforts 
in this direction, she constantly made just such efforts as provoked 
the American people to rebel, and to rebel successfully, which was 
within 15 years after the perfect close of the French and Indian 
war. 

AMERICAN POLICY. 

Thomas Jefferson, the shrewd statesman and wise Governor of 
Virginia, saw from the first that actual occupation of Western lands 
was the only way to keep them out of the hands of foreigners and 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 47 

Indians. Therefore, directly after the conquest of Vincennes by 
Clark, he engaged a scientific corps to proceed under an escort to 
the Mississippi, and ascertain by celestial observations the point 
on that river intersected by latitude 36° 30', the southern limit of 
the State, and to measure its distance to the Ohio. To Gen. Clark 
was entrusted the conduct of the military operations in that quar- 
ter, lie was instructed to select a strong position near that point 
and establish there a fort and garrison ; thence to extend his conquests 
northward to the lakes, erecting forts at different points, which 
might serve as monuments of actual possession, besides affording 
protection to that portion of the country. Fort "Jefferson " was 
erected and garrisoned on the Mississippi a few miles above the 
southern limit. 

The result of these operations was the addition, to the chartered 
limits of Virginia, of that immense region known as the " North- 
western Territory." The simple fact that such and such forts were 
established by the Americans in this vast region convinced the Brit- 
ish Commissioners that we had entitled ourselves to the land. But 
where are those " monuments" of our power now? 

INDIAN SAVAGERY. 

As a striking example of the inhuman treatment which the early 
Indians were capable of giving white people, we quote the follow 
ing blood-curdling story from Mr. Cox' " Recollections of the 
Wabash Valley": 

On the 11th of February, 1781, a wagoner named Irvin Hinton 
was sent from the block-house at Louisville, Ky., to Harrodsburg 
tor a load of provisions for the fort. Two young men, Richard 
Rue and George Holman, aged respectively 19 and 16 years, were 
sent as guards to protect the wagon from the depredations of any 
hostile Indians who might be lurking in the cane-brakes or ravines 
through which they must pass. Soon after their start a severe 
snow-storm set in which lasted until afternoon. Lest the melting 
snow might dampen the powder in their rifles, the guards fired 
them off, intending to reload them as soon as the storm ceased. 
Hinton drove the horses while Rue walked a few rods ahead and 
Holman about the same distance behind. As the}' ascended a hill 
about eight miles from Louisville Hinton heard some one say Whoa 
to the horses. Supposing that something was wrong about the 
wagon, he stopped and asked Holman why he had called him to 
halt. Holman said that he had not spoken; Rue also denied it, 



48 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

but said that he had heard the voice distinctly. At this time a voice 
cried out, " I will solve the mystery for you; it was Simon Girty that 
cried AVhoa, and he meant what he said," — at the same time emerg- 
ing from a sink-hole a few rods from the roadside, followed by 13 
Indians, who immediately surrounded the three Kentuckians and 
demanded them to surrender or die instantly. The little party, 
making a virtue of necessity, surrendered to this renegade white 
man and his Indian allies. 

Being so near two forts, Girty made all possible speed in making 
fast his prisoners, selecting the lines and other parts of the harness, 
he prepared for an immediate flight across the Ohio. The panta- 
loons of the prisoners were cut off about four inches above the 
knees, and thus they started through the deep snow as fast as the 
horses could trot, leaving the wagon, containing a few empty bar- 
rels, standing in the road. They continued their march for sev- 
eral cold days, without fire at night, until they reached Wa-puc-ca- 
nat-ta, where they compelled their prisoners to run the gauntlet as 
they entered the village. Hinton first ran the gauntlet and reached 
the council-house after receiving several severe blows upon the head 
and shoulders. Rue next ran between the lines, pursued by an 
Indian with an uplifted tomahawk. He far outstripped his pursuer 
and dodged most of the blows aimed at him. Holman complaining 
that it was too severe a test for a worn-out stripling like himself, 
was allowed to run between two lines of squaws and bo_}s, and was 
followed by an Indian with a long switch. 

The first council of the Indians did not dispose of these young 
men; they were waiting for the presence of other chiefs and war- 
riors. Hinton escaped, but on the afternoon of the second day he 
was re-captured. Now the Indians were glad that they had an 
occasion to indulge in the infernal joy of burning him at once. 
Soon after their supper, which they shared with their victim, they 
drove the stake into the ground, piled up the fagots in a circle 
around it. stripped and blackened the prisoner, tied him to the 
stake, and applied the torch. It was a slow fire. The war-whoop 
then thrilled through the dark surrounding forest like the chorus 
of a band of infernal spirits escaped from pandemonium, and the 
scalp dance was struck up by those demons in human shape, who 
for hours encircled their victim, brandishing their tomahawks and 
war clubs, and venting their execrations upon the helpless sufferer, 
who died about midnight from the effects of the slow heat. As 
soon as he fell upon the ground, the Indian who first discovered 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 49 

him in the woods that evening sprang in, sunk his tomahawk into 
his skull above the ear, and with his knife stripped off the scalp, 
which he bore back with him to the town as a trophy, and which 
was tauntingly thrust into the faces of Rue and Holman, with the 
question, " Can you smell the fire on the scalp of your red-headed 
friend? We cooked him and left him for the wolves to make a 
breakfast upon; that is the way we serve runaway prisoners." 

After a march of three days more, the prisoners, Rue and Hol- 
man, had to run the gauntlets again, and barely got through with 
their lives. It was decided that they should both be burned at the 
stake that night, though this decision was far from being unani- 
mous. The necessary preparations were made, dry sticks and 
brush were gathered and piled around two stakes, the faces 
and hands of the doomed men were blackened in the customary 
manner, and as the evening approached the poor wretches sat look- 
ing upon the setting sun for the last time. An unusual excitement 
was manifest in a number of chiefs who still lingered about the 
council-house. At a pause in the contention, a noble-looking In- 
dian approached the prisoners, and after speaking a few words to 
the guards, took Holman by the hand, lifted him to his feet, cut the 
cords that bound him to his fellow prisoners, removed the black from 
his face and hands, put his hand kindly upon his head and said: " I 
adopt yon as my son, to fill the place of the one I have lately buried ; 
you are now a kinsman of Logan, the white man's friend, as he has 
been called, but who has lately proven himself to be a terrible 
avenger of the wrongs inflicted upon him by the bloody Cresap and 
his men." With evident reluctance, Girty interpreted this to Hol- 
man, who was thus unexpectedly freed. 

But the preparations for the burning of Rue went on. Holman 
and Rue embraced each other most affectionately, with a sorrow too 
deep for description. Rue was then tied to one of the stakes; but 
the general contention among the Indians had not ceased. Just as 
the lighted fagots were about to be applied to the dry brush piled 
around the devoted youth, a tall, active young Shawnee, a son of 
the victim's captor, sprang into the ring, and cutting the cords 
which bound him to the stake, led him out amidst the deafening 
plaudits of a part of the crowd and the execrations of the rest. Re- 
gardless of threats, he caused water to be brought and the black to 
be washed from the face and hands of the prisoner, whose clothes 
were then returned to him, when the young brave said: " I take 
this young man to be my brother, in the place of one I lately lost; 



50 HISTORY OK INDIANA. 

I loved that brother well; I will love this one, too; my old mother 
will he glad when I tell her that 1 have brought her a son, in place 
of the dear departed one. We want no more victims. The burning 
of Red-head [Hinton] ought to satisfy us. These innocent young 
men do not merit such cruel fate; I would rather die myself than 
see this adopted brother burned at the stake." 

A loud shout of approbation showed that the young Shawnee had 
triumphed, though dissension was manifest among the various 
tribes afterward. Some of them abandoned their trip to Detroit, 
others returded to Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta, a few turned toward the Mis- 
sissinewa and the Wabash . towns, while a portion continued to De- 
troit. Holman was taken back to Wa-puc-ca-nat ta, where he re- 
mained most of the time of his captivity. Rue was taken first to 
the Mississinewa, then to the Wabash towns. Two years of bis 
eventful captivity were spent in the region of the Wabash and Illi- 
nois rivers, but the last few months at Detroit; was in captivity 
altogether about three years and a half. 

Rue effected his escape in the following manner: During one of 
the drunken revels of the Indians near Detroit one of them lost a 
purse of $90; various trihes were suspected of feloniously keeping 
the treasure, and much ugly speculation was indulged in as to who 
was the thief. At length a prophet of a tribe that was not suspected 
was called to divine the mystery. He spread sand over a green 
deer-skin, watched it awhile and performed various manipulations, 
and professed to see that the money had been stolen ahd carried 
away by a tribe entirely different from any that had been 
suspicioned; but he was shrewd enough not to announce who the 
thief was or the tribe he belonged to, lest a war might arise. His 
decision cpuieted the belligerent uprisings threatened by the excited 
Indians. 

Rue and two other prisoners saw this display of the prophet's 
skill and concluded to interrogate him soon concerning their fami- 
lies at home. The opportunity occurred in a few days, and the In- 
dian seer actually astonished Rue with the accuracy with which he 
described his family, and added, "You all intend to make your 
escape, and yon will effect it soon. You will meet with many trials 
and hardships in passing over so wild a district of country, inhabited 
by so many hostile nations of Indians. You will almost starve to 
death; but about the time you have given up all hope of finding 
game to sustain you in your famished condition, succor will come 
when you least expect it. The first game you will succeed in taking 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 51 

will be a male of some kind; after that you will have plenty of 
game and return home in safety." 

The prophet kept this matter a secret for the prisoners, and the 
latter in a few days set off upon their terrible journey, and had 
just such experience as the Indian prophet had foretold; they 
arrived home with their lives, but were pretty well worn out with the 
exposures and privations of a three weeks' journey. 

On tlfe return of Holman's party of Indians to Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta, 
much dissatisfaction existed in regard to the manner of his release 
from the sentence of condemnation pronounced against him by the 
council. Many were in favor of recalling the council and trying 
him again, and this was finally agreed to. The young man was 
again put upon trial for his life, with a strong probability of his 
being condemned to the stake. Both parties worked hard for vic- 
tory in the final vote, which eventually proved to give a majority of 
one for the prisoner's acquittal. 

While with the Indians, Holman saw them burn at the stake a 
Kentuckian named Richard Hogeland, who had been taken prisoner 
at the defeat of Col. Crawford. They commenced burning him at 
nine o'clock at night, and continued roasting him until ten o'clock 
the next day, before he expired. During his excruciating tortures he 
begged for some of them to end his life and sufferings with a gun 
or tomahawk. Finally his cruel tormentors promised they would, 
and cut several deep gashes in his flesh with their tomahawks, and 
shoveled up hot ashes and embers and threw them into the gaping 
wounds. When he was dead they stripped off his scalp, cut him 
to pieces and burnt him to ashes, which they scattered through the 
town to expel the evil spirits from it. 

After a captivity of about three years and a half, Holman saw an 
opportunity of going on amission for the destitute Indians, namely, 
of going to Harrodsburg, Ky., where he had a rich uncle, from 
whom they could get what supplies they wanted. They let him go 
with a guard, but on arriving at Louisville, where Gen. Clark was 
in command, he was ransomed, and he reached home only three 
days after the arrival of Rue. Both these men lived to a good old 
age, terminating their lives at their home about two miles south of 
Richmond, Ind. 



EXPEDITIONS OF COL. GEOEGE EOGEES CLAEK. 

In the summer of 1778, Col. George Rogers Clark, a native of 
Albemarle county, Va., led a memorable expedition against the 
ancient French settlements about Kaskaskia and Post Vincennes. 
"With respect to the magnitude of its design, the valor and perse- 
verance with which it was carried on, and the memorable results 
which were produced by it, this expedition stands without a parallel 
in the early annals of the valley of the Mississippi. That portion 
of the West called Kentucky was occupied by Henderson & Co., 
who pretended to own the land and who held it at a high price. 
Col. Clark wished to test the validity of their claim and adjust the 
government of the country so as to encourage immigration. He 
accordingly called a meeting of the citizens at Harrodstown, to 
assemble June 6, 1776, and consider the claims of the company and 
consult with reference to the interest of the country. He did not 
at first publish the exact aim of this movement, lest parties would 
be formed in advance aud block the enterprise; also, if the object 
of the meeting were not announced beforehand, the curiosity of the 
people to know what was to be proposed would bring out a much 
greater attendance. 

The meeting was held on the day appointed, and delegates were 
elected to treat with the government of Virginia, to see whether 
it would be best to become a county in that State and be protected 
by it, etc. Various delays on account of the remoteness of the 
white settlers from the older communities of Virginia and the hos- 
tility of Indians in every direction, prevented a consummation of 
this object until sometime in 1778. The government of Virginia 
was friendly to Clark's enterprise to a certain extent, but claimed 
that they had not authority to do much more than to lend a little 
assistance for which payment should be made at some future time, 
as it was not certain whether Kentucky would become a part of Vir- 
ginia or not. Gov. Henry and a few gentlemen were individually 
so hearty in favor of Clark's benevolent undertaking that they 
assisted him all they could. Accordingly Mr. Clark organized his 
expedition, keeping every particular secret lest powerful parties 
would form in the West against him. He took in stores at Pitts- 
OS) 




GEN. GEOKGE KOQEES CLAEK. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 00 

burg and "Wheeling, proceeded down the Ohio to the " Falls," 
where he took possession of an island of a about seven acres, and 
divided it among a small number of families, for whose protection 
he constructed some light fortifications. At this time Post Vin- 
cennes comprised about 400 militia, and it was a daring undertak- 
ing for Col. Clark, with his small force, to go up against it and Kas- 
kaskia, as he had planned. Indeed, some of his men, on hearing of 
his plan, deserted him. He conducted himself so as to gain the 
sympathy of the French, and through them also that of the 
Indians to some extent, as both these people were very bitter 
against the British, who had possession of the Lake Region. 

From the nature of the situation Clark concluded it was best to 
take Kaskaskia first. The fact that the people regarded him as a 
savage rebel, he regarded as really a good thing in his favor; for 
after the first victory he would show them so much unexpected 
lenity that they would rally to his standard. In this policy he was 
indeed successful. He arrested a few men and put them in irons. 
The priest of the village, accompanied by five or six aged citizens, 
waited on Clark and said that the inhabitants expected to be separ- 
ated, perhaps never to meet again, and they begged to be permitted 
to assemble in their church to take leave of each other. Clark 
mildly replied that he had nothing against their religion, that they 
might continue to assemble in their church, but not venture out of 
town, etc. Thus, by what has since been termed the "Rarey" 
method of taming horses, Clark showed them he had power over 
them but designed them no harm, and they readily took the oath 
of allegiance to Virginia. 

After Clark's arrival at Kaskaskia it was difficult to induce the 
French settlers to accept the "Continental paper" introduced by 
him and his troops. Nor until Col. Vigo arrived there and guar- 
anteed its redemption would they receive it. Peltries and piastres 
formed the only currency, and Vigo found great difficulty in ex- 
plaining Clark's financial arrangements. "Their commandants 
never made money," was the reply to Vigo's explanation of the 
policy of the old Dominion. But notwithstanding the guarantees, 
the Continental paper fell very low in the market. Vigo had a 
trading establishment at Kaskaskia, where he sold coffee at one 
dollar a pound, and all the other necessaries of life at an equally 
reasonable price. The unsophisticated Frenchmen were generally 
asked in what kind of money they would pay their little bills. 



50 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

"Douleur," was the general reply; and as an authority on the sub- 
ject says, "It took about twenty Continental dollars to purchase a 
silver dollar's worth of coffee; and as the French word "douleur" sig- 
nifies grief or pain, perhaps no word either in the French or Eng- 
lish languages expressed the idea more correctly than the douleur 
for a Continental dollar. At any rate it was truly douleur to the 
Colonel, for he never received a single dollar in exchange for the 
large amount taken from him in order to sustain Clark's credit. 

Now, the post at Vincennes, defended by Fort Sackville, came 
next. The priest just mentioned, Mr. Gibault, was really friendly 
to " the American interest;" lie had spiritual charge of the church 
at Vincennes, and he with several others were deputed to assemble 
the people there and authorize them to garrison their own fort like 
a free and independent people, etc. This plan had its desired effect, 
and the people took the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia 
and became citizens of the United States. Their stvle of language 
and conduct changed to a better hue, and they surprised the numer- 
ous Indians in the vicinity by displaying anew flag and informing 
them that their old father, the King of France, was come to life 
again, and was mad at them for fighting the English; and they ad- 
vised them to make peace with the Americans as soon as they 
could, otherwise they might expect to make the land very bloody, 
etc. The Indians concluded they would have to fall in line, and 
they offered no resistance. Capt. Leonard Helm, an American, 
was left in charge of this post, and Clark began to turn his atten- 
tion to other points. But before leaving this section of the coun- 
try he made treaties of peace with the Indians; this he did, how- 
ever, by a different method from what had always before been 
followed. By indirect methods he caused them to come to him, 
instead of going to them. He was convinced that inviting them to 
treaties was considered by them in a different manner from what 
the whites expected, and imputed them to fear, and that giving 
them great presents confirmed it. He accordingly established 
treaties with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenons, Kickapoos, Illinois, 
Kaskaskias, Peorias and branches of some other tribes that inhab- 
ited the country between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. 
Upon this the General Assembly of the State of Virginia declared 
all the citizens settled west of the Ohio organized into a county of 
that State, to be known as "Illinois" county; but before the pro- 
visions of the law could be carried into effect, Henry Hamilton, the 
British Lieutenant-Governor of Detroit, collected an army of about 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 57 

30 regulars, 50 French volunteers and 400 Indians, went down and 
re-took the post Vincennes in December, 1778. No attempt was 
made by tbe population to defend the town. Capt. Helm and a 
man named Henry were the only Americans at the fort, the only 
members of the garrison. Capt. Helm was taken prisoner and a 
number of the French inhabitants disarmed. 

Col. Clark, hearing of the situation, determined to re-capture the 
place. He accordingly gathered together what force he could in 
this distant land, 170 men, and on the 5th of February, btarted from 
Kaskaskia and crossed the river of that name. The weather was 
very wet, and the low lands were pretty well covered with water. 
The march was difficult, and the Colonel had to work hard to keep 
his men in spirits. He suffered them to shoot game whenever they 
wished and eat it like Indian war-dancers, each company by turns 
inviting the others to their feasts, which was the case every night. 
Clark waded through water as much as any of them, and thus stimu- 
lated the men by his example. They reached the Little Wabash 
on the 13th, after suffering many and great hardships. Here a camp 
was formed, and without waiting to discuss plans for crossing the 
river, Clark ordered the men to construct a vessel, and pretended 
that crossing the stream would be only a piece of amusement, al- 
though inwardly he held a different opinion. 

The second day afterward a reconnoitering party was sent across 
the river, who returned and made an encouraging report. A scaf- 
folding was built on the opposite shore, upon whidi the baggage 
was placed as it was tediously ferried over, and the new camping 
ground was a nice half acre of dry land. There were mauy amuse- 
ments, indeed, in getting across the river, which put all the men in 
high spirits. The succeeding two or three days they had to march 
through a great deal of water, having on the night of the 17th to 
encamp in the water, near the Big Wabash. 

At daybreak on the 18th they heard the signal gun at Vincennes, 
and at once commenced their march. Reaching the Wabash about 
two o'clock, they constructed rafts to cross the river on a boat-steal- 
ing expedition, but labored all day and night to no purpose. On 
the 19th they began to make a canoe, in which a second attempt to 
steal boats was made, but this expedition returned, reporting that 
there were two "large fires" within a mile of them. Clark sent a 
canoe down the river to meet the vessel that was supposed to be on 
her way up with the supplies, with orders to hasten forward day and 
night. This was their last hope, as their provisions were entirely 



58 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

gone, and starvation seemed to be hovering about them. The next 
day they commenced to make more canoes, when about noon the 
sentinel on the river brought a boat with five Frenchmen from the 
fort. From this party they learned that they were not as yet dis- 
covered. All the army crossed the river in two canoes the next 
day, and as Clark had determined to reach the town that night, ho 
ordered his men to move forward. They plunged into the water 
sometimes to the neck, for over three miles. 

Without food, benumbed with cold, up to their waists in water, 
covered with broken ice, the men at onetime mutinied and refused 
to march. All the persuasions of Clark had no effect upon the 
half-starved and half-frozen soldiers. In one company was a small 
drummer boy, and also a sergeant who stood six feet two inches in 
socks, and stout and athletic. He was devoted to Clark. The Gen- 
eral mounted the little drummer on the shoulders of the stalwart 
sergeant and ordered him to plunge into the water, half- frozen as it 
was. He did so, the little boy beating the charge from his lofty 
perch, while Clark, sword in hand, followed them, giving the com- 
mand as he threw aside the floating ice, "Forward." Elated and 
amused with the scene, the men promptly obeyed, holding their 
rifles above their heads, and in spite of all the obstacles they reached 
the high land in perfect safety. But for this and the ensuing days 
of this campaign we quote from Clark's account: 

" This last day's march through the water was far superior to any- 
thing the Frenchmen had any idea of. They were backward in 
speaking; said that the nearest land to us was a small league, a 
sugar camp on the bank of the river. A canoe was sent off and re- 
turned without finding that we could pass. I went in her myself 
and sounded the water and found it as deep as to my neck. I returned 
with a design to have the men transported on board the canoes to 
the sugar camp, which I knew would expend the whole day and en- 
suing night, as the vessels would pass slowly through the bushes. 
The loss of so much time to men half starved was a matter of con- 
sequence. I would have given now a great deal for a day's provis- 
ion, or for one of our horses. I returned but slowly to the troops, 
giving myself time to think. On our arrival all ran to hear what 
was the report; every eye was fixed on me; I unfortunately spoke 
in a serious manner to one of the officers. The whole were alarmed 
without knowing what I said. I viewed their confusion for about 
one minute; I whispered to those near me to do as I did, immedi- 
ately put some water in my hand, poured on powder, blackened my 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 59 

face, gave the war-whoop, and marched into the water without say- 
ing a word. The party gazed and fell in, one after another without 
saying a word, like a flock of sheep. I ordered those near me to 
begin a favorite song of theirs; it soon passed through the line, and 
the whole went on cheerfully. 

" I now intended to have them transported across the deepest 
part of the water; but when about waist-deep, one of the men in- 
formed me that he thought he felt a path; we examined and found 
it so, and concluded that it kept on the highest ground, which it did, 
and by taking pains to follow it, we got to the sugar camp with no 
difficulty, where there was about half an acre of dry ground, — at 

least ground not under water, and there we took up our lodging. 
****** 

" The night had been colder than any we had had, and the ice in 
the morning was one-half or three-quarters of an inch thick in still 
water; the morning was the finest. A little after sunrise I lectured 
the whole; what I said to them I forget, but I concluded by in- 
forming them that passing the plain then in full view, and 
reaching the opposite woods would put an end to their fatigue; 
that in a few hours they would have a sight of their long wished-for 
object; and immediately stepped into the water without waiting 
for any reply. A huzza took place. As we generally marched 
through the water in a line, before the third man entered, I called to 
Major Bowman, ordering him to fall in the rear of the 25 men, and 
put to death any man who refused to march. This met with a cry 
of approbation, and on we went. Getting about the middle of the 
plain, the water about mid-deep, I found myself sensibly failing; 
and as there were no trees nor bushes for the men to support them- 
selves by, I feared that many of the weak would be drowned. I or- 
dered the canoes to make the land, discharge their loading, and play 
backward and forward with all diligence and pick up the men; and 
to encourage the party, sent some of the strongest men forward, 
with orders when they got to a certain distance, to pass the word 
back that the water was getting shallow, and when getting near the 
woods, to cry out land. This stratagem had its desired effect; the 
men exerted themselves almost beyond their abilities, the weak 
holding by the stronger. The water, however, did not become 
shallower, but continued deepening. Getting to the woods where 
the men expected land, the water was up to my shoulders; but 
gaining the woods was of great consequence; all the low men and 
weakly hung to the trees and floated on the old logs until they were 



60 HISTOKV OF INDIANA. 

taken oft' by the canoes; the strong aud tall got ashore and built 
tires. Many would reach the shore and fall with their bodies half 
in the water, not being able to support themselves without it. 

"This was a dry and delightful spot of ground of about ten acres. 
Fortunately, as if designed by Providence, a canoe of Indian squaws 
and children was coining up to town, and took through this part of 
the plain as a nigh way; it was discovered by our canoe-men as they 
were out after the other men. They gave chase and took the Indian 
canoe, on board of which was nearly half a quarter of buffalo, some 
corn, tallow, kettles, etc. This was an invaluable prize. Broth was 
immediately made and served out, especially to the weakly; nearly 
all of us got a little; but a great many gave their part to the 
weakly, saving something cheering to their comrades. By the 
afternoon, this refreshment and fine weather had greatly invigor- 
ated the whole party. 

" Crossing a narrow and deep lake in the canoes, and marching 
some distance, we came to a copse of timber called ' Warrior's 
Island.' We were now in full view of the fort and town; it was 
about two miles distant, with not a shrub intervening. Every man 
now feasted his eyes and forgot that he had suffered anything, say- 
ing that all which had passed was owing to good policy, and noth- 
ing but what a man could bear, and that a soldier had no right to 
think, passing from one extreme to the other,— which is common in 
such cases. And now stratagem was necessary. The plain between 
us and the town was not a perfect level; the sunken grounds were 
covered with water full of ducks. We observed several men within 
a half a mile of us shooting ducks, and sent out some of our active 
young Frenchmen to take one of these men prisoners without 
alarming the rest, which they did. The information we got from 
this person was similar to that which we got from those taken on the 
river, except that of the British having that evening completed the 
wall of the fort, and that there were a great many Indians in towu. 

"Our situation was now critical. No possibility of retreat in 
case of defeat, and in full view of a town containing at this time 
more than 600 men, troops, inhabitants and Indians. The crew of the 
galley, though not 50 men, would have been now a re-enforcement 
of immense magnitude to our little army, if I may so call it, but 
we would not think of them. We were now in the situation that I 
had labored to get ourselves in. The idea of being made prisoner 
was foreign to almost every man, as they expected nothing but tor- 
ture from the savages if they fell into their hands. Our fate was 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 61 

now to be determined, probably in a few hours; we knew that 
nothing but the most daring conduct would insure success; I knew 
also that a number of the inhabitants wished us well. This was a 
favorable circumstance; and as there was but little prooability of our 
remaining until dark undiscovered, I determined to begin opera- 
tions immediately, and therefore wrote the following placard to the 
inhabitants: 

To the Inhabitants of Post Vincennes : 

Gentlemen: — Being now within two miles of your village with 
my army, determined to take your tort this night, and not being 
willing to surprise you, I take this method to request such of you 
as are true citizens and willing to enjoy the liberty I bring you, to 
remain still in your houses; and those, if any there be, that are 
friends to the king, will instantly repair to the fort and join the 
hair-buyer general and fight like men; and if any such as do not go 
to the fort shall be discovered afterward, they may depend on 
severe punishment. On the contrary, those who are true friends 
to liberty may depend on being well treated; and I once more 
request them to keep out of the streets; for everyone I find in 
arms on ray arrival I shall treat as an enemy. 

[Signed] G. E. Clark. 

" I had various ideas on the results of this letter. I knew it 
could do us no damage, but that it would cause the lukewarm to 
be decided, and encourage our friends and astonish our enemies. 
We anxiously viewed this messenger until he entered the town, and 
in a few minutes we discovered by our glasses some stir in everv 
street we could penetrate, and great numbers running or riding out 
into the commons, we supposed to view us, which was the case. 
But what surprised us was that nothing had yet happened that had 
the appearance of the garrison being alarmed, — neither gun nor 
drum. We began to suppose that the information we got from our 
prisoners was false, and that the enemy had already knew of us and 
were prepared. A little before sunset we displayed ourselves in 
full view of the town, — crowds gazing at us. We were plunging 
ourselves into certain destruction or success ; there was no midway 
thought of. We had but little to say to our men, except inculcat- 
ing an idea of the necessity of obedience, etc. We moved on 
slowly in full view of the town; but as it was a point of some con- 
sequence to us to make ourselves appear formidable, we, in leaving 
the covert we were in, marched and counter- marched in such a 
manner that we appeared numerous. Our colors were displayed to 
the best advantage; and as the low plain we marched through was 



62 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

not a perfect level, bnt had frequent risings in it, of 7 or 8 
higher than the common level, which was covered with water; and 
as these risings generally run in an oblique direction to the town, 
we took the advantage of one of them, marching through the water 
by it, which completely prevented our being numbered. We gained 
the heights back of the town. As there were as yet no hostile 
appearance, we were impatient to have the cause unriddled. Lieut. 
Bay ley was ordered with 14 men to march and fire on the fort; 
the main body moved in a different direction and took possession 
of the strongest part of the town." 

Clark then sent a written order to Hamilton commanding 
him to surrender immediately or he would be treated as a 
murderer; Hamilton replied that he and his garrison were not 
disposed to be awed into any action unworthy of British sub- 
jects. After one hour more of fighting, Hamilton proposed a 
truce of three days for conference, on condition that each side 
cease all defensive work; Clark rejoined that he would "not 
agree to any terms other than Mr. Hamilton surrendering himself 
and garrison prisoners at discretion," and added that if he, Hamil- 
ton, wished to talk with him he could meet him immediately at the 
church with Capt. Helm. In less than an hour Clark dictated the 
terms of surrender, Feb. 24, 1779. Hamilton agreed to the total 
surrender because, as he there claimed in writing, he was too far 
from aid from his own government, and because of the "unanimity" 
of his officers in the surrender, and his "confidence in a generous 
enemy." 

"Of this expedition, of its results, of its importance, of the merits of 
those engaged in it, of their bravery, their skill, of their prudence, of 
their success, a volume would not more than suffice for the details. 
Suffice it to say that in my opinion, and I have accurately and criti- 
cally weighed and examined all the results produced by the con- 
tests in which we were engaged during the Revolutionary war, 
that for bravery, for hardships endured, for skill and consummate 
tact and prudence on the part of the commander, obedience, dis- 
cipline and love of country on the part of his followers, for the 
immense benefits acquired, and signal advantages obtained by it 
for the whole union, it was second to no enterprise undertaken dur- 
ing that struggle. I might add, second to no undertaking in an- 
cient or modern warfare. The whole credit of this conquest be- 
longs to two men; Gen. George Rogers Clark and Col. Francis 
Vigo. And when we consider that by it the whole territory now 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 63 

covered by the three great states of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan 
was added to the union, and so admitted to be by the British commis- 
sioners at the preliminaries to the treaty of peace in 1783; (and but 
for this very conquest, the boundaries of our territories west would 
have been the Ohio instead of the Mississippi, and so acknowledged 
by both our commissioners and the British at that conference;) a 
territory embracing upward of 2,000,000 people, the human mind 
is lost in the contemplation of its effects; and we can but wonder 
that a force of 170 men, the whole number of Clark's troops, 
should by this single action have produced such important results." 
[John Law. 

The next day Clark sent a detachment of 60 men up the river 
Wabash to intercept some boats which were laden with provisions 
and goods from Detroit. This force was placed under command of 
Capt. Helm, Major Bosseron and Major Legras, and they proceeded 
up the river, in three armed boats, about 120 miles, when the 
British boats, about seven in number, were surprised and captured 
without firing a gun. These boats, which had on board about 
850,000 worth of goods and provisions, were manned by about 
40 men, among whom was Philip Dejean, a magistrate of Detroit. 
The provisions were taken for the public, and distributed among 
the soldiery. 

Having organized a military government at Vincennes and 
appointed Capt. Helm commandant of the town, Col. Clark return- 
ed in the vessel to Kaskaskia, where he was joined by reinforce- 
ments from Kentucky under Capt. George. Meanwhile, a party of 
traders who were going to the falls, were killed and plundered by 
the Delawares of White River; the news of this disaster having 
reached Clark, he sent a dispatch to Capt. Helm ordering him to 
make war on the Delawares and use every means in his power to 
destroy them; to show no mercy to the men, but to save the 
women and children. This order was executed without delay. 
Their camps were attacked in every quarter where they could be 
found. Many fell, and others were carried to Post Vincennes and 
put to death. The surviving Delawares at once pleaded for mercy 
and appeared anxious to make some atonement for their bad con- 
duct. To these overtures Capt. Helm replied that Col. Clark, the 
" Big Knife," had ordered the war, and that he had no power to lay 
down the hatchet, but that he would suspend hostilities until a 
messenger could be sent to Kaskaskia. This was done, and the 
crafty Colonel, well understanding the Indian character, sent a 



64 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

message to the Delawares, telling them that he would not accept 
their friendship or treat with them for peace; but that if they 
could get some of the neighboring tribes to become responsible for 
their future conduct, he would discontinue the war and spare their 
lives; otherwise they must all perish. 

Accordingly a council was called of all the Indians in the neigh- 
borhood, and Clark's answer was read to the assembly. After due 
deliberation the Piankeshaws took on tbemselves to answer for the 
future good conduct of the Delawares, and the " Grand Door " in a 
long speech denounced their base conduct. This ended the war 
with the Delawares and secured the respect of the neighboring 
tribes 

Ciark's attention was next turned to the British post at Detroit, 
but being unable to obtain sufficient troops he abandoned the en- 
terprise. 

CLARK'S INGENIOUS RUSE AGAINST THE INDIANS. 

Tradition says that when Clark captured Hamilton and his gar- 
rison at Fort Sackville, he took possession of the fort and kept the 
British flag flying, dressed his sentinels with the uniform of the 
British soldiery, and let everything abont the premises remain as 
they were, so that when the Indians sympathizing with the British 
arrived they would walk right into the citadel, into the jaws of 
death. His success was perfect. Sullen and silent, with the scalp- 
lock of his victims hanging at his girdle, and in full expectation of 
his reward from Hamilton, the unwary savage, unconscious of 
danger and wholly ignorant of the change that had just been effected 
in his absence, passed the supposed British sentry at the gate of the 
fort unmolested and unchallenged; but as soon as in, a volley from 
the rifles of a platoon of Clark's men, drawn up and awaiting his 
coming, pierced their hearts and sent the unconscious savage, reek- 
ing with murder, to that tribunal to which he had so frequently, 
by order of the hair-buyer general, sent his American captives, 
from the infant in the cradle to the grandfather of the family, tot- 
tering with age and infirmity. It was a just retribution, and few 
men but Clark would have planned such a ruse or carried it out 
successfully. It is reported that fifty Indians met this fate within 
the fort; and probably Hamilton, a prisoner there, witnessed it all. 

SUBSEQUENT CAREER OF HAMILTON. 

Henry Hamilton, who had acted as Lieutenant and Governor of 
the British possessions under Sir George Carleton, was sent for- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 65 

ward, with two other prisoners of war, Dejean and LaMothe, to 
Williamsburg, Va., early in June following, 1779. Proclamations, 
in his own handwriting, were found, in which he had offered a 
specific sum for every American scalp brought into the camp, either 
by his own troops or his allies, the Indians; and from this he was 
denominated the "hair-buyer General." This and much other tes- 
timony of living witnesses at the time, all showed what a savage he 
was. Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, being made 
aware of the inhumanity of this wretch, concluded to resort to a 
little retaliation by way of closer confinement. Accordingly he 
ordered that these three prisoners be put in irons, confined in a 
dungeon, deprived of the use of pen, ink and paper, and be ex- 
cluded from all conversation except with their keeper. Major 
General Phillips, a British officer out on parole in the vicinity of 
Charlottesville, where the prisoners now were, in closer confine- 
ment, remonstrated, and President Washington, while approving 
of Jefferson's course, requested a mitigation of the severe order, 
lest the British be goaded to desperate measures. 

Soon afterward Hamilton was released on parole, and he subse- 
quently appeared in Canada, still acting as if he had jurisdiction 
in the United States. 

GIBAULT. 

The faithful, self-sacrificing and patriotic services of Father 
Pierre Gibault in behalf of the Americans require a special notice 
of him in this connection. He was the parish priest at Vincennes, 
as well as at Kaskaskia. He was, at an early period, a Jesuit mis- 
sionary to the Illinois. Had it not been for the influence of this man. 
Clark could not have obtained the influence of the citizens at either 
place. He gave all his property, to the value of 1,500 Spanish 
milled dollars, to the support of Col. Clark's troops, and never re- 
ceived a single dollar in return. So far as the records inform us, 
he was given 1,500 Continental paper dollars, which proved in the 
end entirely valueless. He modestly petitioned from the Govern- 
ment a small allowance of land at Cahokia, but we find no account 
of his ever receiving it. He was dependent upon the public in his 
older days, and in 1790 Winthrop Sargent "conceded" to him a lot 
of about "14 toises, one side to Mr. Millet, another to Mr. Vaudrey, 
and to two streets," — a vague description of land. 



66 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

VIGO. 

Col. Francis Vigo was born in Mondov'i, in the kingdom of Sar- 
dinia, in 17-17. He left his parents and guardians at a very early 
age, and enlisted in a Spanish regiment as a soldier. The regiment 
was ordered to Havana, and a detachment of it subsequently to 
New Orleans, then a Spanish post; Col. Vigo accompanied this de- 
tachment. Buthe left the army and engaged in trading with the 
Indians on the Arkansas and its tributaries. Next he settled at St. 
Louis, also a Spanish post, where he became closely connected, both 
in friendship and business, with the Governor of Upper Louisiana, 
then residing at the same place. This friendship he enjoyed, though 
he could only write his name; and we have many circumstantial 
evidences that he was a man of high intelligence, honor, purity of 
heart, and ability. Here he was living when Clark captured Kas- 
kaskia, and was extensively engaged in trading up the Missouri. 

A Spaniard by birth and allegiance, he was under no obligation 
to assist the Americans. Spain was at peace with Great Britain, 
and any interference by her citizens was a breach of neutrality, and 
subjected an individual, especially one of the high character and 
standing of Col. Vigo, to all the contumely, loss and vengeance 
which British power could inflict. But Col. Vigo did not falter. 
With an innate love of liberty, an attachment to Republican prin- 
ciples, and an ardent sympathy for an oppressed people struggling 
for their rights, he overlooked all personal consequences, and as 
soon as he learned of Clark's arrival at Kaskaskia, he crossed the 
line and went to Clark and tendered him his means and influence, 
both of which were joyfully accepted. 

Knowing Col. Vigo's influence with the ancient inhabitants of 
the country, and desirous of obtaining some information from 
Vincennes, from which he had not heard for several months, Col. 
Clark proposed to him that he might go to that place and learn the 
actual state of affairs. Vigo went without hesitation, but on the 
Embarrass river he was seized by a party of Indians, plundered of 
all he possessed, and brought a prisoner before Hamilton, then in pos- 
session of the post, which he had a short time previously captured, 
holding Capt. Helm a prisoner of war. Being a Spanish subject, 
and consequently a non-combatant, Gov. Hamilton, although he 
strongly suspected the motives of the visit, dared not confine him, 
but admitted him to parole, on the single condition that he 
should daily report himself at the fort. But Hamilton was embar- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 67 

rassed by his detention, being besieged by the inhabitants of the 
town, who loved Yigo and threatened to withdraw their support 
from the garrison if he would not release him. Father Gibault was 
the chief pleader for Vigo's release. Hamilton finally yielded, on con- 
dition that he, Vigo, would do no injury to the British interests on 
his way to St. Louis. He went to St. Louis, sure enough, doing no 
injury to British interests, but immediately returned to Kaskaskia 
and reported to Clark in detail all he had learned at Vincennes, 
without which knowledge Clark would have been unable to ac- 
complish his famous expedition to that post with final triumph. 
The redemption of this country from the British is due as much, 
probably, to Col. Vigo as Col. Clark. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE NORTHWEST. 

Col. John Todd, Lieutenant for the county of Illinois, in the 
spring of 1779 visited the old settlements at Vincennes and Kas- 
kaskia, and organized temporary civil governments in nearly all the 
settlements west of the Ohio. Previous to this, however, Clark 
had established a military government at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, 
appointed commandants in both places and taken up his headquar- 
ters at the falls of the^Ohio, where he could watch the operations 
of the enemy and save the frontier settlements from the depreda- 
tions of Indian warfare. On reaching the settlements, Col. Todd 
issued a proclamation regulating the settlement of unoccupied 
lands and requiring the presentation of all claims to the lands set- 
tled, as the number of adventurers who would shortly overrun the 
country would be serious. He also organized a Court of civil and 
criminal jurisdiction at Vincennes, in the month of June, 1779. 
This Court was composed of several magistrates and presided over 
by Col. J. M. P. Legras, who had been appointed commandant at 
Vincennes. Acting from the precedents established b}' the early 
French commandants in the West, this Court began to grant tracts 
of land to the French and American inhabitants; and to the year 
17b3, it had granted to different parties about 26,000 acres of land; 
22,000 more was granted in this manner by 1787, when the practice 
was prohibited by Gen. Harmer. These tracts varied in size from 
a house lot to 500 acres. Besides this loose business, the Court 
entered into a stupendous speculation, one not altogether creditable 
to its honor and dignity. The commandant and the magistrates 
under him suddenly adopted the opinion that they were invested 



68 HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 

with the authority to dispose of the whole of that large region 
which in 1842 had been granted by the Piankeshaws to the French 
inhabitants of Vincennes. Accordingly a very convenient arrange- 
ment was entered into by which the whole tract of country men- 
tioned was to be divided between the members of the honorable 
Court. A record was made to that effect, and in order to gloss over 
the steal, each member took pains to be absent from Court on the 
day that the order was made in his favor. 

In the fall of 1780 La Balme, a Frenchman, made an attempt to 
capture the British garrison of Detroit by leading an expedition 
against it from Kaskaskia. At the head of 30 men he marched to 
Vincennes, where his force was slightly increased. From this 
place he proceeded to the British trading post at the head of the 
Maumee, where Fort Wayne now stands, plundered the British 
traders and Indians and then retired. While encamped on the 
bank of a small stream on his retreat, he was attacked by a band 
of JVIiamis, a number of his men were killed, and his expedition 
against Detroit was ruined. 

In this manner border war continued between Americans and 
their enemies, with varying victory, until 1783, when the treaty of 
Paris was concluded, resulting in the establishment of the inde- 
pendence of the United States. Up to this time the territory now 
included in Indiana belonged by conquest to the State of Virginia; 
but in January, 17S3, the General Assembly of that State resolved 
to cede to the Congress of the United States all the territory north- 
west of the Ohio. The conditions offered by Virginia were 
accepted by Congress Dec. 20, that year, and early in 1784 the 
transfer was completed. In 1783 Virginia had platted the town of 
Clarksville, at the falls of the Ohio. The deed of cession provided 
that the territory should be laid out into States, containing a suita- 
ble extent of territory not less than 100 nor more than 150 miles 
square, or as near thereto as circumstances would permit; and that 
the States so formed shall be distinct Republican States and 
admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of 
sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other States. The 
other conditions of the deed were as follows: That the necessary 
and reasonable expenses incurred by Virginia in subduing any 
British posts, or in maintaining forts and garrisons within and for 
the defense, or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded or 
relinquished, shall be fully reimbursed by the United States; that 
the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of theKas- 



HISTOEY UK INDIANA 69 

kaskia, Post Vincennes and the neighboring villages who have pro- 
cessed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their titles and 
possessions confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment 
■of their rights and privileges; that a quantity not exceeding 150,- 
000 acres of land, promised by Virginia, shall be allowed and 
granted to the then Colonel, now General, George Rogers Clark, 
and to the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who marched with 
him when the posts and of Kaskaskia and Vincennes were reduced, 
and to the officers and soldiers that have been since incorporated 
into the said regiment, to be laid off in one tract, the length of 
which not to exceed double the breadth, in such a place on the 
northwest side of the Ohio as a majority of the officers shall 
choose, and to be afterward divided among the officers and soldiers 
in due proportion according to the laws of Virginia; that in case 
the quantity of good lands on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon 
the waters of Cumberland river, and between Green river and Ten. 
nessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia 
troops upon Continental establishment, should, from the North 
Carolina line, bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than 
was expected, prove insufficient for their legal bounties, the defi- 
ciency shall be made up to the said troops in good lands to be laid 
off between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest 
side of the river Ohio, in such proportions as have been engaged 
to them by the laws of Virginia; that all the lands within the ter- 
ritory so ceded to the United States, and not reserved for or appro- 
priated to any of the before-mentioned purposes, or disposed of in 
bounties to the officers and soldiers of the American army, shall be 
considered as a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the 
United States as have become, or shall become, members of the 
confederation or federal alliance of the said States, Virginia included, 
according to their usual respective proportions in the general 
charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide dis- 
posed of for that purpose and for no other use or purpose whatever. 
After the above deed of cession had been accepted by Congress, 
in the spring of 1784, the matter of the future government of the 
territory was referred to a committee consisting of Messrs. Jeffer- 
son of Virginia, Chase of Marylaud and Howell of Rhode Island, 
which committee reported an ordinance for its government, provid- 
ing, among other things, that slavery should not exist in said terri- 
tory after 1800, except as punishment of criminals; but this article 
of the ordinance was rejected, and an ordinance for the temporary 



70 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

government of the county was adopted. In 1785 laws were passed 
by Congress for the disposition of lands in the territory and pro- 
hibiting the settlement of unappropriated lands by reckless specu- 
lators. But human passion is ever strong enough to evade the law 
to some extent, and large associations, representing considerable 
means, were formed for the purpose of monopolizing the land busi- 
ness. Millions of acres were sold at one time by Congress to asso- 
ciations on the installment plan, and so far as the Indian titles 
could be extinguished, the work of settling and improving the 
lands was pushed rapidly forward. 

ORDINANCE OF 1787. 

This ordinance has a marvelous and interesting history. Con- 
siderable controversy has been indulged in as to who is entitled to 
the credit for framing it. This belongs, undoubtedly, to Nathan 
Dane; and to Rufus King and Timothy Pickering belong the 
credit for suggesting the proviso contained in it against slaver}', 
and also for aids to religion and knowledge, and for assuring for- 
ever the common use, without charge, of the great national high- 
ways of the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence and their tributaries to 
all the citizens of the United States. To Thomas Jefferson is also 
due much credit, as some features ot this ordinance were embraced 
in his ordinance of'1784. But the part taken by each in the long, 
laborious and eventful struggle which had so glorious a consum- 
mation in the ordinance, consecrating forever, by one imprescript- 
ible and unchangeable monument, the very heart of our country to 
Freedom, Knowledge, and Union, will forever honor the names ot 
those illustrious statesmen. 

Mr. Jefferson had vainly tried to secure a system of government 
for the Northwestern territory. He was an emancipationist and 
favored the exclusion of slavery from the territory, but the South 
voted him down every time he proposed a measure of this nature. 
In 1787, as late as July 10, an organizing act without the anti- 
slavery clause was pending. This concession to the South was 
expected to carry it. Congress was in session in New York. On 
July 5, Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Massachusetts, came into New 
York to lobby ou the Northwestern territory. Everything seemed 
to fall into his hands. Events were ripe. The state of the public 
credit, the growing of Southern prejudice, the basis of his mission, 
his personal character, all combined to complete one of those sudden 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 71 

and marvelous revolutions of public sentiment that once in five or 
ten centuries are seen to sweep over a country like the breath of the 
Almighty. 

Cutler was a graduate of Yale. He had studied and taken de- 
grees in the three learned professions, medicine, law, and divinity, 
lie had published a scientific examination of the plants of New 
England. As a scientist in America his name stood second only to 
that of Franklin. He was a courtly gentleman of the old style, a 
man of commanding presence and of inviting face. The Southern 
members said they had never seen such a gentleman in the Ivorth. 
He came representing a Massachusetts company that desired to 
purchase a tract of land, now included in Ohio, for the purpose of 
planting a colony. It was a speculation. Government money was 
worth eighteen cents on the dollar. This company had collected 
enough to purchase 1,500,000 acres of land. Other speculators in 
New York made Dr. Cutler their agent, which enabled him to 
represent a demand for 5,500,000 acres. As this would reduce the 
national debt, and Jefferson's policy was to provide for the public 
credit, it presented a good opportunity to do something. 

Massachusetts then owned the territory of Maine, which she was 
crowding on the market. She was opposed to opening the North- 
western region. This fired the zeal of Virginia. The South caught 
the inspiration, and all exalted Dr. Cutler. The entire South ral. 
lied around him. Massachusetts could not vote against him, be- 
cause many of the constuitents of her members were interested 
personally in the Western speculation. Thus Cutler, making 
friends in the South, and doubtless using all the arts of the lobby, 
was enabled to command the situation. True to deeper convic- 
tions, he dictated one of the most compact and finished documents 
of wise statesmanship that has ever adorned any human law book. 
He borrowed from Jefferson the term "Articles of Compact," which, 
preceding the federal constitution, rose into the most sacred char- 
acter. He then followed very closely the constitution of Massa- 
chusetts, adopted three years before. Its most prominent points 
were: 

1. The exclusion of slavery from the territory forever. 

2. Provision for public schools, giving one township for a semi- 
nary and every section numbered 16 in each township; that is, one 
thirty-sixth of all the land for public schools. 

3. A provision prohibiting the adoption of any constitution or 
the enactment of any law that should nullify pre-existing contracts. 



72 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Be it forever remembered that this compact declared that " re- 
ligion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good govern- 
ment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of edu- 
cation shall always be encouraged." Dr. Cutler planted himself 
on this platform and would not yield. Giving his unqualified dec- 
laration that it was that or nothing, — that unless they could make 
the land desirable they did not want it, — he took his horse and buggy 
and started for the constitutional convention at Philadelphia. On 
July 13, 17S7, the bill was put upon its passage, and was unani- 
mously adopted. Thus the great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan and Wisconsin, a vast empire, were consecrated to free 
dom, intelligence, and morality. Thus the great heart of the nation 
was prepared to save the union of States, for it was this act that was 
the salvation of the republic and the destruction of slavery. Soon 
the South saw their great blunder and tried to have the compact 
repealed. In 1S03 Congress referred it to a committee, of which 
John Randolph was chairman. He reported that this ordinance 
was a compact and opposed repeal. Thus it stood, a rock in the 
way of the on-rushing sea of slavery. 

The " Northwestern Territory " included of course what is now 
the State of Indiana; and Oct 5, 1787, Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair 
was elected by Congress Governor of this territory. Upon 
commencing the duties of his office he was instructed to ascertain 
the real temper of the Indians and do all in his power to remove 
the causes for controversy between them and the United States, 
and to effect the extinguishment of Indian titles to all the land 
possible. The Governor took up quarters in the new settlement of 
Marietta, Ohio, where he immediately began the organization of 
the government of the territory. The first session of the General 
Court of the new territory was held at that place in 17SS, the 
Judges being Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnnm and John C. 
Syinmes, but under the ordinance Gov. St. Clair was President of 
the Court. After the first session, and after the necessary laws for 
government were adopted, Gov. St. Clair, accompanied by the 
Judges, visited Kaskaskia for the purpose of organizing a civil gov- 
ernment there. Full instructions had been sent to Maj. Ilamtramck, 
commandant at Vincennes, to ascertain the exact feeling and temper 
of the Indian tribes of the Wabash. These instructions were ac- 
companied by speeches to each of the tribes. A Frenchman named 
Antoine Gamelin was dispatched with these messages April 5, 1790, 
who visited nearly all the tribes on the Wabash, St. Joseph and St. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 73 

Mary's rivers, but was coldly received; most of the chiefs being 
dissatisfied with the policy of the Americans toward them, and 
prejudiced through English misrepresentation. Full accounts of 
his adventures among the tribes reached Gov. St. Clair at Kashas- 
kia in June, 1790. Being satisfied that there was no prospect of 
effecting a general peace with the Indians of Indiana, he resolved 
to visit Gen. Harmar at his headquarters at Fort Washington and 
consult with him on the means of carrying an expedition against 
the hostile Indians; but before leaving he intrusted Winthrop 
Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, with the execution of the 
resolutions of Congress regarding the lands and settlers on the 
Wabash. lie directed that officer to proceed to Vincennes, lay 
out a county there, establish the militia and appoint the necessary 
civil aud militar}' officers. Accordingly Mr. Sargent went to Vin- 
cennes and organized Camp Knox, appointed the officers, and noti- 
fied the inhabitants to present their claims to lands. In establish- 
ing these claims the settlers found great difficulty, and concerning 
this matter the Secretary in his report to the President wrote as 
follows: 

" Although the lands and lots which were awarded to the inhabi- 
tants appeared from very good oral testimony to belong to those 
persons to whom they were awarded, either by original grants, pur- 
chase or inheritance, yet there was scarcely one case in twenty 
where the title was complete, owing to the desultory manner in 
which public business had been transacted and some other unfor- 
tunate causes. The original concessions by the French and British 
commandants were generally made upon a small scrap of paper, 
which it has been customary to lodge in the notary's office, who 
has seldom kept any book of record, but committed the most im- 
portant land concerns to loose sheets, which in process of time 
have come into possession of persons that have fraudulently de- 
stroyed them; or, unacquainted with their consequence, innocently 
lost or trifled them away. By French usage they are considered 
family inheritances, and often descend to women and children. In 
one instance, and during the government of St. Ange here, a royal 
notary ran off with all the public papers in his possession, as by a 
certificate produced to me. And I am very sorry further to observe 
that in the office of Mr. Le Grand, which continued from 1777 to 
1787, and where should have been the vouchers for important land 
transactions, the records have been so falsified, and there is such 
gross fraud and forgery, as to invalidate all evidence and informa- 
tion which I might have otherwise acquired from his papers." 



74 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Mr. Sargent says there were about 150 French families at Vin- 
cennes in 1790. The heads of all these families had been at some 
time vested with certain titles to a portion of the soil; and while 
the Secretary was busy in straightening out these claims, he re- 
ceived a petition signed by 80 Americans, asking for the confirma- 
tion of grants of land ceded by the Court organized by Col. John 
Todd under the authority of Virginia. "With reference to this 
cause, Congress, March 3, 1791, empowered the Territorial Governor, 
in cases where land had been actually improved and cultivated 
under a supposed grant for the same, to confirm to the persons who 
made such improvements the lands supposed to have been granted, 
not, however, exceeding the quantity of 400 acres to any one per- 
son. 

LIQUOR AND GAMING LAWS. 

The General Court in the summer of 1790, Acting Governor 
Sargent presiding, passed the following laws with reference to 
vending liquor among the Indians and others, and with reference 
to games of chance: 

1. An act to prohibit the giving or selling intoxicating liquors 
to Indians residing in or coming into the Territory of the United 
States northwest of the river Ohio, and for preventing foreigners 
from trading with Indians therein. 

2. An act prohibiting the sale of spirituous or other intoxicat- 
ing liquors to soldiers in the service of the United States, being 
within ten miles of any military post in the territory; and to pre- 
vent the selling or pawning of arms, ammunition, clothing or 
accoutrements. 

3. An act prohibiting every species of gaming for money or 
property, and for making void contracts and payments made in 
consequence thereof, and for restraining the disorderly practice 
of discharging arms at certain hours and places. 

Winthrop Sargent's administration was highly eulogized by the 
citizens at Vincennes, in a testimonial drawn up and signed by a 
committee of officers. He had conducted the investigation and 
settlement of laud claims to the entire satisfaction of the residents, 
had upheld the principles of free government in keeping with the 
animus of the American .Revolution, and had established in good 
order the machinery of a good and wise government. In the same 
address Major Hamtramck also received a fair share of praise for 
his judicious management of affairs. 



MILITARY HISTORY 1790-1800. 

EXPEDITIONS OF HARMAR, SCOTT AND WILKINSON. 

Gov. St. Clair, on bis arrival at Fort "Washington from Kas- 
kaskia, bad a long conversation with Gen. Harmar, and concluded 
to send a powerful force to chastise the savages about the head- 
waters of the Wabash. He had been empowered by the President 
to call on Virginia for 1,000 troops and on Pennsylvania for 500, 
and he immediately availed himself of this resource, ordering 300 
of the Virginia militia to muster at Fort Steuben and march with 
the garrison of that fort to Vincennes, and join Maj. Hamtramck, 
who had orders to call for aid from the militia of Vincennes, march 
up the Wabash, and attack any of the Indian villages which he 
might think he could overcome. The remaining 1,200 of the mi- 
litia were ordered to rendezvous at Fort Washington, and to join 
the regular troops at that post under command of Gen. Harmar. 
At this time the United States troops in the West were estimated 
by Gen. Harmar at 400 effective men. These, with the militia, 
gave him a force of 1,450 men. "With this army Gen. Harmar 
marched from Fort "Washington Sept. 30, and arrived at the Mau- 
mee Oct. 17. They commenced the work of punishing the Indians, 
but were not very successful. The savages, it is true, received a 
severe scourging, but the militia behaved so badly as to be of little 
or no service. A detachment of 340 militia and 60 regulars, under 
the command of Col. Hardin, were sorely defeated on the Maumee 
Oct. 22. The next day the army took up the line of march for 
Fort Washington, which place they reached Nov. 4, having lost in 
the expedition 183 killed and 31 wounded; the Indians lost about 
as many. During the progress of this expedition Maj. Hamtramck 
marched up the Wabash from Vincennes, as far as the Vermillion 
river, and destroyed several deserted villages, but without finding 
an enemy to oppose him. 

Although the savages seem to have been severely punished by 
these expeditions, yet they refused to sue for peace, and continued 
their hostilities. Thereupon the inhabitants of the frontier settle- 
ments of Virginia took alarm, and the delegates of Ohio, Monon- 

(75) 



76 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

gahela, Harrison, Randolph, Greenbrier, Kanawha and Mont- 
gomery counties sent a joint memorial to the Governor of Vir- 
ginia, saying that the defenseless condition of the counties, form- 
ing a line of nearly 400 miles along the Ohio river, exposed to the 
hostile invasion of their Indian enemies, destitute of every kind of 
support, was truly alarming; for, notwithstanding all the regula- 
tions of the General Government in that country, they have reason 
to lament that they have been up to that time ineffectual for their 
protection; nor indeed could it be otherwise, for the garrisons kept 
by the Continental troops on the Ohio river, if of any use at all, 
must protect only the Kentucky settlements, as they immediately 
covered that country. They further stated in their memorial: "We 
beg leave to observe that we have reason to fear that the conse- 
quences of the defeat of our army by the Indians in the late expe- 
dition will be severely felt on our frontiers, as there is no doubt 
that the Indians will, in their turn, being flushed with victory, in- 
vade our settlements and exercise all their horrid murder upon the 
inhabitants thereof whenever the weather will permit them to 
travel. Then is it not better to support us where we are, be the ex- 
pense what it may, than to oblige such a number of your brave 
citizens, who have so long supported, and still continue to support, 
a dangerous frontier (although thousands of their relatives in the 
flesh have in the prosecution thereof fallen a sacrifice to savage in- 
ventions) to quit the country, after all they have done and suffered, 
when you know that a frontier must be supported somewhere?" 

This memorial caused the Legislature of Virginia to authorize 
the Governor of that State to make any defensive operations neces- 
sary for the temporary defense of the frontiers, until the general 
Government could adopt and carry out measures to suppress the 
hostile Indians. The Governor at once called upon the military 
commanding officers in the western counties of Virginia to raise by 
the first of March, 1791, several small companies of rangers for this 
purpose. At the same time Charles Scott was appointed Brigadier- 
General of the Kentucky militia, with authority to raise 226 vol- 
unteers, to protect the most exposed portions of that district. A 
full report of the proceedings of the Virginia Legislature being 
transmitted to Congress, that body constituted a local Board of 
War for the district of Kentucky, consisting of five men. March 9, 
1791, Gen. Henry Knox, Secretary of War, sent a letter of instruc- 
tions to Gen. Scott, recommending an expedition of mounted men 
not exceeding 750, against the Wea towns on the Wabash. With 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 77 

this force Gen. Scott accordingly crossed the Ohio, May 23, 1791, 
and reached the "Wabash in about ten days. Many of the Indians, 
having discovered his approach, fled, but he succeeded in destroy- 
ing all the villages around Ouiatenon, together with several Kick- 
apoo towns, killing 32 warriors and taking 5S prisoners. He 
released a few of the most infirm prisoners, giving them a " talk," 
which they carried to the towns farther up the Wabash, and which 
the wretched condition of his horses prevented him from reaching. 

March 3, 1791, Congress provided for raising and equipping a 
regiment for the protection of the frontiers, and Gov. St. Clair was 
invested with the chief command of about 3,000 troops, to be raised 
and employed against the hostile Indians in the territory over 
which liis jurisdiction extended. He was instructed by the Secre- 
tary of "War to march to the Miami village and establish a strong 
and permanent military post there; also such posts elsewhere along 
the Ohio as would be in communication with Fort Washington. 
The post at Miami village was intended to keep the savages in that 
vicinity in check, and was ordered to be strong enough in its gar- 
rison to afford a detachment of 500 or 600 men in case of emer- 
gency, either to chastise any of the Wabash or other hostile Indians 
or capture convoys of the enemy's provisions. The Secretary of 
War also urged Gov. St. Clair to establish that post as the first and 
most important part of the campaign. In case of a previous 
treaty the Indians were to be conciliated upon this point if possible; 
and he presumed good arguments might be offered to induce their 
acquiescence. Said he: "Having commenced your march upon the 
main expedition, and the Indians continuing hostile, you will use 
every possible exertion to make them feel the effects of your superi- 
ority; and, after having arrived at the Miami village and put your 
works in a defensible state, you will seek the enemy with the whole 
of your remaining force, and endeavor by all possible means to 
strike them with great severity. * * * 

In order to avoid future wars, it might be proper to make the Wa- 
bash and thence over to the Maumee, and down the same to its 
mouth, at Lake Erie, the boundary between the people of the 
United States and the Indians (excepting so far as the same should 
relate to the Wyandots and Delawares), on the supposition of their 
continuing faithful to the treaties; but if they should join in the 
war against the United States, and your army be victorious, the 
said tribes ought to be removed without the boundary mentioned." 

Previous to marchino; a strong force to the Miami town, Gov. St. 



78 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Clair, June 25, 1791, authorized Gen Wilkinson to conduct a second 
expedition, not exceeding 500 mounted men, against the Indian 
villages on the Wabash. Accordingly Gen. Wilkinson mustered 
his forces and was ready July 20, to march with 525 mounted vol- 
unteers, well armed, and provided with 30 days' provisions, and 
with this force he reached the Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua village on the 
north bank of Eel river about six miles above its mouth, Aug. 7, 
where he killed six warriors and took 3-1 prisoners. This town, 
which was scattered along the river for three miles, was totally de- 
stroyed. Wilkinson encamped on the ruins of the town that night, 
and the next day lie co nmenced his march for the Kickapoo town 
on the prairie, which he was unable to reach owing to the impassa- 
ble condition of the route which he adopted and the failing condi- 
tion of his horses. He reported the estimated results of the expe- 
dition as follows: "I have destroyed the chief town of the Ouiate- 
non nation, ami have made prisoners of the sons and sisters of the 
king. I have burned a respectable Kickapoo village, and cut down 
at least 400 acres of corn, chiefly in the milk." 

EXPEDITIONS OF ST. CLAIR AND WAYNE. 

The Indians were greatly damaged by the expeditions of Harmar, 
Scott and Wilkinson, but were far from being subdued. They 
regarded the policy of the United States as calculated to extermi- 
nate them from the land; and, goaded on by the English of Detroit, 
enemies of the Americans, they were excited to desperation. At 
this time the British Government still supported garrisons at 
Niagara, Detroit and Jlichilimackinac, although it was declared by 
the second article of the definitive treaty of peace of 1783, that 
the king of Great Britain would, " with all convenient speed, and 
without causing any destruction or carrying away any negroes or 
property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his forces, 
garrisons and fleets from the United States, and from every post, 
place and harbor within the same." That treaty also provided that 
the creditors on either side should meet with no lawful impedi- 
ments to the recovery of the full value, in sterling money, of all 
bona fide debts previously contracted. The British Government 
claimed that the United States had broken faith in this particular 
understanding of the treaty, and in consequence refused to with- 
draw its forces from the territory. The British garrisons in the 
Lake Region were a source of much annoyance to the Americans, 
as they afforded succor to hostile Indians, encouraging them to 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 79 

make raids among the Americans. This state of affairs in the 
Territory Northwest of the Ohio continued from the commence- 
ment of the Revolutionary war to 1796, when under a second 
treaty all British soldiers were withdrawn from the country. 

in September, 1791, St. Clair moved from Fort Washington 
with about 2,000 men, and November 3, the main army, consisting 
of about 1,400 effective troops, moved forward to the head-waters 
of the Wabash, where Fort Recovery was afterward erected, and 
here the army encamped. About 1,200 Indians were secreted a few 
miles distant, awaiting a favorable opportunity to begin an attack, 
which they improved on the morning of Now 4, about half an hour 
before sunrise. The attack was first made upon the militia, which 
immediately gave way. St. Clair was defeated and he returned to 
Fort Washington with a broken and dispirited army, having lost 
39 officers killed, and 539 men killed and missing; 22 officers and 
232 men were wounded. Several pieces of artillery, and all the 
baggage, ammunition and provisions were left on the field of bat- 
tle and fell into the hands of the victorious Indians. The stores 
and other public property lost in the action were valued at $32,800. 
There were also 100 or more American women with the army of 
the whites, very few of whom escaped the cruel carnage of the sav- 
age Indians. The latter, characteristic of their brutal nature, 
proceeded in the flush of victory to perpetrate the most horrible 
acts of cruelty and brutality upon the bodies of the living and the 
dead Americans who fell into their hands. Believing that the 
whites had made war for many years merely to acquire land, the 
Indians crammed clay and sand into the eyes and down the throats 
of the dying and the dead! 

gen. wayne's great victory. 

Although no particular blame was attached to Gov. St. Clair for 
the loss in this expedition, yet he resigned the office of Major-Gen- 
eral, and was succeeded by Anthony Wayne, a distinguished 
officer of the Revolutionary war. Early in 1792 provisions were 
made by the general Government for re-organizing the army, so 
that it should consist of an efficient decree of strength. Wavne 
arrived at Pittsburg in June, where the army was to rendezvous. 
Here he continued actively engaged in organizing and training his 
forces until October, 1793, when with an army of about 3,600 men 
he moved westward to Fort Washington. 

While Wayne was preparing for an offensive campaign, every 



80 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

possible means was employed to induce the hostile tribes of the 
Northwest to enter into a general treaty of peace with the Aineri- 
cau Government; speeches were sent among them, and agents to 
make treaties were also sent, but little was accomplished. Major 
Hamtramck, who still remained at Vincennes, succeeded in con- 
cluding a general peace with the Wabash and Illinois Indians; but 
the tribes more immediately under the influence of the British 
refused to hear the sentiments of friendship that were sent among 
them, and tomahawked several of the messengers. Their courage 
had been aroused by St. Clair's defeat, as well as by the unsuccess- 
ful expeditions which had preceded it, and they now felt quite pre- 
pared to meet a superior force under Gen. Wayne. The Indians 
insisted on the Ohio river as the boundary line between their lands 
and the lands of the United States, and felt certain that they could 
maintain that boundary. 

Maj. Gen. Scott, with about 1,600 mounted volunteers from 
Kentucky, joined the regular troops under Gen. Wayne July 26, 
1794, and on the 2Sth the united forces began their march for the 
Indian towns on the Maumee river. Arriving at the mouth of 
the Auglaize, they erected Fort Defiance, and Aug. 15 the army 
advanced toward the British fort at the foot of the rapids of the 
Maumee, where, on the 20th, almost within reach of the British, 
the American army gained a decisive victory over the combined 
forces of the hostile Indians and a considerable number of the 
Detroit militia. The number of the enemy was estimated at 2,000, 
against about 900 American troops actually engaged. This horde 
of savages, as soon as the action began, abandoned themselves to 
flight and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving Wayne's vic- 
torious army in full and quiet possession of the field. The Ameri- 
cans lost 33 killed and 100 wounded; loss of the enemy more than 
double this number. 

The army remained three days and nights on the banks of the 
Maumee, in front of the field of battle, during which time all the 
houses and cornfields were consumed and destroyed for a considera- 
ble distance both above and below Fort Miami, as well as within 
pistol shot of the British garrison, who were compelled to remain 
idle spectators to this general devastation and conflagration, among 
which were the houses, stores and property of Col. McKee, the 
British Indian agent and " principal stimulator of the war then 
existing between the United States and savages." On the return 
march to Fort Defiance the villages and cornfields for about 50 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 81 

miles on each side of the Mauraee were destroyed, as well as those 
for a considerable distance around that post. 

Sept. 14, 1794, the army under Gen. Wayne commenced its 
march toward the deserted Miami villages at the confluence of St. 
Joseph's and St. Mary's rivers, arriving Oct. 17, and on the follow- 
ing day the site of Fort Wayne was selected. The fort was com- 
pleted Nov. 22, and garrisoned .by a strong detachment of infantry 
and artillery, under the command of Col. John F. Hamtramck, who 
gave to the new fort the name of Fort Wayne. In 1814 a new fort 
was built on the site of this structure. The Kentucky volunteers 
returned to Fort Washington and were mustered out of service. 
Gen. Wayne, with the Federal troops, marched to Greenville and 
took up his headquarters during the winter. Here, in August, 
1795, after several months of active negotiation, this gallant officer 
succeeded in concluding a general treaty of peace with all the hos- 
tile tribes of the Northwestern Territory. This treaty opened the 
way for the flood of immigration for many years, and ultimately 
made the States and territories now constituting the mighty North- 
west. 

Up to the organization of the Indiana Territory there is but little 
history to record aside from those events connected with military 
affairs. In July, 1796, as before stated, after a treaty was con- 
cluded between the United States and Spain, the British garrisons, 
with their arms, artillery and stores, were withdrawn from the 
posts within the boundaries of the United States northwest of the 
Ohio river, and a detachment of American troops, consisting of 65 
men, under the command of Capt. Moses Porter, took possession 
of the evacuated post of Detroit in the same month. 

In the latter part of 1796 Winthrop Sargent went to Detroit and 
organized the county of Wayne, forming a part of the Indiana 
Territory until its division in 1805, when the Territory of Michigan 
was organized. 



TERRITORIAL HISTORY. 

ORGANIZATION OF INDIANA TERRITORY. 

On the final success of American arms and diplomacy in 1796, 
the principal town within the Territory, now the State, of Indiana 
was Vincennes, which at this time comprised about 50 houses, all 
presenting a thrifty and tidy appearance. Each house was sur- 
rounded by a garden fenced with poles, and peach and apple-trees 
grew in most of the enclosures. Garden vegetables of all kinds 
were cultivated with success, and corn, tobacco, wheat, barley and 
cotton grew in the fields around the village in abundance. During 
the last few years of the 18th century the condition of society at 
Vincennes improved wonderfully. 

Besides Vincennes there was a small settlement near where the 
town of Lawrenceburg now stands, in Dearborn county, and in the 
course of that year a small settlement was formed at "Armstrong's 
Station," on the Ohio, within the present limits of Clark county. 
There were of course several other smaller settlements and trading 
posts in the present limits of Indiana, and the number of civilized 
inhabitants comprised within the territory was estimated at 4,S75. 

The Territory of Indiana was organized by Act of Congress May 
7, 1800, the material parts of the ordinance of 1787 remaining in 
force; and the inhabitants were invested with all the rights, privi- 
leges and advantages granted and secured to the people by that 
ordinance. The seat of government was fixed at Vincennes. May 
13, 1800, Win. Henry Harrison, a native ot Virginia, was appoint- 
ed Governor of this new territory, and on the next day John Gib- 
son, a native of Pennsylvania and a distinguished Western pioneer, 
(to whom the Indian chief Logan delivered his celebrated speech in 
1774), was appointed Secretary of the Territory. Soon afterward 
Wm. Clark, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin were appointed 
territorial Judges. 

Secretary Gibson arrived at Vincennes in July, and commenced, 
in the absence of Gov. Harrison, the administration of government. 
Gov. Harrison did not arrive until Jan. 10, 1S01, when he imme- 
diately called together the Judges of the Territory, who proceeded 

(88) 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 83 

to pass such laws as they deemed necessary for the present govern- 
ment of the Territory. This session began March 3, 1801. 

From this time to 1810 the principal subjects which attracted the 
attention of the people of Indiana were land speculations, the 
adjustment of land titles, the question of negro slavery, the purchase 
of Indian lands by treaties, the organization of Territorial legis- 
latures, the extension of the right of suffrage, the division of 
Indiana Territory, the movements of Aaron Burr, and the hostile 
views and proceedings of the Shawanee chief, Tecumseh, and his 
brother, the Prophet. 

Up to this time the sixth article of the celebrated ordinance of 
1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwestern Territory, had been 
somewhat neglected in the execution of the law, and many French 
settlers still held slaves in a manner. In some instances, according 
to rules prescribed by Territorial legislation, slaves agreed by 
indentures to remain in servitude under their masters for a certain 
number of years; but many slaves, with whom no such contracts 
were made, were removed from the Indiana Territory either to the 
west of the Mississippi or to some of the slaveholding States. 
Gov. Harrison convoked a session of delegates of the Territory, 
elected by a popular vote, who petitioned Congress to declare the 
sixth article of the ordinance of 17S7, prohibiting slavery, suspend- 
ed; but Congress never consented to grant that petition, and many 
other petitions of a similar import. Soon afterward some of the 
citizens began to take colored persons out of the Territory for the 
purpose of selling thein, and Gov. Harrison, by a proclamation 
April 6, 1804, forbade it, and called upon the authorities of the 
Territory to assist him in preventing such removal of persons 
of color. 

During the year 1S04 all the country west of the Mississippi and 
north of 33° was attached to Indiana Territory by Congress, but in 
a few months was again detached and organized into a separate ter- 
ritory. 

When it appeared from the result of a popular vote in the Terri- 
tory that a majority of 138 freeholders were in favor of organizing 
a General Assembly, Gov. Harrison, Sept. 11, 1804, issued a procla- 
mation declaring that the Territory had passed into the second grade 
of government, as contemplated by the ordinance of 1787, and 
fixed Thursday, Jan. 3, 1805, as the time for holding an election in 
the several counties of the Territory, to choose members of a House 
of Representatives, who should meet at Vincennes Feb. 1 and 



84 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

adopt measures for the organization of a Territorial Council. These 
delegates were elected, and met according to the proclamation, and 
selected ten men from whom the President of the United States, 
Mr. Jefferson, should appoint five to be and constitute the Legisla- 
tive Conncil of the Territory, but he declining, requested Mr. Har- 
rison to make the selection, which was accordingly done. Before 
the first session of this Council, however, was held, Michigan Ter- 
ritory was set off, its south line being one drawn from the southern 
end of Lake Michigan directly east to Lake Erie. 

FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE. 

The first General Assembly, or Legislature, of Indiana Territory 
met at Vincennes July 29, 1S05, in pursuance of a gubernatorial 
proclamation. The members of the House of Representatives were 
Jesse B. Thomas, of Dearborn county ; Davis Floyd, of Clark county; 
Benjamin Parke and John Johnson, of Knox county; Shadrach 
Bond and William Biggs, of St. Clair county, and George Fisher, 
of Randolph county. July 30 the Governor delivered his first mes- 
sage to "the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of 
the Indiana Territory." Benjamin Parke was the first delegate 
elected to Congress. He had emigrated from New Jersey to In- 
diana in 1801. 

THE "WESTERN SUN" 

was the first newspaper published in the Indiana Territory, now 
comprising the four great States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and 
Wisconsin, and the second in all that country once known as the 
"Northwestern Territory." It was commenced at Vincennes in 
1803, by Elihu Stout, of Kentucky, and first called the Indiana 
Gazette, and July, 4, 1804, was changed to the Western Sun. Mr. 
Stout continued the paper until 1845, amid many discouragements, 
when he was appointed postmaster at the place, and he sold out 
the office. 

INDIANA in 1810. 

The events which we have just been describing really constitute 
the initiatory steps to the great military campaign of Gen. Harrison 
which ended in the "battle of Tippecanoe;" but before proceeding 
to an account of that brilliant affair, let us take a glance at the re- 
sources and strength of Indiana Territory at this time, 1810: 

Total population, 24,520; 33 grist mills: 14 saw mills; 3 horse 
mills; 18 tanneries; 28 distilleries; 3 powder mills; 1,256 looms; 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 85 

1,350 spinning wheels; value of manufactures — woolen, cotton 
hempen and flaxen cloths, $159,052; of cotton and wool spun in 
mills, $150,000; of nails, 30,000 pounds, $1,000; of leather tanned, 
$9,300; of distillery products, 35,950 gallons, $16,230; of gun- 
powder, 3,600 pounds, $1,800; of wine from grapes, 96 barrels, 
$6,000, and 5 0,000 pounds of maple sugar. 

During the year 1810 a Board of Commissioners was established 
to straighten out the confused condition into which the land-title 
controversy had been carried by the various and conflicting admin- 
istrations that had previously exercised jurisdiction in this regard. 
This work was attended with much labor on the part of the Commis- 
sioners and great dissatisfaction on the part of a few designing specu- 
lators, who thought no extreme of perjury too hazardous in their 
mad attempts to obtain lands fraudulently. In closing their report 
the Commissioners used the following expressive language: "We 
close this melancholy picture of human depravity by rendering our 
devout acknowledgment that, in the awful alternative in which we 
have been placed, of either admitting perjured testimony in sup- 
port of the claims before us, or having it turned against our char- 
acters and lives, it has as yet pleased that divine providence which 
rules over the affairs of men, to preserve us, both from legal mur- 
der and private assassination." 

The question of dividing the Territory of Indiana was agitated 
from 1S06 to 1809, when Congress erected the Territory of Illinois, 
to comprise all that part of Indiana Territory lying west of the 
Wabash river and a direct line drawn from that river and Post 
Vincennes due north to the territorial line between the United 
States and Canada. This occasioned some confusion in the govern- 
ment of Indiana, but in due time the new elections were confirmed, 
and the new territory started off on a journey of prosperity which 
this section of the United States has ever since enjoyed. 

From the first settlement of Vincennes for nearly half a century 
there occurred nothing of importance to relate, at least so far as 
the records inform us. The place was too isolated to grow very 
fast, and we suppose there was a succession of priests and com- 
mandants, who governed the little world around them with almost 
infinite power and authority, from whose decisions there was no 
appeal, if indeed any was ever desired. The character of society 
in such a place would of course grow gradually different from the 
parent society, assimilating more or less with that of neighboring 
tribes. The whites lived in peace with the Indians, each under- 



86 UISTORY OF INDIANA. 

standing the other's peculiarities, which remained fixed long 
enough for both parties to study out and understand thein. The 
government was a mixture of the military and the civil. There 
was little to incite to enterprise. Speculations in money and prop- 
erty, and their counterpart, beggary, were both unknown; the nec- 
essaries of life were easily procured, and beyond these there were 
but few wants to be supplied; hospitality was exercised by all, as 
there were no taverns; there seemed to be no use for law, judges 
or prisons; each district had its commandant, and the proceedings 
of a trial were singular. The complaining party obtained a notifi- 
cation from the commandant to his adversary, accompanied by a 
command to render justice. If this had no effect he was notified 
to appear before the commandant on a particular day and answer; 
and if the last notice was neglected, a sergeant and file of men 
were sent to bring him, — no sheriff and no costs. The convicted 
party would be fined and kept in prison until he rendered justice 
according to the decree; when extremely refractory the cat-o'-nine- 
tails brought him to a sense of justice. In such a state of society 
there was no demand for learning and science. Few could read, 
and still fewer write. Their disposition was nearly always to deal 
honestly, at least simply. Peltries were their standard of value. 
A brotherly love generally prevailed. But they were devoid of 
public spirit, enterprise or ingenuity. 




GOV. HARRISON AND THE INDIANS. 

Immediately after the organization of Indiana Territory Governor 
Harrison's attention was directed, by necessity as well as by in- 
structions from Congress, to settling affairs with those Indians who 
still held claims to lands. He entered into several treaties, by 
which at the close of 1805 the United States Government had ob- 
tained about 46,000 square miles of territory, including all the 
lands lying on the borders of the Ohio river between the mouth of 
the Wabash river and the State of Ohio. 

The levying of a tax, especially a poll tax, by the General Assem- 
bly, created considerable dissatisfaction among many of the inhabit- 
ants. At a meeting held Sunday, August 18, 1807, a number of 
Frenchmen resolved to "withdraw their confidence and support 
forever from those men who advocated or in any manner promoted 
the second grade of government." 

In 1S07 the territorial statutes were revised and under the new 
code, treason, murder, arson and horse-stealing were each punish- 
able by death. The crime of manslaughter was punishable by the 
common law. Burglary and robbery were punishable by whip- 
ping, fine and in some cases by imprisonment not exceeding forty 
years. Hog stealing was punishable by fine and whipping. Bigamy 
was punishable by fine, whipping and disfranchisement, etc. 

In 1804 Congress established three land offices for the sale of 
lands in Indiana territory; one was located at Detroit, one at Vin- 
cennes and one at Kaskaskia. In 1S07 a fourth one was opened at 
Jefferson ville, Clark county; this town was first laid out in 1802, 
agreeably to plans suggested by Mr. Jefferson then President of 
the United States. 

Governor Harrison, according to his message to the Legislature 
in 1806, seemed to think that the peace then existing between the 
whites and the Indians was permanent; but in the same document 
he referred to a matter that might be a source of trouble, which in- 
deed it proved to be, namely, the execution of white laws among 
the Indians — laws to which the latter had not been a party in their 
enactment. The trouble was aggravated by the partiality with 
which the laws seem always to have been executed; the Indian 

(87) 



88 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

was nearly always the sufferer. All along from 1805 to 1810 the 
Indians complained bitterly against the encroachments of the white 
people upon the lands that belonged to them. The invasion of their 
hunting grounds and the unjustifiable killing of many of their peo- 
ple were the sources of their discontent. An old chief, in laying 
the trouble of his people before Governor Harrison, said: "You 
call us children ; why do you not make us as happy as our fathers, 
the French, did? They never took from us our lands; indeed, they 
were common between us. They planted where they pleased, and 
they cut wood where they pleased; and so did we; but now if a 
poor Indian attempts to take a little bark from a tree to cover him 
from the rain, up comes a white man and threatens to shoot him, 
claiming the tree as his own." 

The Indian truly had grounds for his oomplaint, and the state of 
feeling existing among the tribes at this time was well calculated 
to develop a patriotic leader who should carry them all forward to 
victory at arms, if certain concessions were not made to them by the 
whites. But this golden opportunity was seized by an unworthy 
warrior. A brother of Tecumseh, a "prophet" named Law-le-was-i- 
kaw, but who assumed the name of Pems-quat-a-wah (Open Door), 
was the crafty Shawanee warrior who was enabled to work upon 
both the superstitions and the rational judgment of his fellow In- 
dians. He was" a good orator, somewhat peculiar in his appearance 
and well calculated to win the attention and respect of the savages. 
He began by denouncing witchcraft, the use of intoxicating liquors, 
the custom of Indian women marrying white men, the dress of the 
whites and the practice of selling Indian lands to the United States. 
He also told the Indians that the commands of the Great Spirit re- 
quired them to punish with death those who practiced the arts of 
witchcraft and magic; that the Great Spirit had given him power 
to find out and expose such persons; that he had power to cure all 
diseases, to confound his enemies and to stay the arm of death in 
sickness and on the battle-field. His harangues aroused among 
some bands of Indians a high degree of superstitious excitement. 
An old Delaware chief named Ta-te-bock-o-she, through whose in- 
fluence a treaty had been made with the Delawares in 1804, was 
accused of witchcraft, tried, condemned and tomahawked, and 
his body consumed by fire. The old chief's wife, nephew 
("Billy Patterson ") and an aged Indian named Joshua were next 
accused of witchcraft and condemned to death. The two men were 
burned at the stake, but the wife of Ta-te-bock-o-she was saved from 




GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 91 

death by her brother, who suddenly approached her, took her by the 
hand, and, without meeting any opposition from the Indians present, 
led her out of the council- house. He then immediately returned and 
checked the growing influence of the Prophet by exclaiming in a 
strong, earnest voice, " Tbe Evil Spirit has come among us and we 
are killing each other." — [Dillon's History of Indiana. 

When Gov. Harrison was made acquainted with these events he 
sent a special messenger to the Indians, strongly entreating them to 
renounce the Prophet and his works. This reallydestroyed to some 
extent the Prophet's influence; but in the spring of 180S, bavin"- 
aroused nearly all the tribes of the Lake Region, the Prophet with 
a large number of followers settled near the mouth of the Tippe- 
canoe river, at a place which afterward had the name of "Prophet's- 
Town." Taking advantage of his brother's influence, Tecuraseh 
actively engaged himself in forming the various tribes into a con- 
federacy. He announced publicly to all the Indians that the 
treaties by which the United States had acquired lands northwest 
of the Ohio were not made in fairness, and should be considered 
void. He also said that no single tribe was invested with power to 
sell lands without the consent of all the other tribes, and that he 
and his brother, the Prophet, would oppose and resist all future 
attempts which the white people might make to extend their set- 
tlements in the lands that belonged to the Indians. 

Early in 180S, Gov. Harrison sent a speech to the Shawanees, 
in which was this sentence: " My children, this business must be 
stopped; I will no longer suffer it. You have called a number of 
men from the most distant tribes to listen to a fool, who speaks 
not the words of the Great Spirit but those of the devil and the 
British agents. My children, your conduct has much alarmed the 
white settlers near you. They desire that you will send away those 
people; and if they wish to have the impostor with them they can 
carry him along with them. Let him go to the lakes; he can hear 
the British more distinctly." This message wounded the pride of 
the Prophet, and he prevailed on the messenger to inform Gov. 
Harrison that he was not in league with the British, but was speak- 
ing truly the words of the Great Spirit. 

In tbe latter part of tbe summer of 1808, the Prophet spent sev- 
eral weeks at Vincennes, for the purpose of holding interviews 
with Gov. Harrison. At one time he told the Governor that he 
was a Christian and endeavored to persuade bis people also to 
become Christians, abandon tbe use of liquor, be united in broth- 



92 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

erly love, etc., making Mr. Harrison believe at least, that he was 
honest; but before long it was demonstrated that the ''Prophet'' 
was designing, cunning and unreliable; that both he and Tecumseh 
were enemies of the United States, and friends of the English; and 
that in case of a war between the Americans and English, thev 
would join the latter. The next year the Prophet again visited 
Vincennes, with assurances that he was not in sympathy with the 
English, but the Governor was not disposed to believe him; and in 
a letter to the Secretary of War, in July, 1809, he said that he 
regarded the bands of Indians at Prophet's Town as a combination 
which had been produced by British intrigue and influence, in antic- 
ipation of a war between them and the United States. 

In direct opposition to Tecumseh and the prophet and in spite 
of all these difficulties, Gov. Harrison continued the work of extin- 
guishing Indian titles to lands, with very good success. By the 
close of 1809, the total amount of land ceded to the United States, 
under treaties which had been effected by Mr. Harrison, exceeded 
30,000,000 a res. 

From 1805 to 1807, the movements of Aaron Burr in the Ohio 
valley created considerable excitement in Indiana. It seemed that 
he intended to collect a force of men, invade Mexico and found a 
republic there, comprising all the country west of the Alleghany 
mountains. He gathered, however, but a few men, started south, 
and was soon arrested by the Federal authorities. But before his 
arrest he had abandoned his expedition and his followers had 
dispersed. 

Harrison's campaign. 

While the Indians were combining to prevent any further trans- 
fer of land to the whites, the British were using the advantage as a 
groundwork for a successful war upon the Americans. In the 
spring of 1810 the followers of the Prophet refused to receive their 
annuity of salt, and the officials who offered it were denounced as 
"American dogs," and otherwise treated in a disrespectful manner. 
Gov. Harrison, in July, attempted to gain the friendship of the 
Prophet by sending him a letter.oflering to treat with him person- 
ally in the matter of his grievances, or to furnish means to send 
him, with three of his principal chiefs, to the President at Wash- 
ington; but the messenger was coldly received, and they returned 
word that they would visit Vincennes in a few days and interview 
the Governor. Accordingly, Aug. 12, 1810, the Shawanee chief 
with 70 of his principal warriors, marched up to the door of the 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 93 

Governor's house, and from that day until the 22d held daily inter- 
views with His Excellency. In all of his speeches Tecuinseh was 
haughty, and sometimes arrogant. On the 20th he delivered that 
celebrated speech in which he gave the Governor the alternative of 
returning their lands or meeting them in battle. 

While the Governor was replying to this speech Tecumseh inter- 
rupted him with an angry exclamation, declaring that the United 
States, through Gov. Harrison, had "cheated and imposed on the 
Indiaus." When Tecumseh first rose, a number of his party also 
sprung to their feet, armed with clubs, tomahawks and spears, and 
made some threatening demonstrations. The Governor's guards, 
who stood a little way off, were marched up in haste, and the In- 
dians, awed by the presence of this small armed force, abandoned 
what seemed to be an intention to make an open attack on the Gov- 
ernor and his attendants. As soon as Tecumseh's remarks were 
interpreted, the Governor reproached him for his conduct, and com- 
manded him to depart instantly to his camp. 

On the following day Tecuinseh repented of his rash act and re- 
quested the Governor to grant him another interview, and pro- 
tested against any intention of offense. The Governor consented, 
and the council was re-opened on the 21st, when the Shawanee 
chief addressed him in a respectful and dignified manner, but re- 
mained immovable in his policy. The Governor then requested 
Tecumseh to state plainly whether or not the surveyors who might 
be sent to survey the lands purchased at the treaty of Fort Wayne 
in 1809, would be molested by Indians. Tecumseh replied: 
"Brother, when you speak of annuities to me, I look at the laud 
and pity the women and children. I am authorized to say that they 
will not receive them. Brother, we want to save that piece of land. 
We do not wish you to take it. It is small enough for our purpose. 
If you do take it, you must blame yourself as the cause of the 
trouble between us and the tribes who sold it to you. I want the 
present boundary line to continue. Should you cross it, I assure 
you it will be productive of bad consequences." 

The next day the Governor, attended only by his interpreter, 
visited the camp of the great Shawanee, and in the course of a long 
interview told him that the President of the United States would 
not acknowledge his claims. "Well," replied the brave warrior, 
"as the great chief is to determine the matter, I hope the Great 
Spirit will put sense enough into his head to induce him to direct 
you to give up this land. It is true, he is so far off he will not be 



94 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

injured by the war. He may sit still in his town and drink his 
wine, while you and I will have to fight it out." 

In his message to the new territorial Legislature in 1810 Gov. 
Harrison called attention to the dangerous views held by Tecumseh 
and the Prophet, to the pernicious influence of alien enemies 
among the Indians, to the unsettled condition of the Indian trade 
and to the policy of extinguishing Indian titles to lands. The 
eastern settlements were separated from the western by a consider- 
able extent of Indian lands, and the most fertile tracts within the 
territory were still in the hands of the Indians. Almost entirely 
divested of the game from which they had drawn their subsistence, 
it had become of little use to them; and it was the intention of 
the Government to substitute for the precarious and scanty sup- 
plies of the chase the more certain and plentiful support of agri- 
culture and stock-raising. The old habit of the Indians to hunt 
so long as a deer could be found was so inveterate that they would 
not break it and resort to intelligent agriculture unless they were 
compelled to, and to this they would not be compelled unless they 
were confined to a limited extent of territory. The earnest lan- 
guage of the Governor's appeal was like this: "Are then those 
extinguishments of native title which are at once so beneficial to 
the Indian and the territory of the United States, to be suspended on 
account of the intrigues of a few individuals? Is one of the fair- 
est portions of the globe to remain in a state of nature, the haunt 
of a few wretched savages, when it seems destined by the Creator 
to give support to a large population, and to be the seat of civili- 
zation, of science and true religion?" 

In the same message the Governor also urged the establishment 
of a system of popular education. 

Among the acts passed bv this session of the Legislature, one 
authorized the President and Directors of the Vincennes Public 
Library to raise $1,000 by lottery. Also, a petition was sent to 
Congress for a permanent seat of government for the Territory, and 
commissioners were appointed to select the site. 

With the beginning of the year 1811 the British agent for 
Indian affairs adopted measures calculated to secure the support of 
the savages in the war which at this time seemed almost inevitable. 
Meanwhile Gov. Harrison did all in his power to destroy the influ- 
ence of Tecumseh and his brother and break up the Indian confed- 
eracy which was being organized in the interests of Great Britain. 
Pioneer settlers and the Indians naturallv grew more and more 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 95 

aggressive and intolerant, committing depredations and murders, 
until the Governor felt compelled to send the following speech, 
substantially, to the two leaders of the Indian tribes: "This is the 
third year that all the white people in this country have been 
alarmed at your proceedings; you threaten us with war; you invite 
all the tribes north and west of you to join against us, while your 
warriors who have lately been here deny this. The tribes on the 
Mississippi have sent me word that yon intended to murder me 
and then commence a war upon my people, and your seizing the salt 
I recently sent up the Wabash is also sufficient evidence of such 
intentions on your part. My warriors are preparing themselves, 
not to strike you, but to defend themselves and their women and 
children. You shall not surprise us, as you expect to do. Your 
intended act is a rash one: consider well of it. What can induce 
you to undertake such a thing when there is so little prospect of 
success? Do you really think that the handful of men you have 
about you are able to contend with the seventeen 'fires?' or even 
that the whole of the tribes united could contend against the Ken- 
tucky 'fire 1 alone? I am myself of the Long 'Knife fire.' As soon 
as they hear my voice you will see them pouring forth their swarms 
of hunting-shirt men as numerous as the musquitoes on the shores 
of the Wabash. Take care of their stings. It is not our wish to 
hurt you; if we did, we certainly have power to do it. 

" You have also insulted the Government of the United States, 
by seizing the salt that was intended for other tribes. Satisfaction 
must be given for that also. You talk of coming to see me, attend- 
ed by all of your young men; but this must not be. If your inten- 
tions are good, you have no need to bring but a few of your young 
men with you. I must be plain with you. I will not suffer you 
to come into our settlements with such a force. My advice is that 
you visit the President of the United States and lay your griev- 
ances before him. 

" With respect to the lands that were purchased last fall I can 
enter into no negotiations with you; the affair is with the Presi- 
dent. If you wish to go and see him, I will supply you with the 
means. 

" The person who delivers this is one of my war officers, and is a 
man in whom I have entire confidence; whatever he says to you, 
although it may not be contained in this paper, you may believe 
comes from me. My friend Tecumseh, the bearer is a good man 
and a brave warrior; I hope you will treat him well. You are 



96 UISTORY OF INDIANA. 

yourself a warrior, and all such should have esteem for each other." 

The bearer of this speech was politely received by Tecumseh, 
who replied to the Governor briefly that he should visit Vincennes 
in a few days. Accordingly he arrived July 27, 1811, bringing 
with him a considerable force of Indians, which created much 
alarm among the inhabitants. In view of an emergency Gov. 
Harrison reviewed his militia — about 750 armed men — and station- 
ed two companies and a detachment of dragoons on the borders of 
the town. At this interview Tecumseh held forth that he intended 
no war against the United States; that he would send messengers 
among the Indians to prevent murders and depredations on the 
white settlements; that the Indians, as well as the whites, who had 
committed murders, ought to be forgiven; that he had set the white 
people an example of forgiveness, which they ought to follow; 
that it was his wish to establish a union among all the Indian 
tribes; that the northern tribes were united; that he was going to 
visit the southern Indians, and then return to the Prophet's town. 
He said also that he would visit the President the next spring and 
settle all difficulties with him, and that he hoped no attempts would 
be made to make settlements on the lands which had been sold to 
the United States, at the treaty of Fort Wayne, because the Indians 
wanted to keep those grounds for hunting. 

Tecumseh then, with about 20 of his followers, left for the South, 
to induce the tribes in that direction to join his confederacy. 

By the way, a lawsuit was instituted by Gov. Harrison against a 
certain Wm. Mcintosh, for asserting that the plaintiff had cheated 
the Indians out of their lands, and that, by so doing he had made 
them enemies to the United States. The defendant was a wealthy 
Scotch resident of Vincennes, well educated, and a man of influence 
among the people opposed to Gov. Harrison's land policy. The 
jury rendered a verdict in favor of Harrison, assessing the damages 
at $4,000. In execution of the decree of Court a large quantity of 
the defendant's land was sold in the absence of Gov. Harrison; 
but some time afterward Harrison caused about two-thirds of the 
land to be restored to Mr. Mcintosh, and the remainder was given 
to some orphan children. 

Harrison's first movement was to erect a new fort on the Wabash 
river and to break up the assemblage of hostile Indians at the 
Prophet's town. For this purpose he ordered Col. Boyd's regiment 
of infantry to move from the falls of Ohio to Vincennes. When 
the military expedition organized by Gov. Harrison was nearly 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 97 

ready to march to the Prophet's town, several Indian chiefs arrived 
at Vincennes Sept. 25, 1811, and declared that the Indians 
would comply with the demands of the Governor and disperse; but 
this did not check the military proceedings. The army under com- 
mand of Harrison moved from Vincennes Sept. 26, and Oct. 3, en- 
countering no opposition from the enemy, encamped at the place 
where Fort Harrison was afterward built, and near where the city 
of Terre Haute now stands. On the night of the 11th a few hos- 
tile Indians approached the encampment and wounded one of the 
sentinels, which caused considerable excitement. The army was 
immediately drawn up in line of battle, and small detachments 
were sent in all directions; but the enemy could not be found. 
Then the Governor sent a message to Prophet's Town, requiring 
the Shawanees, Winnebagoes, Pottawatomies and Kickapoos at 
that place to return to their respective tribes; he also required the 
Prophet to restore all the stolen horses in his possession, or to give 
satisfactory proof that such persons were not there, nor had lately 
been, under his control. To this message the Governor received 
no answer, unless that answer was delivered in the battle of Tip- 
pecanoe. 

The new fort on the "Wabash was finished Oct. 28, and at the re- 
quest of all the subordinate officers it was called "Fort Harrison," 
near what is now Terre Haute. This fort was garrisoned with a 
small number of men under Lieutenant-Colonel Miller. On the 
29th the remainder of the army, consisting of 910 men, moved 
toward the Prophet's town; about 270 of the troops were mounted. 
The regular troops, 250 in number, were under the command of 
Col. Boyd. With this army the Governor marched to within a 
half mile of the Prophet's town, when a conference was opened 
with a distinguished chief, in high esteem with the Prophet, and 
he informed Harrison that the Indians were much surprised at the 
approach of the army, and had already dispatched a message to 
him by another route. Harrison replied that he would not attack 
them until he had satisfied himself that they would not comply 
with his demands; that he would continue his encampment on the 
Wabash, and on the following morning would have an interview 
with the prophet. Harrison then resumed his march, and, after 
some difficulty, selected a place to encamp — a spot not very desir- 
able. It was a piece of dry oak land rising about ten feet above 
the marshy prairie in front toward the Indian town, and nearly 
twice that height above a similar prairie in the rear, through which 



98 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

and near this bank ran a small stream clothed with willow and 
brush wood. Toward the left Hank this highland widened consid- 
erably, but became gradually narrower in the opposite direction, 
and at the distance of 150 yards terminated in an abrupt point. 
The two columns of infantry occupied the front and rear of this 
ground, about 150 yards from each other on the left, and a little 
more thau half that distance on the right, flank. One flank was 
filled by two companies of mounted riflemen, 120 men, under com- 
mand of Major-General "Wells, of the Kentucky militia, and one 
by Spencer's company of mounted riflemen, numbering 80 men. 
The front line was composed of one battalion of United States in- 
fantry, under command of Major Floyd, flanked on the right by 
two companies of militia, and on the left by one company. The 
rear line was composed of a battalion of United States troops, 
under command of Capt. Bean, acting as Major, and four companies 
of militia infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Decker. The regular 
troops of this line joined the mounted riflemen under Gen. Wells, 
on the left flank, and Col. Decker's battalion formed an angle with 
Spencer's company on the left. Two troops of dragoons, about 60 
men in all, were encamped in the rear of the left flank, and Capt. 
Parke's troop, which was larger than the other two, in rear of 
the right line. For a night attack the order of encampment was 
the order of battle, and each man slept opposite his post in the 
line. In the formation of the troops single file was adopted, in 
order to get as great an extension of the lines as possible. 

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

No attack was made by the enemy until about 4 o'clock on the 
morning of Nov. 7, just after the Governor had arisen. The 
attack was made on the left flank. Only a single gun was fired by the 
sentinels or by the guard in that direction, which made no resist- 
ance, abandoning their posts and fleeing into camp; and the first 
notice which the troops of that line had of the danger was the yell 
of the savages within a short distance of them. But the men 
were courageous and preserved good discipline. Such of them as 
were awake, or easily awakened, seized arms and took their stations; 
others, who were more tardy, had to contend witli the enemy in 
the doors of their tents. The storm first fell upon Capt. Barton's 
company of the Fourth United States Regiment, and Capt. Geiger's 
company of mounted riflemen, which formed the left angle of the 
rear line. The fire from the Indians was exceedingly severe, and 



HISTORr OF INDIANA. 99 

men in these companies suffered considerably before relief could be 
brought to them. Some few Indians passed into the encampment 
near the angle, and one or two penetrated to some distance before 
they were killed. All the companies formed for action before they 
were fired on. The morning was dark and cloudy, and the fires of 
the Americans afforded only a partial light, which gave greater 
advantage to the enemy than to the troops, and they were there- 
fore extinguished. 

As soon as the Governor could mount his horse he rode to the 
angle which was attacked, where he found that Barton's company had 
suffered severely, and the left of Geiger's entirely broken. He 
immediately ordered Cook's and Wentworth's companies to march 
up to the center of the rear line, where were stationed a small com- 
pany of U. S. riflemen and the companies of Bean, Snelling and 
Prescott. As the General rode up he found Maj. Daviess forming 
the dragoons in the rear of these companies, and having ascertained 
that the heaviest fire proceeded from some trees 15 or 20 paces in 
front of these companies, he directed the Major to dislodge them 
with a part of the dragoons; but unfortunately the Major's gal- 
lantry caused him to undertake the execution of the order with a 
smaller force than was required, which enabled the enemy to avoid 
him in front and- attack his flanks. He was mortally wounded and 
his men driven back. Capt. Snelling, however, with his company 
immediately dislodged those Indians. Capt. Spencer and his 1st 
and 2nd Lieutenants were killed, and Capt. Warwick mortally 
wounded. The soldiery remained brave. Spencer had too much 
ground originally, and Harrison re-enforced him with a company 
of riflemen which had been driven from their position on the left 
flank. 

Gen. Harrison's aim was to keep the lines entire, to prevent the 
enemy from breaking into the camp until daylight, which would 
enable him to make a general aud effectual charge. With this view 
he had re-enforced every part of the line that had suffered much, 
and with the approach of morning lie withdrew several companies 
from the front and rear lines and re-enforced the right and left 
flanks, foreseeing that at these points the enemy would make their 
last effort. Maj. Wells, who had commanded the left flank, charged 
upon the enemy and drove them at the point of the bayonet into 
the marsh, where they could not be followed. Meanwhile Capt. 
Cook and Lieut. Larrabee marched their companies to the right 
flank and formed under fire of the enemy, and being there joined 



100 HISTORY OF IXDIANA. 

by the riflemen of that flank, charged upon the enemy, killing a 
number and putting the rest to a precipitate flight. 

Thus ended the famous battle of Tippecanoe, victoriously to the 
whites and honorably to Gen. Harrison. 

In this battle Mr. Harrison had about 700 efficient men, while 
the Indians had probably more than that. The loss of the Ameri- 
cans was 37 killed and 25 mortally wounded, and 126 wounded; the 
Indians lost 3S killed on the field of battle, and the number of the 
wounded was never known. Among the whites killed were Daviess, 
Spencer, Owen, Warwick, Randolph, Bean and White. Standing on 
an eminence near by, the Prophet encouraged his warriors to battle 
by singing a favorite war-song. He told them that they would gain 
an easy victory, and that the bullets of their enemies would be made 
harmless by the Great Spirit. Being informed during the engagement 
that some of the Indians were killed, he said that his warriors must 
fight on and they would soon be victorious. Immediately after 
their defeat the surviving Indians lost faith in their great (?) Proph- 
et, returned to their respective tribes, and thus the confederacy 
was destroyed. The Prophet, with a very few followers, then took 
up his residence among a small band of Wyandots encamped on 
Wild-Cat creek. His famous town, with all its possessions, was 
destroyed the next day, Nov. 8. 

On the ISth the American army returned to Vincennes, where 
most of the troops were discharged. The Territorial Legislature, 
being in session, adopted resolutions complimentary to Gov. Harri- 
son and the officers and men under him, and made preparations for 
a reception and celebration. 

Capt. Logan, the eloquent Shawanee chief who assisted our 
forces so materially, died in the latter part of November, 1812, 
from the effects of a wound received in a skirmish with a recon- 
noitering party of hostile Indians accompanied by a white man in 
the British service, Nov. 22. In that skirmish the white man was 
killed, and Winamac, a Pottawatomie chief of some distinction, 
fell by the rifle of Logan. The latter was mortally wounded, when 
he retreated with two warriors of his tribe, Capt. Johnny and 
Bright-Horn, to the camp of Gen. Winchester, where he soon after- 
ward died. He was buried with the honors of war. 



WAR OF 1812 WITH GEEAT BRITAIN. 

The victory recently gained by the Americans at the battle of 
Tippecanoe insured perfect peace for a time, bat only a short time 
as the more extensive schemes of the British had so far ripened as 
to compel the United States again to declare war against them. 
Tecumseh had fled to Maiden, Canada, where, counseled by the 
English, he continued to excite the tribes against the Americans. 
As soon as this war with Great Britain was declared (June 18, 
1812), the Indians, as was expected, commenced again to commit 
depredations. During the summer of 1812 several points along 
the Lake Region succumbed to theBritish, as Detroit, under Gen. 
Hull, Fort Dearborn (now Chicago), commanded by Capt. Heald 
under Gen. Hull, the post at Mackinac, etc. 

In the early part of September, 1812, parties of hostile Indians 
began to assemble in considerable numbers in the vicinity of Forts 
"Wayne and Harrison, with a view to reducing them. Capt. Rhea, 
at this time, had command of Fort Wayne, but his drinking pro- 
pensities rather disqualified him for emergencies. For two weeks 
the fort was in great jeopardy. An express had been sent to Gen. 
Harrison for reinforcements, but many days passed without any 
tidings of expected assistance. At length, one day, Maj. ffm. 
Oliver and four friendly Indians arrived at the fort on horseback. 
One of the Indians was the celebrated Logan. They had come in 
defiance of " 500 Indians," had "broken their ranks" and reached 
the fort in safety. Oliver reported that Harrison was aware of the 
situation and was raising men for a re-enforcement. Ohio was also 
raising volunteers; 800 were then assembled at St. Mary's, Ohio, 
60 miles south of Fort Wayne, and would march to the relief of 
the fort in three or four days, or as soon as they were joined by re- 
enforcements from Kentucky. 

Oliver prepared a letter, announcing to Gen. Harrison his safe ar- 
rival at the besieged fort, and giving an account of its beleaguered 
situation, which he dispatched by his friendly Shawanees, while he 
concluded to take his chances at the fort. Brave Logan and his 
companions started with the message, but had scarcely left the fort 
when they were discovered and pursued by the hostile Indians, yet 
passing the Indian lines in safety, they were soon out of reach. 
The Indians now began a furious attack upon the fort; but the little 
garrison, with Oliver to cheer them on, bravely met the assault, re- 
pelling the attack day after day, until the army approached to their 

relief. During this siege the commanding officer, whose habits of 

(ion 



102 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

intemperance rendered him unfit for the command, was confined in 
the " black hole," while the junior officer assumed charge. This 
course was approved by the General, on his arrival, but Capt. Rhea 
received very little censure, probably on account of his valuable ser- 
vices in the Revolutionary war. 

Sept. 6, 1S12, Harrison moved forward with his army to the re- 
lief of Fort Wayne; the next day he reached a point within three 
miles of St. Mary's river; the next day he reached the river and 
was joined at evening by 200 mounted volunteers, under Col. Rich- 
ard M. Johnson; the next day at " Shane's Crossing" on the St. 
Mary's they were joined by 800 men from Ohio, under Cols. Adams 
and Hawkins. At this place Chief Logan and four other Indians 
offered their services as spies to Gen. Harrison, and were accepted. 
Logan was immediately disguised and sent forward. Passing 
through the lines of the hostile Indians, he ascertained their number 
to be about 1,500, and entering the fort, he encouraged the soldiers 
to hold out, as relief was at hand. Gen. Harrison's force at this 
time was about 3,500. 

After an early breakfast Friday morning they were under march- 
ing orders; it had rained and the guns were damp; they were dis- 
charged and reloaded; but that day only one Indian was encount- 
ers!; preparations were made at night for an expected attack by 
the Indians, but no attack came; the next day, Sept. 10, they ex- 
pected to fight their way to Fort Wayne, but in that they were hap- 
pily disappointed; and "At the first grey of the morning," as Bryce 
eloquently observes, "the distant halloos of the disappointed sav- 
ages revealed to the anxious inmates of the fort the glorious news 
of the approach of the army. Great clouds of dust could be seen 
from the fort, rolling up in the distance, as the valiant soldiery 
under Gen. Harrison moved forward to the rescue of the garrison 
and the brave boys of Kentucky and Ohio." 

This siege of Fort Wayne of course occasioned great loss to the 
few settlers who had gathered around the fort. At the time of its 
commencement quite a little village had clustered around the mili- 
tary works, but during the siege most of their improvements and 
crops were destroyed by the savages. Every building out of the reach 
of the guns of the fort was leveled to the ground, and thus the in- 
fant settlement was destroyed. 
■ During this siege the garrison lost but three men, while the 
Indians lost 25. Gen. Harrison had all the Indian villages for 25 
miles around destroyed. Fort Wayne was nothing but a military 
post until about. 1819. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 103 

Simultaneously with the attack on Fort Wayne the Indians also 
besieged Fort Harrison, which was commanded by Zachary Taylor. 
The Indians commenced firing upon the fort about 11 o'clock one 
night, when the garrison was in a rather poor plight for receiving 
them. The enemy succeeded in firing one of the block-houses, 
which contained whisky, and the whites had great difficulty in pre- 
venting the burning of all the barracks. The word " fire " seemed 
to have thrown all the men into confusion; soldiers' and citizens' 
wives, who had taken shelter within the fort, were crying; Indians 
were yelling; many of the garrison were sick and unable to be on 
duty; the men despaired and gave themselves up as lost; two of 
the strongest and apparently most reliable men jumped the pickets 
in the very midst of the emergency, etc., so that Capt. Taylor was 
at his wit's end what to do; but he gave directions as to the many 
details, rallied the men by a new scheme, and after about seven 
hours succeeded in saving themselves. The Indians drove up the 
horses belonging to the citizens, and as they could not catch th^m 
very readily, shot the whole of them in the sight of their owners, 
and also killed a number of the hogs belonging to the whites. 
They drove off all of the cattle, 65 in number, as well as the public 
oxen. 

Among many other depredations committed by the savages dur- 
ing this period, was the massacre of the Pigeon Roost settlement, 
consisting of one man, five women and 16 children; a few escaped. 
An unsuccessful effort was made to capture these Indians, but 
when the news of this massacre and the attack on Fort Harrison 
reached Vincennes, about 1,200 men, under the command of Col. 
Win. Russell, of the 7th U. S. Infantry, marched forth for the re- 
lief of the fort and to punish the Indians. On reaching the fort 
the Indians had retired from the vicinity; but on the 15th of Sep- 
tember a small detachment composed of 11 men, under Lieut. Rich- 
ardson, and acting as escort of provisions sent from "Vincennes to 
Fort Harrison, was attacked by a party of Indians within the pres- 
ent limits of Sullivan county. It was reported that seven of these 
men were killed and one wounded. The provisions of course fell 
into the hands of the Indians. 

EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE INDIANS. 

By the middle of August, through the disgraceful surrender of 
Gen. Hull, at Detroit, and the evacuation of Fort Dearborn and 
massacre of its garrison, the British and Indians were in possession 
of the whole Northwest. The savages, emboldened by their sue- 



104 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

cesses, penetrated deeper into the settlements, committing great 
depredations. The activity and success of the enemy aroused the 
people to a realization of the great danger their homes and families 
were in. Gov. Edwards collected a force of 350 men at Camp 
Russell, and Capt. Russell came from Yincennes with about 50 more. 
Being officered and equipped, they proceeded about the middle of 
October on horseback, carrying with them 20 day's rations, to 
Peoria. Capt. Craig was sent with two boats up the Illinois, with 
provisions and tools to build a fort. The little army proceeded to 
Peoria Lake, where was located a Pottawatomie village. They 
arrived late at night, within a few miles of the village, without 
their presence being known to the Indians. Four men were sent 
out that night to reconnoiter the position of the village. The four 
brave men who volunteered for this perilous service were Thomas 
Carlin (afterward Governor), and Robert, Stephen and Davis White- 
side. They proceeded to the village, and explored it and the ap- 
proaches to it thoroughly, without starting an Indian or provoking 
the bark of a dog. The low lands between the Indian village and 
the troops were covered with a rank growth of tall grass, so high 
and dense as to readily conceal an Indian on horseback, until within 
a few feet of him. The ground had become still more yielding by 
recent rains, rendering it almost impassable by mounted men. To 
prevent detection the soldiers had camped without lighting the 
usual camp-fires. The men lay down in their cold and cheerless 
camp, with many misgivings. They well remembered how the 
skulking savages fell upon Harrison's men at Tippecanoe during 
the night. To add to their fears, a gun in the hands of a soldier 
was carelessly discharged, raising great consternation in the camp. 
Through a dense fog which prevailed the following morning, the 
array took up its line of march for the Indian town, Capt. Judy 
with his corps of spies in advance. In the tall grass they came up 
with an Indian and his squaw, both mounted. The Indian wanted 
to surrender, but Judy observed that he " did not leave home to take 
prisoners," and instantly shot one of them. With the blood 
streaming from his mouth and nose, and in his agony " singing the 
death song," the dying Indian raised his gun, shot and mortally 
wounded a Mr. Wright, and in a few minutes expired ! Many guns 
were immediately discharged at the other Indian, not then known 
to be a squaw, all of which missed her. Badly scared, and her bus- . 
band killed by her side, the agonizing wails of the squaw were 
heart-rending. She was taken prisoner, and afterward restored 
to her nation. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 105 

On nearing the town a general charge was made, the Indians 
fleeing to the interior wilderness. Some of their warriors made a 
stand, when a sharp engagement occurred, but the Indians were 
routed. In their flight they left behind all their winter's store of 
provisions, which was taken, and their town burned. Some Indian 
children were found who had been left in the hurried flight, also 
some disabled adults, one of whom was in a starving condition, and 
with a voracious appetite partook of the bread given him. He is 
said to have been killed by a cowardly trooper straggling behind, 
after the main army had resumed its retrograde march, who wanted 
to be able to boast that he had killed an Indian. 

September 19, 1812, Gen. Harrison was put in command of the 
Northwestern army, then estimated at 10,000 men, with these 
orders: "Having provided for the protection of the western front- 
ier, you will retake Detroit; and, with a view to the conquest of 
upper Canada, you will penetrate that country as far as the force 
under your command will in your judgment justify." 

Although surrounded by many difficulties, the General began 
immediately to execute these instructions. In calling for volun- 
teers from Kentucky, however, more men offered than could be 
received. At this time there were about 2,000 mounted volunteers 
at Vincennes, under the command of Gen. Samuel Hopkins, of the 
.Revolutionary war, who was under instructions to operate against 
the enemy along the Wabash and Illinois rivers. Accordingly, 
early in October, Gen. Hopkins moved from Vincennes towards the 
Kickapoo villages in the Illinois territory, with about 2,000 troops; 
but after four or five days' march the men and officers raised a 
mutiny which gradually succeeded in carrying all back to Vin- 
cennes. The cause of their discontent is not apparent. 

About the same time Col. Russell, with two small companies of 
U. S. rangers, commanded by Capts. Perry and Modrell, marched 
from the neighborhood of Vincennes to unite with a small force of 
mounted militia under the command of Gov. Edwards, of Illinois, 
and afterward to march with the united troops from Cahokia 
toward Lake Peoria, for the purpose of co-operating with Gen. 
Hopkins against the Indian towns in that vicinity; but not find- 
ing the latter on the ground, was compelled to retire. 

Immediately after the discharge of the mutinous volunteers, 
Gen. Hopkins began to organize another force, mainly of infantry, 
to reduce the Indians up the Wabash as far as the Prophet's town. 
These troops consisted of three regiments of Kentucky militia, 



106 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

commanded by Cols. Barbour, Miller and Wilcox; a small company 
of regulars commanded by Capt. Zachary Taylor; a company of 
rangers commanded by Capt. Beckes; and a company of scouts or 
spies under the command of Capt. Washburn. The main b>dy of 
this army arrived at Fort Harrison Nov. 5; on the 11th it pro- 
ceeded up the east side of the Wabash into the heart of the Indian 
country, but found the villages generally deserted. Winter set- 
ting in severely, and the troops poorly clad, they had to return to 
Vincennes as rapidly as possible. With one exception the men 
behaved nobly, and did much damage to the enemy. That 
exception was the precipitate chase after an Indian by a detach- 
ment of men somewhat in liquor, until they found themselves sur- 
rounded by an overwhelming for.ce of the enemy, and they had to 
retreat in disorder. 

At the close of this campaign Gen. Hopkins resigned his 
command. 

In the fall of 1812 Gen. Harrison assigned to Lieut. Col. John 
B. Campbell, of the 19th U. S. Inf., the duty of destroying the 
Miami villages on the Mississinewa river, with a detachment of 
about 600 men. Nov. 25, Lieut. Col. Campbell marched from 
Franklinton, according to orders, toward the scene of action, cau- 
tiously avoiding falling in with the Delawares, who had been ordered 
by Gen. Harrison to retire to the Shawanee establishment on the 
Auglaize river, and arriving on the Mississinewa Dec. 17, when 
they discovered an Indian town inhabited by Delawares and 
Miamis This and three other villages were destroyed. Soon 
after this, the supplies growing short and the troops in a suffering 
condition, Campbell began to consider the propriety of returning 
to Ohio; but just as he was calling together his officers early one 
morning to deliberate on the proposition, an army of Indians 
rushed upon them with fury. The engagement lasted an hour, 
with a loss of eight killed and 42 wounded, besides about 150 horses 
killed. The whites, however, succeeded in defending themselves 
and taking a number of Indians prisoners, who proved to be Mun- 
sies, of Silver Heel's band. Campbell, hearing that a large force 
of Indians were assembled at Mississinewa village, under Tecum- 
seh, determined to return to Greenville. The privations of his 
troops and the severity of the cold compelled him to send to that 
place for re-enforcements and supplies. Seventeen of the men had 
to be carried on litters. They were met by the re-enforcement 
about 40 miles from Greenville. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 107 

Lieut. Col. Campbell sent two messages to the Delawares, who 
lived on White river and who had been previously directed and 
requested to abandon their towns on that river and remove into 
Ohio. In these messages he expressed his regret at unfortunately 
killing some of their men, and urged them to move to the Shaw- 
anee settlement on the Auglaize river. He assured them that their 
people, in his power, would be compensated by the Government 
for their losses, if not found to be hostile; and the friends of those 
killed satisfied by presents, if such satisfaction would be received. 
This advice was heeded by the main body of the Delawares and a 
few Miamis. The Shawanee Prophet, and some of the principal 
chiefs of the Miamis, retired from the country of the Wabash, and, 
with their destitute and suffering bands, moved to Detroit, where 
they were received as the friends and allies of Great Britain. 

On the approach of Gen. Harrison with his army in September, 
1813, the British evacuated Detroit, and the Ottawas, Chippewas, 
Pottawatomies, Miamis and Kickapoos sued for peace with the 
United States, which was granted temporarily by Brig. Gen. Mc- 
Arthnr, on condition of their becoming allies of the United States 
in case of war. 

In June, 1813, an expedition composed of 137 men, under com- 
mand of Col. Joseph Bartholomew, moved from Valonia toward 
the Delaware towns on the west fork of White river, to surprise 
and punish some hostile Indians who were supposed to be lurking 
about those villages. Most of these places they found deserted; 
some of them burnt. They had been but temporarily occupied for 
the purpose of collecting and carrying away corn. Col. Bartholo- 
mew's forces succeeded in killing one or two Indians and destroy- 
ing considerable corn, and they returned to Valonia on the 21st of 
this month. 

July 1, 1813, Col. William Russell, of the 7th U. S., organized 
a force of 573 effective men at Valonia and marched to the Indian 
villages about the mouth of the Mississinewa. His experience was 
much like that of Col. Bartholomew, who had just preceded him. 
He had rainy weather, suffered many losses, found the villages de- 
serted, destroyed stores of corn, etc. The Colonel reported that he 
went to every place where he expected to find the enemy, but they 
nearly always seemed to have fled the country. The march from 
Valonia to the mouth of the Mississinewa and return was about 
250 miles. 

Several smaller expeditions helped to "checker" the surrounding 



108 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

country, and find that the Indians were very careful to keep them- 
selves out of sight, and thus closed this series of campaigns. 

CLOSE OF THE WAR. 

The war with England closed on the 2-ith of December, 1814, 
when a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent. The 9th article of 
the treaty required the United States to put an end to hostilities 
with all tribes or nations of Indians with whom they had been at 
war; to restore to such tribes or nations respectively all the rights 
and possessions to which they were entitled in 1811, before the 
war, on condition that such Indians should agree to desist from all 
hostilities against the United States. But in February, just before 
the treaty was sanctioned by our Government, there were signs of 
Indians accumulating arms and ammunition, and a cautionary 
order was therefore issued to have all the white forces in readiness 
for an attack by the Indians; but the attack was not made. During 
the ensuing 1 summer and fall the United States Government ac- 
quainted the Indians with the provisions of the treaty, and entered 
into subordinate treaties of peace with the principal tribes. 

Just before the treaty of Spring Wells (near Detroit) was signed, 
the Shawanee Prophet retired to Canada, but declaring his resolu- 
tion to abide by any treaty which the chiefs might sign. Some 
time afterward he returned to the Shawanee settlement in Ohio, and 
lastly to the west of the Mississippi, where he died, in 1S34. The 
British Government allowed him a pension from 1S13 until his 
death. His brother Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the 
Thames, Oct. 5, 1813, by a Mr. Wheatty, as we are positively in- 
formed by Mr. A. J. James, now a resident of La Harpe township, 
Hancock county, 111., whose father-in-law, John Pigman, of Co- 
shocton county, Ohio, was an eye witness. Gen. Johnson has gener- 
ally had the credit of killing Tecumseh. 




TECOMSEH. 



TECUMSEH. 

If one should inquire who has been the greatest Indian, the most 
noted, the " principal Indian " in North America since its discov- 
ery by Columbus, we would be obliged to answer, Tecumseh. For 
all those qualities which elevate a man far above his race; for talent, 
tact, skill and bravery as a warrior; for high-minded, honorable and 
chivalrous bearing as a man; in a word, for all those elements of 
greatness which place him a long way above his fellows in savage 
life, the name and fame of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in 
the West as one of the most celebrated of the aborigines of this 
continent, — as one who had no equal among the tribes that dwelt 
in the country drained by the Mississippi. Born to command him- 
self, he used all the appliances that would stimulate the courage 
and nerve the valor of his followers. Always in the front rank of 
battle, his followers blindly followed his lead, and as his war-cry 
rang clear above the din and noise of the battle-field, the Shawnee 
warriors, as they rushed on to victory or the grave, rallied around 
him, foemen worthy of the steel of the most gallant commander 
that ever entered the lists in defense of his altar or his home. 

The tribe to which Tecumseh, or Tecumtha, as some write it, be- 
longed, was the Shawnee, or Shawanee. The tradition of the nation 
held that they originally came from the Gulf of Mexico; that they 
wended their way up the Mississippi and the Ohio, and settled at 
or near the present site of Shawneetown, 111., whence they removed 
to the upper Wabash. In the latter place, at any rate, they were 
found early in the 18th century, and were known as the " bravest 
of the brave." This tribe has uniformly been the bitter enemy of 
the white man, and in every contest with our people has exhibited 
a degree of skill and strategy that should characterize the most 
dangerous foe. 

Tecumseh's notoriety and that of his brother, the Prophet, mutu- 
ally served to establish and strengthen each other. While the 
Prophet had unlimited power, spiritual and temporal, he distributed 
his greatness in all the departments of Indian life with a kind of 
fanaticism that magnetically aroused the religious and superstitious 

passions, not only of his own followers, but also of all the tribes in 

(ill) 



112 HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 

this part of the country; but Tecuraseh concentrated his greatness 
upon the more practical and business affairs of military conquest. 
It is doubted whether he was really a sincere believer in the preten- 
sions of his fanatic brother; if he did not believe in the pretentions 
feature of them he had the shrewdness to keep his unbelief to him- 
self, knowing that religious fanaticism was one of the strongest im- 
pulses to reckless bravery. 

During his sojourn in the Northwestern Territory, it was Tecum- 
seh's uppermost desire of life to confederate all the Indian tribes of 
the country together against the whites, to maintain their choice 
hunting-grounds. All his public policy converged toward this sin- 
gle end. In his vast scheme he comprised even all the Indians in 
the Gulf country, — all in America west of the Alleghany moun- 
tains. He held, as a subordinate principle, that the Great Spirit 
had given the Indian race all these hunting-grounds to keep in 
common, and that no Indian or tribe could cede any portion of the 
land to the whites without the consent of all the tribes. Hence, in 
all his councils with the whites he ever maintained that the treaties 
were null and void. 

When he met Harrison at Vincennes in council the last time, 
and, as he was invited by that General to take a seat with him on 
the platform, he hesitated; Harrison insisted, saying that it was the 
'•wish of their Great Father, the President of the United States, 
that he should do so." The chief paused a moment, raised his tall 
and commanding form to its greatest height, surveyed the troops 
and crowd around him, fixed his keen eyes upon Gov. Harrison, 
and then turning them to the sky above, and pointing toward 
heaven with his sinewy arm in a manner indicative of supreme 
contempt for the paternity assigned him, said in clarion tones: " My 
father? The sun is my father, the earth is my mother, and on her 
bosom I will recline." He then stretched himself, with his war- 
riors, on the green sward. The effect was electrical, and for some 
moments there was perfect silence. 

The Governor, then, through an interpreter, told him that he un- 
derstood he had some complaints to make and redress to ask, etc., 
and that he wished to investigate the matter and make restitution 
wherever it might be decided it should be done. As soon as the 
Governor was through with this introductory speech, the stately 
warrior arose, tall, athletic, manly, dignified and graceful, and with 
a voice at first low, but distinct and musical, commenced a reply. 
As he warmed up with his subject his clear tones might be heard, 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 113 

as if " trumpet-tongued," to the utmost limits of the assembly. 
The most perfect silence prevailed, except when his warriors gave 
their guttural assent to some eloquent recital of the red man's 
wrong and the white man's injustice. Tecumseh recited the wrongs 
which his race had suffered from the time of the massacre of the 
Moravian Indians to the present; said he did not know how he 
could ever again be the friend of the white man; that the Great 
Spirit had given to the Indian all the land from the Miami to the 
Mississippi, and from the lakes to the Ohio; as a common propierty 
to all the tribes in these borders, and that the land could not and 
should not be sold without the consent of all; that all the tribes on 
the continent formed but one nation; that if the United States 
would not give up the lands they had bought of the Miamis and 
the other tribes, those united with him were determined to annihi- 
late those tribes; that they were determined to have no more chiefs, 
but in future to be governed by their warriors; that unless the 
whites ceased their encroachments upon Indian lands, the fate of 
the Indians was sealed; they had been driven from the banks of 
the Delaware across the Alleghanies, and their possessions on the 
Wabash and the Illinois were now to be taken from them; that in 
a few years they would not have ground enough to bury their war- 
riors on this side of the "Father of Waters;" that all would perish, 
all their possessions taken from them by fraud or force, unless they 
stopped the progress of the white man westward; that it must be 
a war of races in which one or the other must perish; that their 
tribes had been driven toward the setting sun like a galloping 
horse (ne-kat a-kush-e ka-top-o-lin-to). 

The Shawnee language, in which this most eminent Indian states- 
man spoke, excelled all other aboriginal tongues in its musical ar- 
ticulation; and the effect of Tecuraseh's oratory on this occasion 
can be more easily imagined than described. Gov. Harrison, 
although as brave a soldier and General as any American, was over- 
come by this speech. He well knew Tecumseh's power and influ- 
ence among all the tribes, knew his bravery, courage and determi- 
nation, and knew that he meant what he said. When Tecumseh 
was done speaking there was a stillness throughout the assembly 
which was really painful; not a whisper was heard, and all eyes were 
turned from the speaker toward Gov. Harrison, who after a few 
moments came to himself, and recollecting many of the absurd 
statements of the great Indian orator, began a reply which was 
more logical, if not so eloquent. The Shawnees were attentive un- 



114 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

til Harrison's interpreter began to translate his speech to the Mia- 
mis and Pottawatomies, when Tecumseh and his warriors sprang 
to their feet, brandishing their war-clubs and tomahawks. "Tell 
him," said Tecumseh, addressing the interpreter in Shawnee, " he 
lies." The interpreter undertook to convey this message to the 
Governor in smoother language, but Tecumseh noticed the effort 
and remonstrated, " No, no; tell him helies." The warriors began 
to grow more excited, when Secretary Gibson ordered the Ameri- 
can troops in arms to advance. This allayed the rising storm, and 
as soon as Tecumseh's " He lies " was literally interpreted to the 
Governor, the latter told Tecumseh through the interpreter to tell 
Tecumseh he would hold no further council with him. 

Thus the assembly was broken up, and one can hardly imagine a 
more exciting scene. It would constitute the finest subject for a 
historical painting to adorn the rotunda of the capitol. The next 
day Tecumseh requested another interview with the Governor, 
which was granted on condition that he should make an apology to 
the Governor for his language the day before. This he made 
through the interpreter. Measures for defense and protection were 
taken, however, lest there should be another outbreak. Two com- 
panies of militia were ordered from the country, and the one in 
town added to them, while the Governor and his friends went into 
council fully armed and prepared for any contingency. On this oc- 
casion the conduct of Tecumseh was entirely different from that of 
the day before. Firm and intrepid, showing not the slightest fear 
or alarm, surrounded with a military force four times his own, he 
preserved the utmost composure and equanimity. No one would 
have supposed that he could have been the principal actor in the 
thrilling scene of the previous day. He claimed that half the 
Americans were in sympathy with him. He also said that whites 
had informed him that Gov. Harrison had purchased land from the 
Indians without any authority from the Government; that he, 
Harrison, had but two years more to remain in office, and that if 
he, Tecumseh, could prevail upon the Indians who sold the lands 
not to receive their annuities for that time, and the present Gover- 
nor displaced by a good man as his successor, the latter would re- 
store to the Indians all the lands purchased from them. 

The Wyandots, Kickapoos, Pottawatomies, Ottawasand the Win- 
nebagoes, through their respective spokesmen, declared their 
adherence to the great Shawnee warrior and statesman. Gov. Harri- 
son then told them that he would send Tecumseh's speech to thePresi- 



HISTORTOF INDIANA. 115 

dent of the United States and return the answer to the Indians as soon 
as it was received. Tecumseh then declared that he and his allies were 
determined that the old boundary line should continue; and that 
if the whites crossed it, it would be at their peril . Gov. Harrison re- 
plied that he would be equally plain with him and state that the 
President would never allow that the lands on the Wabash were the 
property of any other tribes than those who had occupied them 
since the white people first came to America; and as the title to 
the lands lately purchased was derived from those tribes by a fair 
purchase, he might rest assured that the right of the United States 
would be supported by the sword. " So be it," was the stern and 
haughty reply of the Shawnee chieftan, as he and his braves took 
leave of the Governor and wended their way in Indian file to their 
camping ground. 

Thus ended the last conference on earth between the chivalrous 
Tecumseh and the hero of the battle of Tippecanoe. The bones of 
the first lie bleaching on the battle-field of the Thames, and those 
of the last in a mausoleum on the banks of the Ohio; each strug- 
gled for the mastery of his race, and each no doubt was equally 
honest and patriotic in his purposes. The weak yielded to the 
strong, the defenseless to the powerful, and the hunting-ground of 
the Shawnee is all occupied by his enemy. 

Tecumseh, with four of his braves, immediately embarked in a 
birch canoe, descended the Wabash, and went on to the South to 
unite the tribes of that country in a general system of self-defense 
against the encroachment of the whites. His emblem was a dis- 
jointed snake, with the motto, "Join or die!" In union alone was 
strength. 

Before Tecumseh left the Prophet's town at the mouth of the 
Tippecanoe river, on his excursion to the South, he had a definite 
understanding with his brother and the chieftains of the other tribes 
in the Wabash country, that they should preserve perfect peace 
with the whites until his arrangements were completed for a con- 
federacy of the tribes on both sides of the Ohio and on the Missis- 
sippi river; but it seems that while he was in the South engaged 
in his work of uniting the tribes of that country some of the North- 
ern tribes showed signs of fight and precipitated Harrison into that 
campaign which ended in the battle of Tippecanoe and the total 
route of the Indians. Tecumseh, on his return from the South, 
learning what had happened, was overcome with chagrin, disappoint- 
ment and anger, and accused his brother of duplicity and coward- 



116 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

ice; indeed, it is said that he never forgave him to the day of his 
death. A short time afterward, on the breaking out of the war of 
Great Britain, he joined Proctor, at Maiden, with a party of his 
warriors, and finally suffered the fate mentioned on page 108. 

CIVIL MATTERS lS12-'5. 

Owing to the absence of Gov. Harrison on military duty, John 
Gibson, the Secretary of the Territory, acted in the administration 
of civil affairs. In his message to the Legislature convening on the 
1st of February, 1S13, he said, substantially: 

"Did I possess the abilities of Cicero or Demosthenes, I could 
not portray in more glowing colors our foreign and domestic politi- 
cal situation than it is already experienced within our own breasts. 
The United States have been compelled, by frequent acts of injus- 
tice, to declare war against England. For a detail of the causes of 
this war I would refer to the message of President Madison; it 
does honor to his head and heart. Although not an admirer of 
war, I am glad to see our little but inimitable navy riding triumph- 
ant on the seas, but chagrined to find that our armies by land are 
so little successful. The spirit of '76 appears to have fled from our 
continent, or, if not fled, is at least asleep, for it appears not to 
pervade our armies generally. At your last assemblage our politi- 
cal horizon seemed clear, and our infant Territory bid fair for rapid 
and rising grandeur; but, alas, the scene has changed; and whether 
this change, as respects our Territory, has been owing to an over 
anxiety in us to extend our dominions, or to a wish for retaliation 
by our foes, or to a foreign influence, I shall not say. The Indians 
our former neighbors and friends, have become our most inveterate 
foes. Our former frontiers are now our wilds, and our inner settle- 
ments have become frontiers. Some of our best citizens, and old 
men worn down with age, and helpless women aud innocent 
babes, have fallen victims to savage cruelty. I have done my duty 
as well as I can, and hope that the interposition of Providence will 
protect us." 

The many complaints made about the Territorial Government 
Mr. Gibson said, were caused more by default of officers than of the 
law. Said he: "It is an old and, I believe, correct adage, that 
" good officers make good soldiers.' This evil having taken root, I do 
not know how it can be eradicated; but it may be remedied. In 
place of men searching after and accepting commissions before they 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 117 

are even tolerably qualified, thereby subjecting themselves to ridi- 
cule and their country to ruin, barely for the name of the thing, I 
think may be remedied by a previous examination." 

During this session of the Legislature the seat of the Territorial 
Government was declared to be at Corydon, and immediately acting 
Governor Gibson prorogued the Legislature to meet at that place, 
the first Monday of December, 1813. During this year the Terri- 
tory was almost defenseless; Indian outrages Were of common 
occurrence, but no general outbreak was made. The militia-men 
were armed with rifles and long knives, and many of the rangers 
carried tomahawks. 

In 1813 Thomas Posey, who was at that time a Senator in Con- 
gress from Tennessee, and who had been officer of the army of the 
Revolution, was appointed Governor of Indiana Territory, to suc- 
ceed Gen. Harrison. He arrived in Vincennes and entered upon 
the discharge of his duties May 25, 1813. During this year several 
expeditions against the Indian settlements were set on foot. 

In his first message to the Legislature the following December, 
at Corydon, Gov. Posey said: " The present crisis is awful, and big 
with great events. Our land and nation is involved in the common 
calamity of war; but we are under the protecting care of the benefi- 
cent Being,who has on a former occasion brought us safely through 
an arduous struggle and placed us on a foundation of independence, 
freedom and happiness. He will not suffer to be taken from us 
what He, in His great wisdom has thought proper to confer and 
bless us with, if we make a wise and virtuous use of His good 
gifts. * * * Although our affairs, at the commencement of 
the war, wore a gloomy aspect, they have brightened, and promise 
a certainty of success, if properly directed and conducted, of which 
I have no doubt, as the President and heads of departments of the 
general Government are men of undoubted patriotism, talents and 
experience, and who have grown old in the service of their country. 
* * * It must be obvious to every thinking man that we were 
forced into the war. Every measure consistent with honor, both 
before and since the declaration of war, has tried to be on amicable 
terms with our enemy. * * * You who reside in various parts 
of the Territory have it in your power to understand what will tend 
to its local and general advantage. The judiciary system would 
require a revisal and amendment. The militia law is very defective 
and requires your immediate attention. It is necessary to have 



118 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

good roads and highways in as many directions through the Terri- 
tory as the circumstances and situation of the inhabitants will 
admit; it would contribute very much to promote the settlement 
and improvement of the Territory. Attention to education is highly 
necessary. There is an appropriation made by Congress, in lands, 
for the purpose of establishing public schools. It comes now with- 
in your province to carry into operation the design of the appro- 
priation." 

This Legislature passed several very necessary laws for the wel- 
fare of the settlements, and the following year, as Gen. Harrison 
was generally successful in his military campaigns in the North- 
west, the settlements in Indiana began to increase and improve. 
The fear of danger from Indians had in a great measure subsided, 
and the tide of immigration began again to flow. In January, 
1814, about a thousand Miamis assembled at Fort Wayne for the 
purpose of obtaining food to prevent starvation. They met with 
ample hospitality, and their example was speedily followed by 
others. These, with other acts of kindness, won the lasting friend- 
ship of the Indians, many of whom had fought in the interests of 
Great Britain. General treaties between the United States and the 
Northwestern tribes were subsequently concluded, and the way 
was fully opened for the improvement and settlement of the lands. 

population in 1815. 

The population of the Territory of Indiana, as given in the 
official returns to the Legislature of 1815, was as follows, by 
counties: 

COUNTIES. White males of 21 and over. TOTAL. 

Wayne 1,225 6,407 

Franklin 1,430 7,370 

Dearborn 902 4,424 

Switzerland 377 1,832 

Jefferson--- 874 4,270 

Clark 1,387 7,150 

Washington - 1,420 7,317 

Harrison 1,056 6,975 

Knox 1,391 8,008 

Gibson 1,100 5,3;0 

Posey 320 1,619 

Warfick 280 1,415 

Perry 350 1,720 

Grand Totals 12,112 63,897 

GENERAL VIEW. 

The well-known ordinance of 1787 conferred many " rights and 
privileges " upon the inhabitants of the Northwestern Territory, and 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 119 

consequently upon the people of Indiana Territory, but after all it 
came far short of conferring as many privileges as are enjoyed at 
the present day by our Territories. They did not have a full form 
of Republican government. A freehold estate in 500 acres of land 
was one of the necessary qualifications of each member of the legis- 
lative council of the Territory; every member of the Territorial House 
of Representatives was required to bold, in his own right, 200 acres 
of land; and the privilege of voting for members of the House 
of Representatives was restricted to those inhabitants who, in addi- 
tion to other qualifications, owned severally at least 50 acres of 
land. The Governor of the the Territory was invested with the 
power of appointing officers of the Territorial militia, Judges of the 
inferior Courts, Clerks of the Courts, Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, 
Coroners, County Treasurers and County Surveyors. He was also 
authorized to divide the Territory into districts; to apportion 
among the several counties the members of the House of Represent- 
atives; to prevent the passage of any Territorial law; and to con- 
vene and dissolve the General Assembly whenever he thought best. 
None of the Governors, however, ever exercised these extraordinary 
powers arbitrarily. Nevertheless, the people were constantly agi- 
tating the question of extending the right of suffrage. Five years 
after the organization of the Territory, the Legislative Council, in 
reply to the Governor's Message, said: "Although we are not as 
completely independent in our legislative capacity as we would 
wish to be, yet we are sensible that we must wait with patience for 
that period of time when our population will burst the trammels 
of a Territorial government, and we shall assume the character more 
consonant to Republicanism. * * * The confidence which our 
fellow citizens have uniformly had in your administration has been 
such that they have hitherto had no reason to be jealous of the un- 
limited power which you possess over our legislative proceedings. 
We, however, cannot help regretting that such powers have 
been lodged in the hands of any one, especially when it is recol- 
lected to what dangerous lengths the exercise of those powers may 
be extended." 

After repeated petitions the people of Indiana were empowered 
by Congress to elect the members of the Legislative Council by popu- 
lar vote. This act was passed in 1809, and defined what was known 
as the property qualification of voters. These qualifications were 
abolished by Congress in 1811, which extended the right of voting 
for members of the General Assembly and for a Territorial delegate 



120 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

to Congress to every free white male person who had attained the 
age of twenty-one years, and who, having paid a county or Terri- 
torial tax, was a resident of the Territory and had resided in it for 
a year. In 1814 the voting qualification in Indiana was defined by 
Congress, " to every tree white male person having a freehold in 
the Territory, and being a resident of the same." The House of 
Representatives was authorized by Congress to lay off the Territory 
into five districts, in each of which the qualified voters were em- 
powered to elect a member of the Legislative Council. The division 
was made, one to two counties in each district. 

At the session in August, 1814, the Territory was also divided 
into three judicial circuits, and provisions were made for holding 
courts in the same. The Governor was empowered to appoint a 
presiding Judge in each circuit, and two Associate Judges of the 
circuit court in each county. Their compensation was fixed at 
$700 per annum. 

The same year the General Assembly granted charters to two 
banking institutions, the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Madi- 
son and the Bank of Vincennes. The first was authorized to raise 
a capital of $750,000, and the other $500,000. On the organization 
of the State these banks were merged into the State Bank audits 
branches. 

Here we close the history of the Territory of Indiana. 




ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE. 

The last regular session of the Territorial Legislature was held at 
Corydon, conveuing in December, 1815. The message of Governor 
Posey congratulated the people of the Territory upon the general 
success of the settlements and the great increase of immigration, 
recommended light taxes and a careful attention to the promotion 
of education and the improvement of the State roads and highways. 
He also recommended a revision of the territorial laws and an 
amendment of the militia system. Several laws were passed pre- 
paratory to a State Government, and December 14, 1815, a me- 
morial to Congress was adopted praying for the authority to adopt 
a constitution and State Government. Mr. Jennings,the Territorial 
delegate, laid this memorial before Congress on the 28th, and April 
19, 1816, the President approved the bill creating the State of In- 
diana. Accordingly, May 30 following, a general election was held 
for a constitutional convention, which met at Corydon June 10 to 
29, Jonathan Jennings presiding and Win. Hendricks acting as 
Secretary. 

"The convention that formed the first constitution of the State 
of Indiana was composed mainly of clear-minded, unpretending 
men of common sense, whose patriotism was unquestionable and 
whose morals were fair. Their familiarity with the theories of the 
Declaration of American Independence, their Territorial experience 
under the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, and their knowledge of 
the principles of the constitution of the United States were sufficient, 
when combined, to lighten materially their labors in the great work 
of forming a constitution for a new State. With such landmarks 
in view, the labors of similar conventions in other States and Ter- 
ritories have been rendered comparatively light. In the clearness 
and conciseness of its style, in the comprehensive and just pro- 
visions which it made for the maintainance of civil and religious 
liberty, in its mandates, which were designed to protect the rights 
of the people collectively and individually, and to provide for the 
public welfare, the constitution that was formed for Indiana in 1816 
was not inferior to any of the State constitutions which were in ex- 
istence at that time." — Dillon's History of Indiana. 



122 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The first State election took place on the first Monday of August, 
1816, and Jonathan Jennings was elected Governor, and Christo- 
pher Harrison, Lieut. Governor. Win. Hendricks was elected to 
represent the new State in the House of Representatives of the 
United States. 

The first General Assembly elected under the new constitution 
began its session at Corydon, Nov. 4, 1816. John Paul was called 
to the chair of the Senate pro tern., and Isaac Blackford was elected 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Among other things in the new Governor's message were the 
following remarks: "The result of your deliberation will be con- 
sidered as indicative of its future character as well as of the future 
happiness and prosperity of its citizens. In the commencement 
of the State government the shackles of the colonial should be for- 
gotten in our exertions to prove, by happy experience, that a uni- 
form adherence to the first principles of our Government and a 
virtuous exercise of its powers will best secure efficiency to its 
measures and stability' to its character. Without a frequent recur- 
rence to those principles, the administration of the Government 
will imperceptibly become more and more arduous, until the sim- 
plicity of our Republican institutions may eventually be lost in 
dangerous expedients and political design. Under every free gov- 
ernment the happiness of the citizens must be identified with their 
morals; and while a constitutional exercise of their rights shall 
continue to have its due weight in discharge of the duties required 
of the constituted authorities of the State, too much attention can- 
not be bestowed to the encouragement and promotion of every 
moral virtue, and to the enactment of laws calculated to restrain 
the vicious, and prescribe punishment for every crime commensu- 
rate with its enormity. In measuring, however, to each crime its 
adequate punishment, it will be well to recollect that the certainty 
of punishment has generally the surest effect to prevent crime; 
while punishments unnecessarily severe too often produce the ac- 
quittal of the guilty and disappoint one of the greatest objects of 
legislation and good government * * * The dissemination of 
useful knowledge will be indispensably necessary as a support to 
morals and as a restraint to vice; and on this subject it will only 
be necessary to direct your attention to the plan of education as 
prescribed by the constitution. * * * I recommend to your 
consideration the propriety of providing by law, to prevent more 
effectually any unlawful attempts to seize and curry into bondage 







INDIANS ATTACKING FRONTIERSMEN. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 125 

persons of color legally entitled to their freedom; and at the same 
time, as far as practicable, to prevent those who rightfully owe ser- 
vice to the citizens of any other State or Territory from seeking 
within the limits of this State a refuge from the possession of their 
lawful owners. Such a measure will tend to secure those who are 
free from any unlawful attempts (to enslave them) and secures the 
rights of the citizens of the other States and Territories as far as 
ought reasonably to be expected." 

This session of the Legislature elected James Noble and Waller 
Taylor to the Senate of the United States; Robert A. New was 
elected Secretary of State; W. H. Lilley, Auditor of State; and 
Daniel C. Lane, Treasurer of State. The session adjourned Janu- 
ary 3, 1817. 

As the history of the State of Indiana from this time forward is 
best given by topics, we will proceed to give them in the chronolog- 
ical order of their origin. 

The happy close of the war with Great Britain in 1814 was fol- 
lowed by a great rush of immigrants to the great Territory of the 
Northwest, including the new States, all now recently cleared of 
the enemy; and by 1820 the State of Indiana had more than 
doubled her population, having at this time 147,178, and by 1825 
nearly doubled this again, that is to say, a round quarter of a mil- 
lion, — a growth more rapid probably than that of any other section 
in this country since the days of Columbus. 

The period 1825-'30 was a prosperous time for the young State. 
Immigration continued to be rapid, the crops were generally good 
and the hopes of the people raised higher than they had ever been 
before. Accompanying this immigration, however, were paupers 
and indolent people, who threatened to be so numerous as to 
become a serious burden. On this subject Governor Ray called for 
legislative action, but the Legislature scarcely knew what to do 
and they deferred action. 



BLACK HAWK WAR. 

In 1830 there still lingered within the bounds of the State two 
tribes of Indians, whose growing indolence, intemperate habits, 
dependence upon their neighbors for the bread of life, diminished 
prospects of living by the chase, continued perpetration of murders 
and other outrages of dangerous precedent, primitive igno- 
rance and unrestrained exhibitions of savage customs before the 
children of the settlers, combined to make them subjects for a more 
rigid government. The removal of the Indians west of the Missis- 
sippi was a melancholy but necessary duty. The time having 
arrived for the emigration of the Pottawatomies, according to the 
stipulations contained in their treaty with the United States, they 
evinced that reluctance common among aboriginal tribes on leav- 
ing the homes of their childhood and the graves of their ancestors. 
Love of country is a principle planted in the bosoms of all man- 
kind. The Laplander and the Esquimaux of the frozen north, 
who feed on seals, moose and the meat of the polar bear, would not 
exchange their country for the sunny clime of "Araby the blest." 
Color and shades of complexion have nothing to do with the 
heart's best, warmest emotions. Then we should not wonder that the 
Pottawatomie, on leaving his home on the Wabash, felt as sad as 
iEschines did when ostracised from his native land, laved by the 
waters of the classic Scamander; and the noble and eloquent Nas- 
waw-kay, on leaving the encampment on Crooked creek, felt his 
banishment as keenly as Cicero when thrust from the bosom of his 
beloved Pome, for which he had spent the best efforts of his life, 
and for which he died. 

On Sunday morning, May 18, 1S32, the people on the west side 

of the Wabash were thrown into a state of great consternation, on 

account of a report that a large body of hostile Indians had 

approached within 15 miles of Lafayette and killed two men. The 

alarm soon spread throughout Tippecanoe, Warren, Vermillion, 

Fountain, Montgomery, and adjoining counties. Several brave 

commandants of companies on the west side of the Wabash in 

Tippecanoe county, raised troops to go and meet the enemy, and 

dispatched an express to Gen. Walker with a request that he should 

(126) 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 127 

make a call upon the militia of the county to equip themselves 
instantly and march to the aid of their bleeding countrymen. 
Thereupon Gen. Walker, Col. Davis, Lieut-Col. Jenners, Capt. 
Brown, of the artillery, and various other gallant spirits mounted 
their war steeds and proceeded to the army, and thence upon a 
scout to the Grand Prairie to discover, if possible, the number, 
intention and situation of the Indians. Over 300 old men, women 
and children nocked precipitately to Lafayette and the surrounding 
country east of the Wabash. A remarkable event occurred in this 
stampede, as follows: 

A man, wife and seven children resided on the edge of the 
Grand Prairie, west of Lafayette, in a locality considered particu- 
larly dangerous. On hearing of this alarm he made hurried 
preparations to fly with his family to Lafaj'ette for safety. Imag- 
ine his surprise and chagrin when his wife told him she would not 
go one step; that she did not believe in being scared at trifles, and 
in her opinion there was not an Indian within 100 miles of them. 
Importunity proved unavailing, and the disconsolate and frightened 
husband and father took all the children except the youngest, bade 
his wife and babe a long and solemn farewell, never expecting to 
see them again, unless perhaps he might find their mangled re- 
mains, minus their scalps. On arriving at Lafayette, his acquaint- 
ances rallied and berated him for abandoning his wife and child in 
that way, but he met their jibes with a stoical indifference, avowing 
that he should not be held responsible for their obstinacy. 

As the shades of the first evening drew on, the wife felt lonely; 
and the chirping of the frogs and the notes of the whippoorwill only 
intensified her loneliness, until she half wished she had accom- 
panied the rest of the family in their flight. She remained in the 
house a .ew hours without striking a light, and then concluded 
that " discretion was the better part of valor," took her babe and 
some bed-clothes, fastened the cabin door, and hastened to a sink- 
hole in the woods, in which she afterward said that she and her 
babe slept soundly until sunrise next morning. 

Lafayette literally boiled over with people and patriotism. A 
meeting was held at the court-house, speeches were made by 
patriotic individuals, and to allay the fears of the women an armed 
police was immediately ordered, to be called the " Lafayette Guards." 
Thos. T. Benbridge was elected Captain, and John Cox, Lieutenant. 
Capt. Benbridge yielded the active drill of his guards to the 
Lieutenant, who had served two years in the war of 1812. After 



128 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

the meeting adjourned, the guards were paraded on the green 
where Purdue's block now stands, and put through sundry evolu- 
tions by Lieut. Cox, who proved to be an expert drill officer, and 
whose clear, shrill voice rung out on the night air as he marched 
and counter-marched the troops from where the paper-mill stands 
to Main street ferry, and over the suburbs, generally. Every old 
gun and sword that could be found was brought into requisition, 
with a new shine on them. 

Gen. Walker, Colonels Davis and Jenners, and other officers 
joined in a call of the people of Tippecanoe county for volunteers to 
inarch to the frontier settlements. A large meeting of the citizens 
assembled in the public square in the town, and over 300 volunteers 
mostly mounted men, left for the scene of action, with an alacrity 
that would have done credit to veterans. 

The first night they camped nine miles west of Lafayette, near 
Grand Prairie. They placed sentinels for the night and retired to 
rest. A i'ew of the subaltern officers very injudiciously concluded 
to try what effect a false alarm would have upon the sleeping sol- 
diers, and a few of them withdrew to a neighboring thicket, and 
thence made a charge upon the picket guards, who , after hailing 
them and receiving no countersign, fired off their guns and ran for 
the Colonel's marquee in the center of the encampment. The aroused 
Colonels and staff sprang to their feet, shouting '"To arms! to arms!" 
and the obedient, though panic-stricken soldiers seized their guns 
and demanded to be led against the invading foe. A wild scene of 
disorder ensued, and amid the din of arms and loud commands of 
the officers the raw militia felt that they had already got into the 
red jaws of battle. One of the alarm sentinels, in running to the 
center of the encampment, leaped over a blazing camp fire, and 
alighted full upon the breast and stomach of a sleeping lawyer, who 
was, no doubt, at that moment dreaming of vested and contingent 
remainders, rich clients and good fees, which in legal parlance was 
suddenly estopped by the hob-nails in the stogas of the scared 
sentinel. As soon as the counselor's vitality and consciousness 
sufficiently returned, he put in some strong demurrers to the con- 
duct of the affrighted picket men, averring that he would greatly 
prefer being wounded by the enemy to being run over by a cowardly 
booby. Next morning the organizers of the ruse were severely 
reprimanded. 

May 28, 1S32, Governor Noble ordered General Walker to call 
out his whole command, if necessary, and supply arms, horses and 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 129 

provisions, even though it be necessary to seize them. The next 
day four baggage wagons, loaded with camp equipments, stores, 
provisions and other articles, were sent to the little army, who were 
thus provided for a campaign of five or six weeks. The following 
Thursday a squad of cavalry, under Colonel Sigler, passed through 
Lafayette on the way to the hostile region; and on the 13th of June 
Colonel Russell, commandant of the 40th Regiment, Indiana Militia, 
passed through Lafayette with 340 mounted volunteers from the 
counties of Marion, Hendricks and Johnson. Also, several com- 
panies of volunteers from Montgomery, Fountain and Warren 
counties, hastened to the relief of the frontier settlers. The troops 
from Lafayette marched to Sugar creek, and after a short time, 
there being no probability of finding any of the enemy, were 
ordered to return, They all did so except about 45 horsemen, who 
volunteered to cross Hickory creek, where the Indians had com- 
mitted their depredations. They organized a company by electing 
Samuel McGeorge, a soldier of the war of 1812, Captain, and Amos 
Allen and Andrew "W. Ingraham, Lieutenants. 

Crossing Hickory creek, they marched as far as O'Plein river 
without meeting with opposition. Finding no enemy here they 
concluded to return. On the first night of their march home they 
encamped on the open prairie, posting sentinels, as usual. About 
ten o'clock it began to rain, and it was with difficulty that the sen- 
tinels kept their guns dry. Capt. I. H. Cox and a man named Fox 
had been posted as sentinels within 15 or 20 paces of each other. 
Cox drew the skirt of his overcoat over his gun-lock to keep it dry; 
Fox, perceiving this motion, and in the darkness taking him for an 
Indian, fired upon him and fractured his thigh-bone. Several sol- 
diers immediately ran toward the place where the flash of the gun 
had been seen; but when they cocked and leveled their guns on the 
figure which had fired at Cox, the wounded man caused them to 
desist by crying, " Don't shoot him, it was a sentinel who shot me." 
The next day the wounded man was left behind the company in 
care of four men, who, as soon as possible, removed him on a litter 
to Col. Moore's company of Illinois militia, then encamped on the 
O'Plein, where Joliet now stands. 

Although the main body returned to Lafayette in eight or nine 
days, yet the alarm among the people was so great that they could 
not be induced to return to their farms for some time. The pres- 
ence of the hostiles was hourly expected by the frontier settlements 
of Indiana, from Vinceunes to La Porte. In Clinton county the 



130 IIISTORY OF INDIANA. 

inhabitants gathered within the forts and prepared for a regular 
siege, while our neighbors at Crawfordsville were suddenly 
astounded by the arrival of a courier at full speed witli the announce- 
ment that the Indians, more than a thousand in number, were then 
crossing the Nine-Mile prairie about twelve miles north of town, 
killing and scalping all. The strongest houses were immediately 
put in a condition of defense, and sentinels were placed at the prin- 
cipal points in the direction of the enemy. Scouts were sent out to 
reconnoitre, and messengers were dispatched in different directions 
to announce the danger to the farmers, and to urge them to hasten 
with their families into town, and to assist in fighting the moment- 
arily expected savages. At night-fall the scouts brought in the 
news that the Indians had not crossed the Wabash, but were hourly 
expected at Lafayette. The citizens of "Warren, Fountain and Ver- 
million counties were alike terrified by exaggerated stories of Indian 
massacres, and immediately prepared for defense. It turned out 
that the Indians were not within 100 miles of these temporary 
forts; but this by no means proved a want of courage in the citizens. 

After some time had elapsed, a portion of the troops were 
marched back into Tippecanoe county and honorably discharged ; 
but the settlers were still loth for a long time to return to their 
farms. Assured by published reports that the Miamis and Potta- 
watomies did not intend to join the hostiles, the people by degrees 
recovered from the panic and began to attend to their neglected 
crops. 

During this time there was actual war in Illinois. Black Hawk 
and his warriors, well nigh surrounded by a well-disciplined foe, 
attempted to cross to the west bank of the Mississippi, but after 
being chased up into Wisconsin and to the Mississippi again, he 
was in a final battle taken captive. A few years after his liberation, 
about 1837 or 1838, he died, on the banks of the Des Moines river, 
in Iowa, in what is now the county of Davis, where his remains 
were deposited above ground, in the usual Indian style. His re- 
mains were afterward stolen and carried away, but they were re- 
covered by the Governor of Iowa and placed in the museum of the 
Historical Society at Burlington, where they were finally destroyed 
by fire. 



LAST EXODUS OF THE INDIANS. 

In July, 1837, Col. Abel C. Pepper convened the Pottawatomie 
nation of Indians at Lake Ke-waw-nay for the purpose of remov- 
ing them west of the Mississippi. That fall a small party of some 
80 or 90 Pottawatomies was conducted west of the Mississippi 
river by George Proffit, Esq. Among the number were Ke-waw- 
nay, Nebash, Nas-waw-kay, Pash-po-ho and many other leading 
men of the nation. The regular emigration of these poor Indians, 
about 1,000 in number, took place under Col. Pepper and Gen. Tip- 
ton in the summer of 1838. 

It was a sad and mournful spectacle to witness these children of 
the forest slowly retiring from the home of their childhood, that 
contained not only the graves of their revered ancestors, but also 
many endearing scenes to whicli their memories would ever recur 
as sunny spots along their pathway through the wilderness. They 
felt that they were bidding farewell to the hills, valleys and streams 
of their infancy; the more exciting hunting-grounds of their ad- 
vanced youth, as well as the stern and bloody battle-fields where 
they had contended in riper manhood, on which they had received 
wounds, and where many of their friends and loved relatives had 
fallen covered with gore and with glory. All these they were leav- 
ing behind them, to be desecrated by the plowshare of the white 
man. As they cast mournful glances back toward these loved 
scenes that were rapidly fading in the distance, tears fell from the 
cheek of the downcast warrior, old men trembled, matrons wept, 
the swarthy maiden's cheek turned pale, and sighs and half-sup- 
pressed sobs escaped from the motley groups as they passed along, 
some on foot, some on horseback, and others in wagons, — sad as a 
funeral procession. Several of the aged warriors were seen to cast 
glances toward the sky, as if they were imploring aid from the 
spirits of their departed heroes, who were looking down upon them 
from the clouds, or from the Great Spirit, who would ultimately 
redress the wrongs of the red man, whose broken bow had fallen 
from his hand, and whose sad heart was bleeding within him. 
Ever and anon one of the party would start out into the brush and 
break back to their old encampments on Eel river and on the Tippe- 

(131) 



132 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

canoe, declaring that they would rather die than be banished from 
their country. Thus, scores of discontented emigrants returned 
from different points on their journey; and it was several years 
before they could be induced to join their countrymen west of the 
Mississippi. 

Several years after the removal of the Pottawatomies the Miami 
nation was removed to their Western home, by coercive means, un- 
der an escort of United States troops. They were a proud and 
once powerful nation, but at the time of their removal were far 
inferior, in point of numbers, to the Pottawatomie guests whom 
they had permitted to settle and hunt upon their lands, and fish in 
their lakes and rivers after they had been driven southward by 
powerful and warlike tribes who inhabited the shores of the North- 
ern lakes. 

INDIAN TITLES. 

In 1831 a joint resolution of the Legislature of Indiana, request- 
ing an appropriation by Congress for the extinguishment of the 
Indian title to lands within the State, was forwarded to that body? 
which granted the request. The Secretary of War, by authority, 
appointed a committee of three citizens to carry into effect the pro- 
visions of the recent law. The Miamis were surrounded on all 
sides by American settlers, and were situated almost in the heart 
of the State on the line of the canal then being made. The chiefs 
were called to a council for the purpose of making a treaty; they 
promptly came, but peremptorily refused to go westward or sell 
the remainder of their land. The Pottawatomies sold about 
6,000,000 acres in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, including all 
their claim in this State. 

In 1838 a treaty was concluded with the Miami Indians through 
the good offices of Col. A. C. Pepper, the Indian agent, by which 
a considerable of the most desirable portion of their reserve was 
ceded to the United States. 



LAND SALES. 

As an example of the manner in which land speculators were 
treated by the early Indianians, we cite the following instances 
from Cox's " .Recollections of the Wabash Valley." 

At Crawfordsville, Dec. 24, 1824, many parties were present 
from the eastern and southern portions of the State, as well as from 
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and even Pennsylvania, to attend a 
land sale. There was but little bidding against each other. The 
settlers, or " squatters," as they were called by the speculators, had 
arranged matters among themselves to their general satisfaction. 
If, upon comparing numbers, it appeared that two were after the 
same tract of land, one would ask the other what he would take 
not to bid against him; if neither would consent to be bought off 
they would retire and cast lots, and the lucky one would enter the 
tract at Congress price, $1.25 an acre, and the other would enter the 
second choice on his list. If a speculator made a bid, or showed a 
disposition to take a settler's claim from him, he soon saw the 
white of a score of eyes glaring at him, and he would "crawfish" 
out of the crowd at the first opportunity. 

The settlers made it definitely known to foreign capitalists that 
they would enter the tracts of land they had settled upon before 
allowing the latter to come in with their speculations. The land 
was sold in tiers of townships, beginning at the southern part of 
the district and continuing north until all had been offered at 
public sale. This plan was persisted in, although it kept many on 
the ground for several days waiting, who desired to purchase land 
in the northern part of the district. 

In 1827 a regular Indian scare was gotten up to keep specu- 
lators away for a short time. A man who owned a claim on Tippe- 
canoe river, near Pretty prairie, fearing that some one of the 
numerous land hunters constantly scouring the country might 
enter the land he had settled upon before he could raise the money 
to buy it, and seeing one day a cavalcade of land hunters riding 
toward where his land lay, mounted his horse and darted off at 
full speed to meet them, swinging his hat and shouting at the top 

of his voice, "Indians! Indians! the woods are full of Indians, 

(133) 



134 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

murdering and scalping all before them!" They paused a moment, 
but as the terrified horseman still urged his jaded animal and cried, 
"Help! Longlois, Cicots, help!" they turned and fled like a troop of 
retreating cavalry, hastening to the thickest settlements and giving 
the alarm, which spread like fire among stubble until the whole 
frontier region was shocked with the startling cry. The squatter 
who fabricated the story and started this false alarm took a cir- 
cuitous route home that evening, and while others were busy 
building temporary block-houses and rubbing up their guns to 
meet the Indians, he was quietly gathering up money and slipped 
down to Crawfordsville and entered his land, chuckling to himself, 
"There's a Yankee trick for you, done up by a Hoosier." 

HARMONY COMMUNITY. 

In 1814 a society of Germans under Frederick Rappe, who had 
originally come from Wirtemberg, Germany, and more recently 
from Pennsylvania, founded a settlement on the Wabash about 50 
miles above its mouth. They were industrious, frugal and honest 
Lutherans. They purchased a large quantity of land and laid off 
a town, to which they gave the name of " Harmony," afterward 
called "New Harmon v." They erected a church and a public 
school-house, opened farms, planted orchards and vineyards, built 
flouring mills, established a house of public entertainment, a public 
store, and carried on all the arts of peace with skill and regularity. 
Their property was "in common," according to the custom of an- 
cient Christians at Jerusalem, but the governing power, both tem- 
poral and spiritual, was vested in Frederick Rappe, the elder, who 
was regarded as the founder of the society. By the year 1821 the 
society numbered about 900. Every individual of proper age con- 
tributed his proper share of labor. There were neither spendthrifts, 
idlers nor drunkards, and during the whole 17 years of their sojourn 
in America there was not a single lawsuit among them. Every 
controversy arising among them was settled by arbitration, expla- 
nation and compromise before sunset of the day, literally according 
to the injunction of the apostle of the New Testament. 

About 1825 the town of Harmony and a considerable quantity 
of land adjoining was sold to Robert Owen, father of David Dale 
Owen, the State Geologist, and of Robert Dale Owen, of later 
notoriety. He was a radical philosopher from Scotland, who had 
become distinguished for his philanthropy and opposition to 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 135 

Christianity. He charged the latter with teaching false notions 
regarding human responsibility — notions which have since been 
clothed in the language of physiology, mental philosophy, etc. 
Said he: 

"That which has hitherto been called wickedness in our fellow 
men has proceeded from one of two distinct causes, or from some 
combination of those causes. They are what are termed bad or 
wicked, 

" 1. Because they are born with faculties or propensities which 
render them more liable, under the same circumstances, than other 
men, to commit such actions as are usually denominated wicked; 
or, 

" 2. Because they have been placed by birth or other events in 
particular countries, — have been influenced from infancy by par- 
ents, playmates and others, and have been surrounded by those 
circumstances which gradually and necessarily trained them in the 
habits and sentiments called wicked; or, 

"3. They have become wicked in consequence of some particu- 
lar combination of these causes. 

" If it should be asked, Whence then has wickedness pro- 
ceeded? I reply, Solely from the ignorance of our forefathers. 

" Every society which exists at present, as well as every society 
which history records, has been formed and governed on a belief 
in the following notions, assumed as first principles: 

" 1. That it is in the power of every individual to form his own 
character. Hence the various systems called by the name of religion, 
codes of law, and punishments; hence, also, the angry passions 
entertained by individuals and nations toward each other. 

"2. That the affections are at the command of the individual. 
Hence insincerity and degradation of character; hence the miseries 
of domestic life, and more than one-half of all the crimes of man- 
kind. 

" 3. That it is necessary a large portion of mankind should ex- 
ist in ignorance and poverty in order to secure to the remaining part 
such a degree of happiness as they now enjoy. . Hence a system of 
counteraction in the pursuits of men, a general opposition among 
individuals to the interests of each other, and the necessary effects 
of such a system, — ignorance, poverty and vice. 

" Facts prove, however, 

" 1. That character is universally formed for and not by the in- 
dividual; 



136 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

"2. That any habits and sentiments may be given to mankind; 

" 3. That the affections are not under the control of the indi- 
vidual; 

" 4. That every individual may be trained to produce far more 
than he can consume, while there is a sufficiency left for him to 
cultivate; 

" 5. That nature has provided means by which population may 
be at all times maintained in the proper state to give the greatest 
happiness to every individual, without one check of vice and 
misery ; 

" 6. That any community may be arranged on a due combina- 
tion of the foregoing principles in such a manner as not only to 
withdraw vice, poverty, and in a great degree misery from the 
world, but also to place every individual under circumstances in 
which he shall enjoy more permanent happiness than can be given 
to any individual under the principles which have hitherto regu- 
lated society; 

" 7. That al! the fundamental principles on which society has 
hitherto been founded are erroneous and may be demonstrated to 
be contrary to fact; and — 

" 8. That the change that would follow the abandonment of 
those erroneous maxims which bring misery into the world, and the 
adoption of the principles of truth, unfolding a system which shall 
remove and forever exclude that misery, may be effected without 
the slightest injury to any human being." 

Mr. Owen's efforts to establish a community on his principles 
failed, probably because he overlooked the deeper principle that 
the main element of " Liberalism " is "individuality" of life in 
all respects. 

PIONEER LIFE. 

Most of the early settlers of Indiana came from older States, as 
Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Virginia, where their prospects for 
even a competency were very poor. They found those States 
good — to emigrate, from. Their entire stock of furniture, imple- 
ments and family necessities were easily stored in one wagon, and 
sometimes a cart was their only vehicle. 

THE LOG CABIN. 

After arriving and selecting a suitable location, the next thing 
to do was to build a log cabin, a description of which may be inter- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 137 

esting to many of our younger readers, as in some sections these 
old-time structures are no more to be seen. Trees of uniform size 
were chosen and cut into logs of the desired length, generally 12 
to 15 feet, and hauled to the spot selected for the future dwelling. 
On an appointed day the few neighbors who were available would 
assemble and have a " house-raising." Each end of every log was 
saddled and notched so that they would lie as close down as possi- 
ble; the next day the proprietor would proceed to "chink and 
daub" the cabin, to keep out the rain, wind and cold. The house 
had to be re-daubed every fall, as the rains of the intervening time 
would wash out a great part if the mortar. The usual height of 
the house was seven or eight feet. The gables were formed by 
shortening the logs gradually at each end of the building near the 
top. The roof was made by laying very straight small logs or 
stout poles suitable distances apart, generally about two and a half 
feet, from gable to gable, and on these poles were laid the " clap- 
boards " after the manner of shingling, showing about two and a 
half feet to the weather. These clapboards were fastened to their 
place by " weight poles," corresponding in place with the joists 
just described, and these again were held in their place by " runs " 
or "knees," which were chunks of wood about 18 or 20 inches long 
fitted between them near the ends. Clapboards were made from 
the nicest oaks in the vicinity, by chopping or sawing them into 
four-foot blocks and riving these with a frow, which was a simple 
blade fixed at right angles to its handle. This was driven' into 
the blocks of wood by a mallet. As the frow was wrenched down 
through the wood, the latter was turned alternately over from side 
to side, one end being held by a forked piece of timber. 

The chimney to the Western pioneer's cabin was made by leaving 
in the original building a large open place in one wall, or by cut- 
ting one after the structure was up, and by building on the out- 
side from the ground up, a stone column, or a column of sticks and 
mud, the sticks being laid up cob-house fashion. The fire-place 
thus made was often large enough to receive fire-wood six to eight 
feet long. Sometimes this wood, especially the " back-log," would 
be nearly as large as a saw-log. The more rapidly the pioneer 
could burn up the wood in his vicinity the sooner he had his little 
farm cleared and read}' for cultivation. For a window, a piece 
about two feet long was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the 
hole closed sometimes by glass, but generally with greased paper. 
Even greased deer-hide was sometimes used. A doorway was cut 



138 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

through one of the walls if a saw was to be had ; otherwise the 
door would be left by shortened logs in the original building. The 
door was made by pinning clapboards to two or three wood bars, 
and was hung upon wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with catchy 
then finished the door, and the latch was raised by any one on the 
outside by pulling a leather string. For security at night this 
latch- string was drawn in; but for friends and neighbors, and even 
strangers, the " latch-string was always hanging out," as a welcome. 
In the interior, over the fire-place would be a shelf, called " the 
mantel," on which stood the candlestick or lamp, some cooking and 
table ware, possibly an old clock, and other articles; in the fire- 
place would be the crane, sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood ; on 
it the pots were hung for cooking; over the door, in forked cleats, 
hung the ever trustful rifle and powder-horn; in one corner stood 
the larger bed for the "old folks," and under it the trundle- bed for 
the children; in another stood the old-fashioned spinning-wheel, 
with a smaller one by its side; in another the heavy table, the only 
table, of course, there was in the house; in the remaining corner 
was a rude cupboard holding the table-ware, which consisted of a 
few cups and saucers and blue-edged plates, standing singly on 
their edges against the back, to make the display of table furniture 
more conspicuous; while around the room were scattered a few 
splint-bottomed or Windsor chairs and two or three stools. 

These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted 
people. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler, 
seeking lodgings for the night, or desirous of spending a few days 
in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always 
welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader 
might not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was 
made toanswerfor kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, bed-room and 
parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight members. 

SLEEPING ACCOMMODATIONS. 

The bed was very often made by fixing a post in the floor about 
six feet from one wall and four feet from the adjoining wall, and 
fastening a stick to this post about two feet above the floor, on 
each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks 
could be fastened in the opposite wall; clapboards were laid across 
these, and thus the bed was made complete. Guests were given 
this bed, while the family disposed of themselves in another corner 
of the room, or in the "loft." "When severil irws-'* were on hand 



i.%--\-t--- 




HISTORY OF INDIANA. 141 

at once, they were sometimes kept over night in the following 
manner: when bed-time came the men were requested to step out 
of doors while the women spread out a broad bed upon the mid- 
floor, and put themselves to bed in the center; the signal was given 
and the men came in and each husband took his place in bed next 
his own wife, and the single men outside beyond them again. They 
were generally so crowded that they had to lie " spoon" fashion, 
and when any one wished to turn over he would say "Spoon," and 
the whole company of sleepers would turn over at once. This was 
the only way they could all keep in bed. 

COOKING. 

To witness the various processes of cooking in those days would 
alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking 
stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the 
large fire, suspended with pot-hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, 
or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chair. The loug- 
handled frying-pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held 
over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the 
hearth. This pan was also used for baking pan-cakes, also called 
" flap-jacks," " batter-cakes," etc. A better article for this, how- 
ever, was the cast-iron spider or Dutch skillet. The best thing 
for baking bread those days, and possibly even yet in these latter 
days, was the flat-bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with 
closely fitting cast-iron cover, and commonly known as the " Dutch- 
oven." With coals over and under it, bread and biscuit would 
quickly and nicely bake. Turkey and spare-ribs were sometimes 
roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a dish being placed 
underneath to catch the drippings. 

Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, how- 
ever, was generally hulled corn — boiled corn from which the hull, 
or bran, had been taken by hot lye; hence sometimes called 
" lye hominy." True hominy and samp were made of pounded 
corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for 
bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge 
stump, in the shape of a mortar, and pounding the corn in this by 
a maul or beetle suspended on the end of a swing pole, like a well- 
sweep. This and the well-sweep consisted of a pole 20 to 30 
feet long fixed in an upright fork so that it could be worked "teeter" 
fashion. It was a rapid and simple way of drawing water. When 
the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated 



142 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice. 

The chief articles of diet in early day were corn bread, hominy 
or samp, venison, pork, honey, beans, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for 
more than half the year), turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some 
other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. 
Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged 
in except on special occasions, as when visitors were present. 

women's work. 

Besides cooking in the manner described, the women had many 
other arduous duties to perform, one of the chief of which was spin- 
ning. The "big wheel" was used for spinning yarn and the " little 
wheel " for spinning flax. These stringed instruments furnished 
the principal music of the family, and were operated by our moth- 
ers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without pecuniary 
expense and with far less practice than is necessary for the girls of 
our period to acquire a skillful use of their costly and elegant in- 
struments. But those wheels, indispensable a few years ago, are 
all now superseded by the mighty factories which overspread the 
country, furnishing cloth of all kinds at an expense ten times less 
than would be incurred now by the old system. 

The loom was not less necessary than the wheel, though they 
were not needed in so great numbers; not every house had a loom, 
one loom had a capacity for the needs of several families. Settlers, 
having succeeded in spite of the wolves in raising sheep, commenced 
the manufacture of woolen cloth; wool was carded and made into rolls 
by hand-cards, and the rolls were spun on the " big wheel." We still 
occasionally find in the houses of old settlers a wheel of this kind, 
sometimes used for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. They are 
turned with the hand, and with such velocity that it will run itself 
while the nimble worker, by her backward step, draws out and 
twists her thread nearly the whole length of the cabin. A common 
article woven on the loom was liusey, or linsey-woolsey, the chain 
being linen and the filling woolen. This cloth was used for dresses 
for the women and girls. Nearly all the clothes worn by the men 
were also home-made; rarely was a farmer or his son seen in a coat 
made of any other. If, occasionally, a young man appeared in a 
suit of " bough ten " clothes, he was suspected of having gotten it 
for a particular occasion, which occurs in the life of nearly every 
young man. 



HISTORr OF INDIANA. 143 

DEESS AND MANNERS. 

The dress, habits, etc., of a people throw so much light upon 
their conditions and limitations that in order better to show the 
circumstances surrounding the people of the State, we will give a 
short exposition of the manner of life of our Indiana people at 
different epochs. The Indians themselves are credited by Charle- 
voix with being ''very laborious," — raising poultry, spinning the 
wool of the buffalo, and manufacturing garments therefrom. 
These must have been, however, more than usually favorable repre- 
sentatives of their race. 

"The working and voyaging dress of the French masses," says 
Reynolds, "was simple and primitive. The French were like the 
lilies of the valley [ the Old Ranger was not always exact in his 
quotations], — they neither spun nor wove any of their clothing, 
but purchased it from the merchants. The white blanket coat, 
known as the capot, was the universal and eternal coat for the winter 
with the masses. A cape was made of it that could be raised over 
the head in cold weather. 

" In the house, and in good weather, it hung behind, a cape to 
the blanket coat. The reason that I know these coats so well is 
that I have worn many in my youth, and a working man never 
wore a better garment. Dressed deer-skins and blue cloth were 
worn commonly in the winter for pantaloons. The blue handker- 
chief and the deer-skin moccasins covered the head and feet gener- 
ally of the French Creoles. In 1800 scarcely a man thought him- 
self clothed unless he had a belt tied round bis blanket coat, and 
on one side was hung the dressed skin of a pole-cat filled with 
tobacco, pipe, flint and steel. On the other side was fastened, 
under the belt, the butcher knife. A Creole in this dress felt like 
Tam O'Shanter filled with usquebaugh; be could face the devil. 
Checked calico shirts were then common, but in winter flannel 
"was frequently worn. In the summer the laboring men and the 
voyagers often took their shirts off in hard work and hot weather, 
and turned out the naked back to the air and sun." 

" Among the Americans," he adds, " home-made wool hats were 
the common wear. Fur hats were not common, and scarcely a 
boot was seen. The covering of the feet in winter was chiefly 
moccasins made of deer-skins and shoe-packs of tanned leather. 
Some wore shoes, but not common in very early times. In the 
summer the greater portion of the young people, male and female, 



144 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

and many of the old, went barefoot. The substantial and universal 
outside wear was the blue linsey hunting shirt. This is an excel- 
lent garment, and I have never felt so happy and healthy since I 
laid it oif. It is made of wide sleeves, open before, with ample size 
so as to envelop the body almost twice around. Sometimes it had a 
large cape, which answers well to save the shoulders from the rain. 
A belt is mostly used to keep the garment close around the person, 
and,- nevertheless, there is nothing tight about it to hamper the 
body. It is often fringed, and at times the fringe is composed of 
red, and other gay colors. The belt, frequently, is sewed to the 
hunting shirt. The vest was mostly made of striped linsey. The 
colors were made often with alum, copperas and madder, boiled with 
the bark of trees, in such a manner and proportions as the old ladies 
prescribed. The pantaloons of the masses were generally made of 
deer-skin and linsey. Coarse blue cloth was sometimes made into 
pantaloons. 

" Linsey, neat and fine, manufactured at home, composed generally 
the outside garments of the females as well as the males. The 
ladies had linsey colored and woven to suit their fancy. A bonnet, 
composed of calico, or some gay goods, was worn on the head when 
they were in the open air. Jewelry on the pioneer ladies was 
uncommon; a gold ring was an ornament not often seen." 

In 1820 a change of dress began to take place, and before 1830, 
according to Ford, most of the pioneer costume had disappeared. 
''The blue linsey hunting-shirt, with red or white fringe, had given 
place to the cloth coat. [Jeans would be more like the fact.] The 
raccoon cap, with the tail of the animal dangling down behind, had 
been thrown aside for hats of wool or fur. Boots and shoes had 
supplied the deer-skin moccasins; and the leather breeches, strapped 
tight around the ankle, had disappeared before unmentionables of a 
more modern material. The female sex had made still greater prog- 
ress in dress. The old sort of cotton or woolen frocks, spun, woven 
and made with their own fair hands, and striped and cross-barred 
with blue dye and Turkey red, had given place to gowns of silk and 
calico. The feet, before in a state of nudity, now charmed in shoes 
of calf-skin or slippers of kid ; and the head, formerly unbonneted, 
but covered with a cotten handkerchief, now displayed the charms 
of the female face under many forms of bonnets of straw, silk and 
Leghorn. The young ladies, instead of walking a mile or two to 
church on Sunday, carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands 
until within a hundred yards of the place of worship, as formerly, 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 145 

now came forth arrayed complete in all the pride of dress, mounted 
on fine horses and attended by their male admirers." 

The last half century has doubtless witnessed changes quite as 
great as those set forth by our Illinois historian. The chronicler 
of to-day, looking back to tbe golden days of 1830 to 1840, and 
comparing them with the present, must be struck with the tendency 
of an almost monotonous uniformity in dress and manners that 
comes from the easy inter-communication afforded by steamer, rail- 
way, telegraph and newspaper. Home manufacturers have been 
driven from the household by the lower-priced fabrics of distant 
mills. The Kentucky jeans, and the copperas-colored clothing of 
home manufacture, so familiar a few }'ears ago, have given place to 
the cassimeres and cloths of noted factories. The ready-made 
clothing stores, like a touch of nature, made the whole world kin- 
aud may drape the charcoal man in a dress-coat and a stove-pipe 
hat. The prints and silks of England and France give a variety of 
choice and an assortment of colors and shades such as the pioneer 
women could hardly have dreamed of. Godey and Demorest and 
Harper's Bazar are found in our modern farm-houses, and the latest 
fashions of Paris are not uncommon. 

FAMILY WORSHIP. 

The Methodists were generally first on the ground in pioneer 
settlements, and at that early day they seemed more demonstrative 
in their devotions than at the present time. In those days, too, pul- 
pit oratory was generally more eloquent and effective, while the 
grammatical dress and other " worldly" accomplishments were not 
so assiduously cultivated as at present. But in the manner of con- 
ducting public worship there has probably not been so much 
change as in that of family worship, or "family prayers," as it was 
often called. We had then most emphatically an American edition 
of that pious old Scotch practice so eloquently described in Burns' 
" Cotter's Saturday Night:" 

The cheerfu' supper (lone, wi' serious face 
They round the ingle formed a circle wide; 

The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 
The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride ; 

His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, 
His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare; 

Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; 
He wales a portion with judicious care, 
And " let us worsnip God," he says with solemn air. 



146 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

They chant their artless notes in simple guise ; 

They tune their hearts,— by far the noblest aim ; 
Perhaps " Dundee's " wild warbling measures rise, 

Or plaintive " Martyrs," worthy of the name; 
Or noble " Elgin" beats the heavenward flame,— 

The sweetest far of Scotia's hallowed lays. 
Compared with these, Italian trills are tame; 

The tickled ear no heart-felt raptures raise: 

Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise. 

The priest-like father reads the sacred page- 
How Abraham was the friend of God on high, etc. 

Then kneeling down, to heaven's Eternal King 
The saint, the father and the husband prays ; 

Hope " springs exulting on triumphant wing," 
That thus they all shall meet in future days ; 

There ever bask in uncreated rays, 
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, 

Together hymning their Creator's praise 7 , 
In such society, yet still more dear, 
While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. 

Once or twice a day, in the morning just before breakfast, or in 
the evening just before retiring to rest, the head of the family 
would calllhose around him to order, read a chapter in the Bible, 
announce the hymn and tune by commencing to sing it, when all 
would join; then he would deliver a most fervent prayer. If a pious 
auest was present he would be called on to take the lead in all the 
exercises of the evening; and if in those days a person who prayed 
in the family or in public did not pray as if it were his very last on 
earth, his piety was thought to be defective. 

The familiar tunes of that day are remembered by the surviving 
old settlers as being more spiritual and inspiring than those of the 
present day, such as Bourbon, Consolation, China, Canaan, Con- 
quering Soldier, Condescension, Devotion, Davis, Fiducia, Funeral 
Thought, Florida, Golden Hill, Greenfields, Ganges, Idnmea, 
Imandra^ Kentucky, Lenox", Leander, Mear, New Orleans, North 
field. New Salem, New Durham, Olney, Primrose, Pisgah, Pleyel's 
Hymn, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Reflection, Supplication, Salva- 
tion, St. Thomas,' Salem, Tender Thought, Windham, Greenville, 
etc.,'as they are named in the Missouri Harmony. 

Members of other orthodox denominations also had their family 
prayers in which, however, the phraseology of the prayer was some- 
what different and the voice not so loud as characterized the real 
Methodists, United Brethren, etc. 



HIST0KY OF INDIANA. I4.17 

HOSPITALITY. 

The traveler always found a welcome at the pioneer's cabin It 
was never full. Although there might be already a guest for every 
puncheon, there was still "room for one more," anda wider circle 
would be made for the new-comer at the log fire. If the stranger 
was in search of land, he was doubly welcome, and his host would 
volunteer to show him all the « first-rate claims in this neck of the 
woods, going with him for days, showing the corners and advan- 
tages of every "Congress tract "within a dozen miles of his own 
cabin. 

1 J°, h \ S nei S hbors the P io neer was equally liberal. If a deer was 
killed, the choicest bits were sent to his nearest neighbor, a half- 
dozen miles away, perhaps. When a " shoat " was butchered, the 
same custom prevailed. If a new comer came in too late for « crop- 
ping^ the neighbors would supply his table with Just the same 
luxuries they themselves enjoyed, and in as liberal quantity, until 
a crop could be raised. When a new-comer had located his' claim 
the neighbors for miles around would assemble at the site of the 
new-comer's proposed cabin and aid him in " gittin' " it up One 
party with axes would cut down the trees and hew the logs ; another 
with teams would haul the logs to the ground; another party would 
ra.se the cabin; vfliile several of the old men would « rive the 
clapboards " for the roof. By night the little forest domicile would 
be up and ready for a "house-warming," which was the dedicatory 
occupation of the house, when music and dancing and festivity 
would be enjoyed at full height. The next day the new-comer 
would be as well situated as his neighbors. 

An instance of primitive hospitable manners will be in place 
here. A traveling Methodist preacher arrived in a distant neigh- 
borhood to fill an appointment. The house where services were to 
be held did not belong to a church member, but no matter for that 
Boards were raked up from all quarters witli which to make tem- 
porary seats, one of the neighbors volunteeringto lead off in the work 
while the man of the house, with the faithful rifle on his shoulder' 
sallied forth in quest of meat, for this truly was a " ground-hoo- » 
case, the preacher coming and no meat in the house. The host ceas°ed 
not the chase until he found the meat, in the shape of a deer; re- 
turning, he sent a boy out after it, with directions on what " pint " 
to find it. After services, which had been listened to with rapt at- 



148 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

tention by all the audience, mine host said to his wife, " Old 
woman, I reckon this 'ere preacher is pretty hungry and you must 
git him a bite to eat." " What shall I git him ? " asked the wife, 
who had not seen the deer; " thar's nuthin' in the house to eat." 
" Why, look thar," returned he; " thar's a deer, and thar's plenty 
of corn in the field; you git some corn and grate it while I skin 
the deer, and we'll have a good supper for him." It is needless 
to add that venison and corn bread made a supper fit for any pio- 
neer preacher, and was thankfully eaten. 

TRADE. 

In pioneer times the transactions of commerce were generally 
carried on by neighborhood exchanges. Now and then a farmer 
would load a fiat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, 
with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clap- 
boards, and float down the rivers into the Ohio and thence to New 
Orleans, where he would exchange his produce for substantials in 
the shape of groceries and a little ready money, with which he 
would return by some one of the two or three steamboats then run- 
ning. Betimes there appeared at the best steamboat landings a 
number of " middle men " engaged in the " commission and for- 
warding " business, buying up the farmers' produce and the tro- 
phies of the chase and the trap, and sending them to the various 
distant markets. Their winter's accumulations would be shipped 
in the spring, and the manufactured goods of the far East or dis- 
tant South would come back in return; and in all these transac- 
tions scarcely any money was seen or used. Goods were sold on a 
year's time to the farmers, and payment made from the proceeds of 
the ensuing crops. When the crops were sold and the merchant 
satisfied, the surplus was paid out in orders on the store to labor- 
ing men and to satisfy other creditors. When a day's work was 
done by a working man, his employer would ask, " Well, what 
store do you want your order on?" The answer being given, the 
order was written and always cheerfully accepted. 

MONET. 

Money was an article little known and seldom seen among the 
earlier settlers. Indeed, they had but little use for it, as they could 
transact all their business about as well without it, on the " barter " 
system, wherein great ingenuity was sometimes displayed. When 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 149 

it failed in any instance, long credits contributed to the conven- 
ience of the citizens. But for taxes and postage neither the barter 
nor the credit system would answer, and often letters were suffered 
to remain a long time in the postoffice for the want of the twenty- 
five cents demanded by the Government. With all this high price 
on postage, by the way, the letter had not been brought 500 miles 
in a day or two, as is the case nowadays, but had probably been 
weeks on the route, and the mail was delivered at the pioneer's 
postoffice, several miles distant from his residence, only once in a 
week or two. All the mail would be carried by a lone horseman. 
Instances are related illustrating how misrepresentation would be 
resorted to in order to elicit the sympathies of some one who was 
known to have " two bits " (25 cents) of money with him, and pro- 
cure the required Govermental fee for a letter. 

Peltries came nearer being money than anything else, as it came 
to be custom to estimate the value of everything in peltries. Such 
an article was worth so many peltries. Even some tax collectors 
and postmasters were known to take peltries and exchange them 
for the money required by the Government. 

"When the first settlers first came into the wilderness they 
generally supposed that their hard struggle would be princi- 
pally over after the first year; but alas! they often looked for 
"easier times next year" for many years before realizing them, 
and then they came in so slily as to be almost imperceptible. The 
sturdy pioneer thus learned to bear hardships, privation and hard 
living, as good soldiers do. As the facilities for making money 
were not great, they lived pretty well satisfied in an atmosphere of 
good, social, friendly feeling, and thought, themselves as good as 
those they had left behind in the East. But among the early set- 
tlers who came to this State were many who, accustomed to the 
advantages of an older civilization, to churches, schools and society, 
became speedily home-sick and dissatisfied. They would remain 
perhaps one summer, or at most two, then, selling whatever claim 
with its improvements they had made, would return to the older 
States, spreading reports of the hardships endured by the settlers 
here and the disadvantages which they had found, or imagined they 
had found, in the country. These weaklings were not an unmiti- 
gated curse. The slight improvements they had made were sold to 
men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround them- 
selves with the necessities of life, while their unfavorable report 
deterred other weaklings from coining. The men who stayed, who 



150 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

were willing to endure privations, belonged to a different guild; 
they were heroes every one, — men to whom hardships were things 
to be overcome, and present privations things to be endured for the 
sake of posterity, and they never shrank from this duty. It is to 
these hardy pioneers who could endure, that we to-day owe the 
wonderful improvement we have made and the development, almost 
miraculous, that has brought our State in the past sixty years, from 
a wilderness, to the front rank among the States of this great nation. 

MILLING. 

Not the least of the hardships of the pioneers was the procuring 
of bread. The first settlers must be supplied at least one year from 
other sources than their own lands; but the first crops, however 
abundant, gave only partial relief, there being no mills to grind the 
grain. Hence the necessity of grinding by hand power, and many 
families were poorly provided with means for doing this. Another 
way was to grate the corn. A grater was made from a piece of 
tin, sometimes taken from an old, worn-out tin bucket or other 
vessel. It was thickly perforated, bent into a semicircular form, 
and nailed, rough side upward, on a board. The corn was taken in 
the ear, and grated before it got dry and hard. Corn, however, was 
eaten in various ways. 

Soon after the country became more generally settled, enterpris- 
ing men were ready to embark in the milling business. Sites along 
the streams were selected for water-power. A person looking for a 
mill-site would follow up and down the stream for a desired loca- 
tion, and when found he would go before the authorities and secure 
a writ of ad quod damnum. This would enable the miller to have 
the adjoining land officially examined, and the amount of damage 
by making a dam was named. Mills being so great a public neces- 
sity, they were permitted to be located upon any person's land 
where the miller thought the site desirable. 

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 

The agricultural implements used by the first farmers in this State 
would in this age of improvement be great curiosities. The plow 
used was called the " bar-share" plow; the iron point consisted of 
a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded 
to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through a 
beam six or seven feet long, to which were attached handles of cor- 
responding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of 



B 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 151 

winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn 
the soil over. Sown seed was brushed in by dragging over the 
ground a sapling with a bushy top. In harvesting the change is most 
striking. Instead of the reapers and mowers of to-day, the sickle 
and cradle were used. The grain was threshed with a flail, or 
trodden out by horses or oxen. 

HOG KILLING. 

Hogs were always dressed before they were taken to market. The 
farmer, if forehanded, would call in his neighbors some bright fall 
or winter morning to help " kill hogs." Immense kettles of water 
were heated; a sled or two, covered with loose boards or plank, 
constituted the platform on which the hog was cleaned, and was 
placed near an inclined hogshead in which the scalding was done; 
a quilt was thrown over the top of the latter to retain the heat; 
from a crotch of some convenient tree a projecting pole was rigged 
to hold the animals for disemboweling and thorough cleaning. 
When everything was arranged, the best shot of the neighborhood 
loaded his rifle, and the work of killing was commenced. It was con- 
sidered a disgrace to make a hog " squeal " by bad shooting or by 
a "shoulder-stick," that is, running the point of the butcher-knife 
into the shoulder instead of the cavity of the beast. As each hog 
fell, the " sticker " mounted him and plunged the butcher-knife, 
long and well sharpened, into his throat; two persons would then 
catch him by the hind leo;s, draw him up to the scalding tub, which 
had just been tilled with boiling-hot water with a shovelful of good 
green wood ashes thrown in; in this the carcass was plunged and 
moved around a minute or so, that is, until the hair would slip off easi- 
ly, then placed on the platform where the cleaners would pitch into 
him with all their might and clean him as quickly as possible, with 
knives and other sharp-edged implements: then two stout fellows 
would take him up between them, and a third man to manage the 
" gambrel " (which was a stout stick about two feet long, sharpened 
at both ends, to be inserted between the muscles of the hind legs at 
or near the hock joint), the animal would be elevated to the pole, 
where the work of cleaning was finished. 

After the slaughter was over and the hogs had had time to cool, 
such as were intended for domestic use were cut up, the lard 
" tried " out by the women of the household, and the surplus hogs 
taken to market, while the weather was cold, if possible. In those 
days almost every merchant had, at the rear end of his place of 



152 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

business or at some convenient building, a " pork-house," and 
would buy the pork of his customers and of such others as would 
sell to him, and cut it for the market. This gave employment to a 
large number of hands in every village, who would cut and pack 
pork all winter. The hauling of all this to the river would also 
give employment to a large number of teams, and the manufacture 
of pork barrels would keep many coopers employed. 

Allowing for the difference of currency and manner of market- 
ing, the price of pork was not so high in those days as at present. 
Now, while calico and muslin are ten cents a yard and pork two to 
four cents a pound, then, while calico and muslin were twenty-five 
cents a yard pork was one to two cents a pound. When, as the 
country grew older and communications easier between the seaboard 
and the great West, prices went up to two and a half and three 
cents a pound, the farmers thought they would always be content 
to raise pork at such a price; but times have changed, even con- 
trary to the current-cy. 

There was one feature in this method of marketing pork that 
made the country a paradise for the poor man in the winter time. 
Spare-ribs, tenderloins, pigs' heads and pigs' feet were not con- 
sidered of any value, and were freely given to all who could use 
them. If a barrel was taken to any pork-house and salt furnished, 
the barrel would be filled and salted down with tenderloins and 
spare-ribs gratuitously. So great in many cases was the quantity 
of spare-ribs, etc., to be disposed of, that they would be hauled 
away in wagon-loads and dumped in the woods out of town. 

In those early times much wheat was marketed at twenty-five to 
fifty cents a bushel, oats the same or less, and corn ten cents a 
bushel. A good young milch-cow could be bought for $5 to $10, 
and that payable in work. 

Those might truly be called "close times," yet the citizens of 
the country were accommodating, and but very little suffering for 
the actual necessities of life was ever known to exist. 

PRAIRIE FIRES. 

Fires, set out b} r Indians or settlers, sometimes purposely and 
sometimes permitted through carelessness, would visit the prairies 
every autumn, and sometimes the forests, either in autumn or 
spring, and settlers could not always succeed in defending them- 
selves against the destroying element. Many interesting incidents 
are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare 



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HISTORY OF INDIANA. 155 

a piece of ground for the early grazing of stock the ensuing spring, 
and it would get away under a wind, and soon be beyond control. 
Violent winds would often arise and drive the flames with such 
rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. 
On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately 
set about " cutting off supplies " for the devouring enemy by a 
" back fire." Thus, by starting a small fire near the bare ground 
about his premises, and keeping it under control next his property, 
he would buni off a strip around him and prevent the attack of the 
on-coming flames. A few furrows or a ditch around the farm con- 
stituted a help in the work of protection. 

An original prairie of tall and exuberant grass on fire, especially 
at night, was a magnificent spectacle, enjoyed only by the pioneer. 
Here is an instance where the frontiersman, proverbially deprived 
of the sights and pleasures of an old community, is privileged far 
beyond the people of the present day in this country. One could 
scarcely tire of beholding the scene, as its awe-inspiring features 
seemed constantly to increase, and the whole panorama unceasingly 
changed like the dissolving views of a magic lantern, or like the 
aurora borealis. Language cannot convey, words cannot express, 
the faintest idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagra- 
tion at night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to 
take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dispatched myriads 
upon myriads of messengers to light their torches at the altar of 
the setting sun until all had flashed into one long and continuous 
blaze. 

The following graphic description of prairie fires was written by 
a traveler through this region in 1849: 

" Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the 
long grass ; the gentle breeze increased to stronger currents, and soon 
fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which 
curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor; and like quickly 
raiding the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before 
me were suddenly changed, as if by the magician's wand, into one 
boundless amphitheatre, blazing from earth to heaven and sweeping 
the horizon round, — columns of lurid flames sportively mounting 
up to the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curling away 
and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rush- 
ing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant 
thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; 
it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding, the imminent peril 



156 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

of prairie fires, one is loth, irresolute, almost unable to withdraw 
or seek refuge." 

WILD HOGS. 

When the earliest pioneer reached this Western wilderness, game 
was his principal food until he had conquered a farm from the 
forest or prairie, — rarely, then, from the latter. As the country 
settled game grew scarce, and by 1S50 he who would live by his 
rifle would have had but a precarious subsistence had it not been 
for "wild hogs." These animals, left by home-sick immigrants 
whom the chills or fever and ague had driven out, had strayed into 
the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods each 
fall were full of acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts, and these hogs would 
grow fat and multiply at a wonderful rate in the bottoms and along 
the bluffs. The second and third immigration to the country found 
these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat supply up to that 
period when they had in the townships contiguous to the river be- 
come so numerous as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the 
farmer's corn-fields or toling their domestic swiiie into their 
retreats, where they too became in a season as wild as those in the 
woods. In 1S38 or '39, in a certain township, a meeting was called 
of citizens of the township to take steps to get rid of wild hogs. At 
this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the town- 
ship were notified to turn out en masse on a certain day and engage 
in the work of catching, trimming and branding wild hogs, which 
were to be turned loose, and the next winter were to be hunted and 
killed by the people of the township, the meat to be divided pro 
rata among the citizens of the township. This plan was fully 
carried into effect, two or three days being spent in the exciting 
work in the spring. 

In the early part of the ensuing winter the settlers again turned 
out, supplied at convenient points in the bottom with large kettles 
and barrels for scalding, and while the hunters were engaged in 
killing, others with horses dragged the carcasses to the scalding 
platforms where they were dressed; and when all that could be 
were killed and dressed a division was made, every farmer getting 
more meat than enough, for his winter's supply. Like energetic 
measures were resorted to in other townships, so that iu two or 
three years the breed of wild hogs became extinct. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 157 

NATIVE ANIMALS. 

The principal wild animals found in the State by the early set- 
tler were the deer, wolf, bear, wild-cat, fox, otter, raccoon, generally 
called "coon," woodchuck, or ground-hog, skunk, mink, weasel, 
muskrat, opossum, rabbit and squirrel; and the principal feathered 
game were the quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey. Hawks, 
turkey buzzards, crows, blackbirds were also very abundant. Sev- 
'eral of these animals furnished meat for the settlers; but their 
principal meat did not long consist of game; pork and poultry 
were raised in abundance. The wolf was the most troublesome 
animal, it being the common enemy of the sheep, and sometimes 
attacking other domestic animals and even human beings. But 
their hideous howlings at night were so constant and terrifying 
that they almost seemed to do more mischief by that annoyance 
than by direct attack. They would keep everbody and every ani- 
mal about the farm-house awake and frightened, and set all the dogs 
in the neighborhood to barking. As one man described it: "Sup- 
pose six boys, having six dogs tied, whipped them all at the same 
time, and you would hear such music as two wolves would make." 

To effect the destruction of these animals the county authorities 
offered a bounty for their scalps; and, besides, big hunts were 
common. 

WOLF HUNTS. 

In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any 
other wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in 
their almost constant barking at night, which always seemed so 
menacing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitoes, the 
noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the real depre- 
dations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most 
exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful pests, was 
that known as the " circular wolf hunt," by which all the men and 
boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle com- 
prising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and 
then close up toward the center of their field of operation, gather- 
ing not only wolves, but also deer and many smaller " varmint." 
Five, ten, or more wolves by this means would sometimes be killed 
in a single day. The men would be organized with as much 
system as a little army, every one being well posted in the meaning 
of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were 
scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use 



1 'iS 

HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



™ check by, cord in the h»„ds of their keepers nntil.h, S 
ca he LiM'tritd' * —- -*• »» «-« «i 



BEE-HUNTING. 



r « : >. a h. ea3 it „,,ed it 3 e. f wit,, the'^protctT I:' 6 «^ 
Seneralljhi^n the '„, ^^ TO "' d b * 

mtatthat the earl, settlers conld keep themselves in honey X 
. w nld", , J 8 'I™ th " ,K ""' V ™ S * *» "I* o befo 

" esh ' Tl " 8 wa a h some called « candid " honey 

tnTch %£ ^-to-tol"*** ofhonevhas even been taken 



SNAKES. 



vii?adX er bL m d S s Sn f S T e DUmer0aS ' SllCh aS the rattles "^. 
viper, adJei, blood snake and many varieties of large blue and ffrPP n 

snakes, milk snake, garter and water snakes, blac/snake , etc g etc 
If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chte 
you very fiercely; but if you would turn and give them b tie thev 
would immediately crawl away with all possible speed "hide in the 
grass and weeds, and wait for a "greener - customer. The e real 
harmless snakes served to put people on their guard a'a nst the 
more dangerous and venomous kinds ° 

It was the practice in some sections of the country to turn out in 

STJTh W1 Tl"' matt ° CkS and Cr °- bars ' a "ack the princ" 
pal snake dens and slay large numbers of them. In earlv sZ* 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 159 

the snakes were somewhat torpid and easily captured. Scores of 
rattlesnakes were sometimes frightened out of a single den, which, 
as soon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, 
were dispatched, and left to be devoured by the numerous wild hogs 
of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the 
house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were 
saved as specifics for rheumatism. 

Another method was to so fix a heavy stick over the door of their 
dens, with a long grape-vine attached, that one at a distance could 
plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning 
themselves. Then a large company of the citizens, on hand by ap- 
pointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes. 

SHAKES. 

One of the greatest obstacles to the early settlement and pros- 
perity of this State was the " chills and fever," " fever and ague." 
or " shakes," as it was variously called. It was a terror to new- 
comers; in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. 
It was no respecter of persons; everybody looked pale and sallow as 
though he were frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived 
from impure water and air, which are always developed in the 
opening up of a new country of rank soil like that of the Northwest. 
The impurities continue to be absorbed from day to day, and from 
week to week, until the whole bod}' corporate became saturated with 
it as with electricity, and then the shock came; and the shock was a 
regular shake, with a fixed beginning and ending, coming on in 
some cases each day but generally on alternate days, with a regu- 
larity that was surprising. After the shake came the fever, and 
this " last estate was worse than the first." It was a burning-hot 
fever, and lasted for hours. When you had the chill you couldn't 
get warm, and when you had the fever you couldn't get cool. It 
was exceedingly awkward in this respect; indeed it was. Nor would 
it stop for any sort of contingency ; not even a wedding in the family 
would stop it. It was imperative and tyrannical. When the ap- 
pointed time came around, everything else had to be stopped to at- 
tend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holidays; 
after the fever went down you still didn't feel much better. You 
felt as though you had gone through some sort of collision, 
thrashing-machine or jarring-machine, and came out not killed, but 
next thing to it. You felt weak, as though you had run too far after 
something, and then didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid and 



160 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

sore, and was down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled 
out. Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite 
crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your ears, especially 
after taking quinine, had too much roar in them, and your 
whole body and soul were entirely woe-begone, disconsolate, sad, 
poor and good for nothing. You didn't think much of yourself, 
and didn't believe that other people did, either; and you didn't 
care. You didn't quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but 
sometimes wished some accident would happen to knock either the 
malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that even the 
dogs looked at you with a kind of self-complacency. You thought 
the sun had a kind of sickly shine about it. 

About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not 
accept the whole State of Indiana as a gift; and if yon had the 
strength and means, you picked up Hannah and the baby, and your 
traps, and went back "yander" to " Old Virginny," the " Jar- 
seys," Maryland or " Pennsylvany.'' 

"Ami to-day the swallows flitting 
Round my cabin see me sitting 
Moodily within the sunshine, 

Just inside my silent door, 
Waiting for the ' Ager,' seeming 
Like a man foiever dreaming; 
And the sunlight on me streaming 

Throws no shadow on the floor ; 
For I am too thin and sallow 
To make shadows on the floor — 

Nary shadow any more ! " 

The above is not a mere picture of the imagination. It is sim- 
ply recounting in quaint phrase what actually occurred in thousands 
of cases. Whole families would sometimes be sick at one time 
and not one member scarcely able to wait upon another. Labor or 
exercise always aggravated the malady, and it took General Lazi- 
ness a long time to thrash the enemy out. And those were the 
days for swallowing all sorts of roots and "yarbs," and whisky, 
etc., with some faint hope of relief. And finally, when the case 
wore out, the last remedy taken got the credit of the cure. 

EDUCATION. 

Though struggling through the pressure of poverty and priva- 
tion, the early settlers planted among them the school-house at the 
earliest practical period. So important an object as the education 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 1G1 

of their children they did not defer until they could build more 
comely and convenient houses. They were for a time content with 
such as corresponded with their rude dwellings, but soon better build- 
ings and accommodations were provided. As may readily be sup- 
posed, the accommodations of the earliest schools were not good. 
Sometimes school was taught in a room of a large or a double \o<* 
cabin, but oftener in a log house built for the purpose. Stoves 
and such heating apparatus as are now in use were then unknown. 
A mud-and-stick chimney in one end of the building, with earthen 
hearth and a lire-place wide and deep enough to receive a four to 
six-foot back-log, and smaller wood to match, served for warming 
purposes in winter and a kind of conservatory in summer. For 
windows, part of a log was cut out in two sides of the building, 
and may be a few lights of eight by ten glass set in, or the aper- 
ture might be covered over with greased paper. Writing desks 
consisted of heavy oak plank or a hewed slab laid upon wooden 
pins driven into the wall. The four-legged slab benches were in 
front of these, and the pupils when not writing would sit with 
their backs against the front, sharp edge of the writing-desks. 
The floor was also made out of these slabs, or " puncheons," laid 
upon log sleepers. Everything was rude and plain; but many of 
America's greatest men have gone out from just such school-houses 
to grapple with the world and make names for themselves and re- 
flect honor upon their country. Among these we can name Abra- 
ham Lincoln, our martyred president, one of the noblest men 
known to the world's history. Stephen A. Douglas, one of the 
greatest statesmen of the age, began his career in Illinois teaching 
in one of these primitive school- houses. Joseph A. Wright, and 
several others of Indiana's great statesmen have also graduated 
from the log school-house into political eminence. So with many 
of her most eloquent and efficient preachers. 

Imagine such a house with the children seated around, and the 
teacher seated on one end of a bench, with no more desk at his 
hand than any other pupil has, and you have in view the whole 
scene. The " schoolmaster " has called '' Books! books!" at the 
door, and the "scholars" have just run in almost out of breath 
from vigorous play, have taken their seats, and are for the moment 
" saying over their lessons " to themselves with all their might, 
that is, in as loud a whisper as possible. While they are thus en- 
gaged the teacher is perhaps sharpening a few quill pens for the 
pupils, for no other kind of writing pen had been thought of as 



162 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

yet. In a few minutes he calls up an urchin to say his a b c's; 
the little boy stands beside the teacher, perhaps partially leaning 
upon his lap; the teacher with his pen-knife points to the letter 
and asks what it is; the little fellow remains silent, for he does not 
know what to say; "A," says the teacher; the boy echoes "A;" 
the teacher points to the next and asks what it is; the boy is silent 
again; ; 'B," says the teacher; " B," echoes the little urchin; and 
so it goes through the exercise, at the conclusion of which the 
teacher tells the little " Major " to go back to his seat and study his 
letters, and when he comes to a letter he doesn't know, to come to 
him and he will tell him. He obediently goes to his seat, 
looks on his book a little while, and then goes trudging across the 
puncheon floor again in his bare feet, to the teacher, and points to 
a letter, probably outside of his lesson, and asks what it is. The 
teacher kindly tells him that that is not in his lesson, that he need 
not study that or look at it now; he will come to that some other 
day, and then he will learn what it is. The simple-minded little 
fellow then trudges, smilingly, as he catches the eye of some one, 
back to his seat again. But why he smiled, he has no definite 
idea. 

To prevent wearing the books out at the lower corner, every 
pupil was expected to keep a " thumb-paper'' under his thumb as 
he holds the book; even then the books were soiled and worn 
out at this place in a few weeks, so that a part of many lessons 
were gone. Consequently the request was often made, " Master, 
may I borrow Jimmy's book to git my lesson in? mine haiutin my 
book: it's tore out." It was also customary to use book-pointers, 
to point out the letters or words in study as well as in recitation. 
The black stem of the maiden-hair fern was a very popular material 
from which pointers were made. 

The a-b-ab scholars through with, perhaps the second or third- 
reader class would be called, who would stand in a row in front of 
the teacher, "toeing the mark," which was actually a chalk or char- 
coal mark drawn on the floor, and commencing at one end of the 
class, one would read the first " verse," the next the second, and so 
on around, taking the paragraphs in the order as they occur in the 
book. Whenever a pupil hesitated at a word, the teacher would 
pronounce it for him. And this was all there was of the reading 
exercise. 

Those studying arithmetic were but little classified, and they were 
therefore generally called forward singly and interviewed, or the 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 163 

teacher simply visited them at their seats. A lesson containing several 
" sums" would be given for the next day. Whenever the learner 
came to a sum he couldn't do, he would go to the teacher with it, 
who would willingly and patiently, if he had time, do it for him. 

In geography, no wall maps were used, no drawing required, 
and the studying and recitation comprised only the committing 
to memory, or "getting by heart," as it was called, the names and 
locality of places. The recitation proceeded like this: Teacher — 
"Where is Norfolk?" Pupil — "In the southeastern part of Vir- 
ginia." Teacher — "What bay between Maryland and Virginia?" 
Pupil — " Chesapeake." 

When the hour for writing arrived, the time was announced by 
the master, and every pupil practicing this art would turn his feet 
over to the back of his seat, thus throwing them under the writing 
desk, already described, and proceed to " follow copy," which was 
invariably set by the teacher, not by rule, but by as nice a stroke of 
the pen as he could make. The first copies for each pupil would 
be letters, and the second kind and last consisted of maxims. Blue 
ink on white paper, or black ink on blue paper, were common; and 
sometimes a pupil would be so unfortunate as to be compelled to 
use blue ink on blue paper; and a ''blue" time he had of it. 

About half past ten o'clock the master would announce, " School 
may go out;" which meant " little play-time," in the children's 
parlance, called nowadays, recess or intermission. Often the prac- 
tice was to have the boys and girls go out separately, in which case 
the teacher would first say, " The girls may go out," and after they 
had been out about ten minutes the boys were allowed a similar 
privilege in the same way. In calling the children in from the 
play-ground, the teacher would invariably stand near the door of the 
school-house and call out "Books! books!" Between play-times 
the request, "Teacher, may I go out?" was often iterated to the 
annoyance of the teacher and the disturbance of the school. 

At about half past eleven o'clock the teacher would announce, 
"Scholars may now get their spelling lessons," and they would all 
pitch in with their characteristic loud whisper and "say over" 
their lessons with that vigor which characterizes the movements of 
those who have just learned that the dinner hour and " big play- 
time " is near at hand. A few minutes before twelve the "little 
spelling-class " would recite, then the " big spelling-class. " The 
latter would comprise the larger scholars and the major part of the 
school. The classes would stand in a row, either toeing the mark 



164 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

in the midst of the floor, or straggling along next an unoccupied 
portion of the wall. One end of the class was the " head," the 
other the " foot," and when a pupil spelled a word correctly, which 
had been missed by one or more, he would " go up " and take his 
station above all that had missed the word: this was called " turning 
them down." At the conclusion of the recitation, the head pupil 
would go to the foot, to have another opportunity of turning them 
all down. The class would number, and before taking their seats 
the teacher would say, " School's dismissed," which was the signal 
for every child rushing for his dinner, and having the " big play- 
time." 

The same process of spelling would also be gone through with in 
the afternoon just before dismissing the school for the day. 

The chief text-books in which the " scholars " got their lessons 
were Webster's or some other elementary spelling-book, an arith- 
metic, may be Pike's, Dilworth's, Daboll's, Smiley's or Adams', 
McGuffey's or the old English reader, and Roswell C. Smith's 
geography and atlas. Very few at the earliest day, however, got 
so far along as to study geography. Nowadays, in contrast with the 
above, look at the "ographies" and "ologies!" Grammar and 
composition were scarcely thought of until Indiana was a quarter 
of a century old, and they were introduced in such a way that 
their utility was always questioned. First, old Murray's, then 
Kirkham's grammar, were the text-books on this subject. " Book 
larnin'," instead of practical oral instruction, was the only thing 
supposed to be attained in the primitive log school-house days. 
But writing was generally taught with fair diligence. 

" PAST THE PICTURES." 

This phrase had its origin in the practice of pioneer schools 
which used Webster's Elementary Spelling-book. Toward the back 
part of that time-honored text-book was a series of seven or eight 
pictures, illustrating morals, and after these again were a few more 
spelling exercises of a peculiar kind. When a scholar got over into 
these he was said to be " past the pictures," and was looked up to 
as being smarter and more learned than most other people ever 
hoped to be. Hence the application of this phrase came to be 
extended to other affairs in life, especially where scholarship was 
involved. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 165 

SPELLING-SCHOOLS. 

The chief public evening entertainment for the first 30 or 40 
years of Indiana's existence was the celebrated " spelling-school." 
Both young people and old looked forward to the next spelling- 
school with as much anticipation and anxiety as we nowadays look 
forward to a general Fourth-of-July celebration; and when the time 
arrived the whole neighborhood, yea, and sometimes several neigh- 
borhoods, would flock together to the scene of academical combat, 
where the excitement was often more intense than had been expect- 
ed. It was far better, of course, when there was good sleighing; 
then the young folks would turn out in high glee and be fairly 
beside themselves. The jollity is scarcely equaled at the present 
day by anything in vogue. 

"When the appointed hour arrived, the usual plan of commencing 
battle was for two of the young people who might agree to play 
against each other, or who might be selected to do so by the school- 
teacher of the neighborhood, to " choose sides," that is, each con- 
testant, or " captain," as he was generally called, would choose the 
best speller from the assembled crowd. Each one choosing alter- 
nately, the ultimate strength of the respective parties would be 
about equal. When all were chosen who could be made to serve, 
each side would " number," so as to ascertain whether amid the 
confusion one captain had more spellers than the other. In case he 
had, some compromise would be made by the aid of the teacher, the 
master of ceremonies, and then the plan of conducting the campaign, 
or counting the misspelled words, would be canvassed for a moment 
by the captains, sometimes by the aid of the teacher and others. 
There were many ways of conducting the contest and keeping tally. 
Every section of the country had several favorite methods, and all 
or most of these were different from what other communities had. 
At one time they would commence spelling at the head, at another 
time at the foot; at one time they would " spell across," that is, the 
first on one side would spell the first word, then the first on the 
other side; next the second in the line on each side, alternately, 
down to the other end of each line. The question who should spell 
the first word was determined by the captains guessing what page 
the teacher would have before him in a partially opened book at a 
distance; the captain guessing the nearest would spell the first word 
pronounced. When a word was missed, it would be re-pronounced, 
or passed along without re-pronouncing (as some teachers strictly 



1G6 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

followed the rule never to re-pronounce a word), until it was spelled 
correctly. If a speller on the opposite side finally spelled the missed 
word correctly, it was counted a gain of one to that side; if the 
word was finally corrected by some speller on the same side on 
which it was originated as a missed word, it was " saved," and no 
tally mark was made. 

Another popular method was to commence at one end of the 
line of spellers and go directly around, and the missed words 
caught up quickly and corrected by " word-catchers," appointed by 
the captains from among their best spellers. These word-catchers 
would attempt to correct all the words missed on his opponent's 
side, and failing to do this, the catcher on the other side would 
catch him up with a peculiar zest, and then there was fun. 

Still another very interesting, though somewhat disorderly, 
method, was this: Each word-catcher would go to the foot of the 
adversary's line, and every time he "catched " a word he would go 
up one, thus "turning them down" in regular spelling-class style. 
"When one catcher in this way turned all down on the opposing side, 
his own party was victorious by as many as the opposing catcher 
was behind. This method required no slate or blackboard tally to 
be kept. 

One turn, by either of the foregoing or other methods, would 
occupy 40 minutes to an hour, and by this time an intermission or 
recess was had, when the buzzing, cackling and hurrahing that en- 
sued for 10 or 15 minutes were beyond description. 

Coming to order a^ain, the next style of battle to be illustrated 
was to "spell down," by which process it was ascertained who were 
the best spellers and could continue standing as a soldier the longest 
But very often good spellers would inadvertently miss a word in 
an early stage of the contest and would have to sit down humilia- 
ted, while a comparatively poor speller would often stand till nearly 
or quite the last, amid the cheers of the assemblage. Sometimes 
the two parties first " chosen up " in the evening would re-take 
their places after recess, so that by the " spelling-down " process 
there would virtually be another race, in another form; sometimes 
there would be a new " choosing up " for the " spelling-down " con- 
test; and sometimes the spelling down would be conducted with- 
out any party lines being made. It would occasionally happen that 
two or three very good spellers would retain the floor so long that 
the exercise would become monotonous, when a few outlandish 
words like " ckevaux-de-frise," " Ompompanoosuc " or " Baugh- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 1G7 

nangh-claugh-ber," as they used to spell it sometimes, would create 
a little ripple of excitement to close with. Sometimes these words 
would decide the contest, but generally when two or three good 
spellers kept the floor until the exercise became monotonous, the 
teacher would declare the race closed and the standing spellers ac- 
cpuitted with a " drawn game." 

The audience dismissed, the next thing was to " go home," very 
often by a round-about way, " a-sleighing with the girls," which, 
of course, was with many the most interesting part of the even- 
ing's performances, sometimes, however, too rough to be com- 
mended, as the boys were often inclined to be somewhat rowdyish. 

SINGING-SCHOOL. 

Next to the night spelling-school the singing-school was an occa- 
sion of much jollity, wherein it was difficult for the average singing- 
master to preserve order, as many went more for fun than for music. 
This species of evening entertainment, in its introduction to the West, 
was later than the spelling-school, and served, as it were, as the second 
step toward the more modern civilization. Good sleighing weather was 
of course almost a necessity for the success of these schools, but how 
many of them have been prevented by mud and rain! Perhaps a 
greater part of the time from November to April the roads would be 
muddy and often half frozen, which would have a very dampening 
and freezing effect upon the souls, as well as the bodies, of the 
young people who longed for a good time on such occasions. 

The old-time method of conducting singing-school was also some • 
what different from that of modern times. It was more plodding 
and heavy, the attention being kept upon the simplest rudiments, 
as the names ot the notes on the staff, and their pitch, and beating 
time, while comparatively little attention was given to expression 
and light, gleeful music. The very earliest scale introduced in the 
West was from the South, and the notes, from their peculiar shape, 
were denominated " patent " or "buckwheat" notes. They were 
four, of which the round one was always called sol, the square one 
la, the triangular owe fa, and the "diamond-shaped" one mi, pro- 
nounced me; and the diatonic scale, or "gamut" as it was called 
then, ran thus:_/iz, sol, la, fa, sol, la, mi, fa. The part of a tunc 
nowadays called "treble," or " soprano," was then called " tenor;" 
the part now called " tenor " was called " treble," and what is now 
"alto" was then "counter," and when sung according to the oldest 
rule, was sung by a female an octave higher than marked, and still 



16S HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

on the " chest register." The "old" "Missouri Harmony" and 
Mason's " Sacred Harp " were the principal books used with this 
style of musical notation. 

About 1850 the " round-note " system began to " come around," 
being introduced by the Yankee singing-master. The scale was 
do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do; and for many years thereafter there 
was much more do-re-mi-iug than is practiced at the present day, 
when a musical instrument is always under the hand. The Car- 
mi na Sacra was the pioneer round-note book, in which the tunes 
partook more of the German or Puritan character, and were gener- 
ally regarded by the old folks as being far more spiritless than 
the old " Pisgah," " Fiducia," " Tender Thought,"" New Durham," 
" Windsor," " Mount Sion," " Devotion," etc., of the old Missouri 
Harmony and tradition. 

GUARDING AGAINST INDIANS. 

The fashion of carrying fire-arms was made necessary by the 
presence of roving bands of Indians, most of whom were ostensi- 
bly friendly, but like Indians in all times, treacherous and unreli- 
able. An Indian war was at any time probable, and all the old 
settlers still retain vivid recollections of Indian massacres, murders, 
plunder, and frightful rumors of intended raids. While target 
practice was much indulged in as an amusement, it was also neces- 
sary at times to carry their guns with them to their daily field work. 

As an illustration of the painstaking which characterized pioneer 
life, we quote the following from Zebulon Collings, who lived about 
six miles from the scene of massacre in the Pigeon Roost settle- 
ment: " The manner in which I used to work in those perilous times 
was as follows: On all occasions I carried my rifle, tomahawk and 
butcher-knife, with a loaded pistol in my belt. When I went to 
plow I laid my gun on the plowed ground, and stuck up a stick by 
it for a mark, so that I could get it quick in case it was wanted. 
I had two good dogs; I took one into the house, leaving the other 
out. The one outside was expected to give the alarm, which would 
cause the one inside to bark, by which I would be awakened, hav- 
ing my arms always loaded. I kept my horse in a stable close to 
the house, haviDg a port-hole so that I could shoot to the stable door. 
During two years I never went from home with any certainty of 
returning, not knowing the minute I might receive a ball from an 
unknown hand." 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 171 

THE BRIGHT SIDE. 

The history of pioneer life generally presents the dark side of the 
picture; but the toils and privations of the early settlers were not a 
series of unmitigated sufferings. No; for while the fathers and 
mothers toiled hard, they were not averse to a little relaxation, and 
had their seasons of fun and enjoyment. They contrived to do 
something to break the monotony of their daily life and furnish 
them a good hearty laugh. Among the more general forms of 
amusements were the " quilting-bee," " corn-husking," "apple-par- 
ing," u log-rolling" and "house-raising." Our young readers will 
doubtless be interested in a description of these forms of amuse- 
ment, when labor was made to afford fun and enjoyment to all par- 
ticipating. The "quilting-bee," as its name implies, was when the 
industrious qualities of the busy little insect that " improves each 
shining hour" were exemplified in the manufacture of quilts for the 
household. In the afternoon ladies for miles around gathered at an 
appointed place, and while their tongues would not cease to play, 
the hands were as busily engaged in making the quilt; and desire 
ai always manifested to get it out as quickly as possible, for then 
the fun would begin. In the evening the gentlemen came, and the 
hours would then pass swiftly by in playing games or dancing. 
" Corn-huskings " were when both sexes united in the work. They 
usually assembled in a large barn, which was arranged for the oc- 
casion; and when each gentleman had selected a lady partner the 
husking began. When a lady found a red ear she was entitled to 
a kiss from every gentleman present; when a gentleman found one 
he was allowed to kiss every lady present. After the corn was all 
husked a good supper was served; then the "old folks" would 
leave, and the remainder of the evening was spent in the dance and 
in having a general good time. The recreation afforded to the 
young people on the annual recurrence of these festive occasions 
was as highly enjoyed, and quite as innocent, as the amusements of 
the present boasted age of refinement and culture. 

The amusements of the pioneers were peculiar to themselves- 
Saturday afternoon was a holiday in which no man was expected 
to work. A load of produce might be taken to " town " for sale or 
traffic without violence to custom, but no more serious labor could 
be tolerated. When on Saturday afternoon the town was reached, 
" fun commenced." Had two neighbors business to transact, here 
it was done. Horses were " swapped." Difficulties settled and 



172 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

free fights indulged in. Blue and red ribbons were not worn in 
those days, and whisky was as free as water; twelve and a half 
cents would buy a quart, and thirty-five or forty cents a gallon, 
and at such prices enormous quantities were consumed. Go to any 
town in the county and ask the first pioneer you meet, and he would 
tell you of notable Saturday-afternoon fights, either of which to-day 
would fill a column of the Police News, with elaborate engravings 
to match. 

Mr. Sandford C. Cox quaintly describes some of the happy feat- 
tures of frontier life in this manner: 

We cleared land, rolled logs, burned brush, blazed out paths 
from one neighbor's cabin to another and from one settlement to 
another, made and used, hand-mills and hominy mortars, hunted 
deer, turkey, otter, and raccoons, caught fish, dug ginseng, hunted 
bees and the like, and — lived on the fat of the land. We read of a 
land of " corn and wine," and another "flowing with milk and 
honey ;" but 1 rather think, in a temporal point of view, taking into 
account the richness of the soil, timber, stone, wild game and 
other advantages, that the Sugar creek country would come up to 
any of them, if not surpass them. 

I once cut cord-wood, continues Mr. Cox, at 31J cents per cord, 
and walked a mile and a half night and morning, where the first 
frame college was built northwest of town (Crawford svi lie). 
Prof. Curry, the lawyer, would sometimes come down and help for 
an hour or two at a time, by way of amusement, as there was little 
or no law business in the town or country at that time. Reader, 
what would 3 t ou think of going six to eight miles to help roll logs, 
or raise a cabin? or ten to thirteen miles to mill, and wait three or 
four days and nights for your grist? as many had to do in the 
first settlement of this country. Such things were of frequent oc- 
currence then, and there was but little grumbling about it. It was 
a grand sight to see the log heaps and brush piles burning in the 
night on a clearing of 10 or 15 acres. A Democratic torchlight 
procession, or a midnight march of the Sons of Malta with their 
grand Gyasticutus in the center bearing the grand jewel of the 
order, would be nowhere in comparison with the log-heaps and 
brush piles in a blaze. 

But it may be asked, Had you any social amusements, or manly 
pastimes, to recreate and enliven the dwellers in the wilderness? 
We had. In the social line we had our meetings and our singing- 
schools, sugar-boilings and weddings, which were as good as ever 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 173 

came off in any country, new or old; and if our youngsters did 
not " trip the light fantastic toe " under a professor of the Terpsi- 
chorean art or expert French dancing- master, they had many a 
good "hoe-down" on puncheon floors, and were not annoyed by bad 
whisky. And as for manly sports, requiring mettle and muscle, 
there were lots of wild hogs running in the cat-tail swamps on Lye 
creek, and Mill creek, and among them many large boars that 
Ossian's heroes and Homer's model soldiers, such as Achilles, Hector 
and Ajax would have delighted to give chase to. The boys and 
men of those days had quite as much sport, and made more money 
and health by their hunting excursions than our city gents nowa- 
days playing chess by telegraph where the players are more thau 
70 miles apart. 

WHAT THE PIONEERS HAVE DONE. 

Indiana is a grand State, in many respects second to none 
in the Union, and in almost every thing that goes to make a 
live, prosperous community, not far behind the best. Beneath her 
fertile soil is coal enough to supply the State for generations; her 
harvests are bountiful; she has a medium climate, and many other 
things, that make her people contented, prosperous and happy; 
but she owes much to those who opened up these avenues that have 
led to her present condition and happy surroundings. Unremit- 
ting toil and labor have driven off the sickly miasmas that brooded 
over swampy prairies. Energy and perseverance have peopled 
every section of her wild lands, and changed them from wastes and 
deserts to gardens of beauty and profit. When but a few years 
ago the barking wolves made the night hideous with their wild 
shrieks and howls, now is heard only the lowing and bleating of 
domestic animals. Only a half century ago the wild whoop of the 
Indian rent the air where now are heard the engine and rumbling 
trains of cars, bearing away to markets the products of our labor 
and soil. Then the savage built his rude huts on the spot where 
now rise the dwellings and school-house's and church spires ot civ- 
ilized life. How great the transformation! This change has been 
brought about by the incessant toil and aggregated labor of 
thousands of tired hands and anxious hearts, and the noble aspira- 
tions of such men and women as make any country great. What 
will another half century accomplish? There are few, very few, 
of these old pioneers yet lingering on the shores of time as connect- 
ing links of the past with the present. What must their thoughts 



174 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

be as with their dim eyes they view the scenes that surround them? 
"We often hear people talk about the old-fogy ideas and fogy ways, 
and want of enterprise on the part of the old men who have gone 
through the experiences of pioneer life. Sometimes, perhaps, 
such remarks are just, but, considering the experiences, education 
and entire life of such men, such remarks are better unsaid. 
They have had their trials, misfortunes, hardships and adventures, 
and shall we now, as they are passing far down the western decliv- 
ity of life, and many of them gone, point to them the finger of 
derision and laugh and sneer at the simplicity of their ways? 
Let us rather cheer them up, .revere and respect them, for beneath 
those rough exteriors beat hearts as noble as ever throbbed in the 
human breast. These veterans have been compelled to live for 
weeks upon hominy and, if bread at all, it was bread made from 
corn ground in hand-mills, or pounded up with mortars. Their 
children have been destitute of shoes during the winter; their 
families had no clothing except what was carded, spun, wove and 
mad« into garments by their own hands; schools they had none; 
churches they had none; afflicted with sickness incident to all 
new countries, sometimes the entire family at once; luxuries of 
life they had none; the auxiliaries, improvements, inventions and 
labor-saving machinery of to-day they had not; and what they 
possessed they obtained by the hardest of labor and individual exer- 
tions, yet they bore these hardships and privations without mur- 
muring, hoping for better times to come, and often, too, with but 
little prospect of realization. 

As before mentioned, the changes written on every hand are 
most wonderful. It has been but three-score years since the white 
man began to exercise dominion over this region, erst the home of 
the red men, yet the visitor of to-day, ignorant of the pa*t of the 
country, could scarcely be made to realize that within these years 
there has grown up a population of 2,000,000 people, who in all 
the accomplishments of life are as far advanced as are the inhabi- 
tants of the older States. Schools, churches, colleges, pala- 
tial dwellings, beautiful grounds, large, well-cultivated and produc- 
tive farms, as well as cities, towns and busy manufactories, have 
grown up, and occupy the hunting grounds and camping places of 
the Indians, and in every direction there are evidences of wealth, 
comfort and luxury. There is but little left of the old landmarks. 
Advanced civilization and the progressive demands of revolving 
years have obliterated all traces of Indian occupancy, until they are 
only remembered in name. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 175 

In closing this section we again would impress upon the minds, 
of our readers the fact that they owe a debt of gratitude to those 
who pioneered this State, which can be but partially repaid. 
Never grow unmindful of the peril and adventure, fortitude, 
self-sacrifice and heroic devotion so prominently displayed in their 
lives. As time sweeps on in its ceaseless flight, may the cherished 
memories of them lose none of their greenness, but may the future 
generations alike cherish and perpetuate them with a just devotion 
to gratitude. 

MILITARY DRILL. 

In the days of muster and military drill, so well known through- 
out the country, a specimen of pioneer work was done on the South 
Wea prairie, as follows, according to Mr. S. 0. Cox: 

The Captain was a stout-built, muscular man, who stood six feet 
four in his boots, and weighed over 200 pounds; when dressed in 
his uniform, a blue hunting-shirt fastened with a wide red sash, 
with epaulettes on each shoulder, his large sword fastened by his 
side, and tall plume waving in the wind, he looked like another 
William Wallace, or Roderick Dim, unsheathing his claymore in 
defense of his country. His company consisted of about 70 men, who 
had reluctantly turned out to muster to avoid paying a fine; some 
with guns, some with sticks, and others carrying corn-stalks. The 
Captain, who had but recently been elected, understood his business 
better than his men supposed he did. He intended to give them a 
thorough drilling, and showed them that he understood the ma- 
neuvers of the military art as well as he did farming and fox hunt- 
ing, the latter of which was one of his favorite amusements. After 
forming a hollow square, marching and counter-marching, and 
putting them through several other evolutions, according to Scott's 
tactics, he commanded his men to "form a line." They partially 
complied, but the line was crooked. He took his sword and passed 
it along in front of his men, straightening the line. By the time he 
passed from one end of the line to the other, on casting his eye back, 
he discovered that the line presented a zigzag and unmilitary ap- 
pearance. Someof the men were leaning on their guns, some on their 
sticks a yard in advance of the line, and others as far in the rear. The 
Captain's dander arose; he threw his cocked hat, feather and all, 
on the ground, took off his red sash and hunting-shirt, and threw 
them, with his sword, upon his hat; he then rolled up his sleeves 
and shouted with the voice of a stentor, "Gentlemen, form a line 



176 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

and keep it, or I'll thrash the whole company." Instantly the wliole 
line was straight as an arrow. The Captain was satisfied, put on 
his clothes again, and never had any more trouble in drilling his 
company. 

JACK, " THE PHIL0S0PHEK OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY." 

In early day in this State, before books and newspapers were in- 
troduced, a few lawyers were at a certain place in the habit of play- 
ing cards, and sometimes drinking a little too much whisky. During 
the session of a certain court, a man named John Stevenson, but 
who was named "Jack," and who styled himself the "philoso- 
pher of the 19th century," found out where these genteel sports- 
men met of evenings to peruse the "history of the four kings." 
fie went to the door and knocked for admission; to the question, 
" Who is there?" he answered, '• Jack." The insiders hesitated; he 
knocked and thumped importunately; at length a voice from 
within said, " Go away, Jack; we have already four ' Jacks ' in our 
game, and we will not consent to have a ' cold one ' wrung in on 
us." 

Indignant at this rebuff from gentlemen from whom he had ex- 
pected kinder treatment, he left, muttering vengeance, which 
excited no alarm in the minds of the players. At first he started 
away to walk off his passion, but the longer he walked the madder 
he got, and he finally concluded that he would not "pass " while 
he held or might hold so many trumps in his hands, but would 
return and play a strong hand with them. Accordingly he gath- 
ered his arms full of stones a little larger than David gathered to 
throw at Goliath, and when he came near enough he threw a volley 
of them in through the window into the room where they were 
playing, extinguishing their lights, and routing the whole band 
with the utmost trepidation into the street, in search of their curi- 
ous assailant. Jack stood his ground and told them that that was 
a mere foretaste of what they might expect if they molested him 
in the least. 

Next day the pugnacious Jack was arrested to answer an indict- 
ment for malicious mischief; and failing to give bail, was lodged 
in jail. His prosecutors laughed through the grates of the prison 
as they passed. Meanwhile Jack " nursed his wrath to keep it 
warm," and indicted a speech in his own defense. In due time 
he was taken before the Court, the indictment was read, and he 
was asked what he pleaded to the indictment. " Not guilty," 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 177 

he answered in a deep, earnest tone. " Have you counsel engaged 
to defend you, Mr. Stevenson?" inquired the Judge. " No; please 
your honor; I desire none; with your permission I will speak for 
myself." "Very well," said the Judge. A titter ran through the 
crowd. After the prosecuting attorney had gone through with the 
evidence and his opening remarks in the case, the prisoner arose 
and said, " It is a lamentable fact well known to the Court and 
Jury and to all who hear me, that our county seat has for many 
years been infested and disgraced, especially during Court time, 
with a knot of drunken, carousing gamblers, whose Bacchanalian 
revels and midnight orgies disturb the quiet and pollute the morals 
of our town. Shall these nuisances longer remain in our midst, 
to debauch society and lead our young men to destruction? Fully 
impressed with a sense of their turpitude, and my duty as a good 
citizen to the community in which I live, I resolved to 'abate the 
nuisance,' which, according to the doctrine of the common law, with 
which your honor is familiar, I or any other citizen had a right to 
do. I have often listened with pleasure to the charges your honor 
gave the Grand Jury to ferret out crime and all manner of gaming 
in our community. I saw I had it in my power to ferret out these 
fellows with a volley of stones, and save the county the cost of 
finding and trying a half a dozen indictments. Judge, I did 
' abate the nuisance,' and consider it one of the most meritorious 
acts of my life." 

The prosecutor made no reply. The Judge and lawyers looked 
at each other with a significant glance. A nolle prosequi was 
entered, Jack was acquitted and was ever afterward considered 
" trump." — Settlement of the Wabash Valley. 

"too full for utterance." 

The early years of Indiana afford to the enquirer a rare oppor- 
tunity to obtain a glimpse of the political and even social relation 
of the Indianians of the olden time to the moderns. As is custom- 
ary in all new countries there was to be found, within the limits of 
the new State, a happy people, far removed from all those influ- 
ences which tend to interfere with the public morals: they possessed 
the courage and the gait of freeborn men, took an especial interest in 
the political questions affecting their State, and often, when met 
under the village shade trees to discuss sincerely, and uuostenta- 
tiously, some matters of local importance, accompanied the subject 
before their little convention with song and jest, and even the cup 



178 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

which cheers but not inebriates. The election of militia officers 
for the Black Creek Regiment may be taken for example. The 
village school boys prowled at large, for on the day previous the 
teacher expressed his intention of attending the meeting of electors, 
and of aiding in building up a military company worthy of his own 
•importance, and the reputation of the few villagers. The industri- 
ous matrons and maids — bless their souls — donned the habiliments 
of fashion, and as they arrived at the meeting ground, ornamented 
the scene for which nature in its untouched simplicity did so much. 
Now arrived the moment when the business should be entered on. 
With a good deal of urging the ancient El ward Tomkius took the 
chair, and with a pompous air, wherein was concentrated a con- 
sciousness of his own importance, demanded the gentlemen entrusted 
with resolutions to open the proceedings. By this time a respected 
elector brought forward a jar and an uncommonly large tin-cup. 
These articles proved objects of very serious attention, and when 
the chairman repeated his demand, the same humane elector filled 
the cup to the brim, passed it to the venerable president and bade 
him drink deep to the prosperity of Indiana, of Black Creek, and 
of the regiment about to be formed. The secretary was treated 
similarly, and then a drink all round the thirty electors and their 
friends. This ceremony completed, the military subject melted 
into nothingness before the great question, then agitating the peo- 
ple, viz., " Should the State of Indiana accept the grant of land 
donated by Congress for the construction of the Wabash and Erie 
canal, from Lake Erie to the mouth of Tippecanoe river?" A son 
of Esculapius, one Doctor Stone, protested so vehemently against 
entertaining even an idea of accepting the grant, that the parties 
favorable to the question felt themselves to be treading on tottering 
grounds. Stone's logic was to the point, unconquerable; but his 
enemies did not surrender hope; they looked at one another, then 
at the young school-teacher, whom they ultimately selected as their 
orator and defender. The meeting adjourned for an hour, after 
which the youthful teacher of the young ideas ascended the rostrum. 
His own story of his emotions and efforts may be acceptable. He 
says: " I was sorry they called upon me; for I felt about ' half seas 
over' from the free and frequent use of the tin- cup. I was puzzled 
to know what to do. To decline would injure me in the estimation 
of the neighborhood, who were strongly in favor of the grant; and, 
on the other hand, if I attempted to speak, and failed from intoxi- 
cation, it would ruin me with my patrons. Soon a fence-rail was 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 179 

slipped into the worn fence near by, and a wash-tub, turned bottom 
upward, placed upon it and on the neighboring rails, about five 
feet from the ground, as a rostrum for me to speak from. Two or 
three men seized hold of me and placed me upon the stand, amidst 
the vociferous shouts of the friends of the canal, which were none 
the less loud on account of the frequent circulation of the tin and 
jug. I could scarcely preserve my equilibrium, but there I was on 
the tub for the purpose of answering and exposing the Doctor's 
sophistries, and an anxious auditory waiting for me to exterminate 
him. But, strange to say, my lips refused utterance. I saw 'men 
as trees, walking,' and after a long, and to me, painful pause, 
I smote my hand upon my breast, and said, ' I feel too full for 
utterance.' (I meaut of whisky, they thought of righteous indig- 
nation at the Doctor's effrontery in opposing the measure under 
consideration.) The ruse worked like a charm. The crowd shouted: 
' Let him have it.' I raised my finder and pointed a moment 
steadily at the Doctor. The audience shouted, ' Hit him again.' 
Thus encouraged, I attempted the first stump speech I ever 
attempted to make; and after I got my mouth to go off (and a part 
of the whisky — in perspiration), I had no trouble whatever, and the 
liquor dispelled my native timidity that otherwise might have 
embarrassed me. I occupied the tub about twenty-five minutes. 
The Doctor, boiling over with indignation and a speech, mounted 
the tub and harangued us for thirty minutes. The 'young 
school-master' was again called for, and another speech from him 
of about twenty minutes closed the debate." A vive voce vote of 
the company was taken, which resulted in twenty-six for the grant 
and four against it. My two friends were elected Captain and 
Lieutenant, and I am back at my boarding house, ready for supper, 
with a slight headache. Strange as it may appear, none of them 
discovered that I was intoxicated. Lucky for me they did not, or 
I would doubtless lose my school. I now here promise myself, on 
this leaf of my day-book, that / will not drink liquor again, ex- 
cept given as a medical prescription." 

It is possible that the foregoing incident was the origin of the 
douhle entendre, " Too full for utterance." 

THIEVING AND LYNCH LAW. 

During the year 1S68 the sentiment began to prevail that the 
processes of law in relation to criminal proceedings were neither 
prompt nor sure in the punishment of crime. It was easy to ob- 



180 HISTORY OF INDTANA. 

tain continuances and changes of venue, and in this way delay the 
administration of justice or entirely frustrate it. The consequence 
was, an encouragement and increase of crime and lynch law 
became apparent. An event this year excited the public conscience 
upon this subject. A gang of robbers, who had been operating 
many months in the southern counties, on the 22d of May attacked 
and plundered a railroad car of the Adams' Express company on 
the Jeffersonville road; they were captured, and after being kept 
several weeks in custody in Cincinnati, Ohio, they were put on 
board a train, July 20, to be taken to the county of Jackson, in this 
State, for trial. An armed body of the "Vigilance Committee " of 
Seymour county lay in wait for the train, stopped the cars by hoist- 
ing a red signal on the track, seized the prisoners, extorted a confes- 
sion from them, and hanged them without the form of a trial. 

This same committee, to the number of 75 men, all armed and 
disguised, entered New Albany on the night of December 12. 
forcibly took the keys of the jail from the Sheriff, and proceeded to 
hang four others of these railroad robbers in the corridors of the 
prison. They published a proclamation, announcing by printed 
handbills that they would " swing by the neck until they be dead 
every thieving character they could lay their hands on, without in- 
quiry whether they had the persons who committed that particu- 
lar crime or not." 

CUEING THE DRUNKEN HUSBAND. 

Another case of necessity being the mother of invention occurred 
in Fountain county between 1825 and 1S30, as thus related in the 
book above quoted: 

A little old man, who was in the habit of getting drunk at every 
log rolling and house-raising he attended, upon coming home at 
night would make indiscriminate war upon his wife and daughters,, 
and everything that came in his way. The old lady and the daugh- 
ters bore with his tyranny and maudlin abuse as long as forbear, 
ance seemed to be a virtue. For awhile they adopted the doctrine 
of non-resistance and would fly from the house on his approach; 
but they found that this only made him worse. At length they 
resolved to change the order of things. They held a council of war, 
in which it was determined that the next time he came home drunk 
they would catch him and tie him hand and foot, take him out and 
tie him fast to a tree, and keep him there until he got duly sober. 

It was not long before they had an opportunity to execute their 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 181 

decree. True to their plan, when they saw him coming, two of them 
placed themselves behind the door with ropes, and the other caught 
him by the wrists as he crossed the threshold. He was instantly 
lassoed. A tussle ensued, but the old woman and girls fell upper- 
most. The} 7 made him fast with the ropes and dragged him out 
toward the designated tree. He raved, swore, remonstrated and 
begged alternately, but to no effect; they tied him to the tree and 
kept him there most of the night. They did not even untie him 
directly after he became sober, until they extorted a promise from 
him that he would behave himself and keep sober for the future, 
and not maltreat them for the favor they had conferred upon him 
and themselves. 

Two or three applications of this mild and diluted form of lynch 
law had an admirable effect in restoring order and peace in that 
family and correcting the conduct of the delinquent husband and 
father. The old woman thinks the plan they pursued far better 
and less expensive than it would have been if they had gone ten 
miles to Esquire Makepeace every few weeks and got out a writ for 
assault and battery besides the trouble and expense of attending 
as witnesses, $10 or $20 every month or two, and withal doing no 
good toward reforming the old man. 

THE " CHOKE TRAP." 

About 1S08, in the neighborhood on the east fork of White river, 
there occurred a flagrant breach of the peace which demanded a 
summary execution of the law. A certain ungallant offender had 
flogged his wife in a most barbarous mariner and then drove her 
from home. Bleeding and weeping, the poor woman appeared be- 
fore Justice Tongs for redress. The justice wrote out an affidavit, 
which was signed, sworn to, and subscribed in due form. A warrant 
was soon placed in the hands of a constable commanding him to 
arrest and forthwith bring the offender before Justice Tongs, to 
answer to the charge preferred against him. After an absence of 
some five or six hours, the constable returned with the prisoner in 
custody. He had had a vexatious time of it, for the prisoner, a 
gigantic man, had frequently on the way, after he had consented 
peaceably to accompany him to the magistrate's office, stopped short 
and declared he would go no further, observing at the same time 
that neither he (the constable) nor 'Squire Tongs had any business 
to meddle with his domestic concerns. It was during one of those 
Texatious parleys, the constable coaxing and persuading, and the 



182 IIISTOKY OF INDIANA. 

prisoner protesting and swinging back like an unruly ox, that the 
constable fortunately spied a hunter at a short distance who was 
armed and accoutred in real backwoods style. The constable beck- 
oned to the hunter, who then came up to his assistance, and who, 
after hearing the particulars of the affair, cocked his rifle, and soon 
galloped off the prisoner to the 'Squire's office. 

But this was only the beginning of the trouble in the case. The 
witnesses were yet to be summoned and brought before the justice; 
even the complaining witness had unexpectedly withdrawn from 
the house and premises of the justice, and was to be looked after. 
The hunter- could not possibly stay long, as his comrades were to 
meet him at a point down 10 or 15 miles distant that evening. 
The prisoner was quite sullen, and it was evident that the 'Squire 
could not keep him safely if the constable and hunter were to leave. 
Although the 'Squire's jurisdiction extended from the west line of 
Ohio far toward the, Rocky Mountains, and from the Ohio river 
north to Green Bay, yet so sparse was the neighborhood in point of 
population, and so scattering were the settlers, that he and his 
faithful constable found that it would be but little use to a call upon 
the 2>osse comitatus. But in this critical situation of affairs, the 
fruitful mind of the justice hit upon a first-rate plan to keep the 
prisoner until the witnesses co'uld be brought. Tt was simply to 
pry up the corner of his heavy eight-rail fence near by, make a 
crack two or three rails above the ground, and thrust the prisoner's, 
head through the crack, and then take out the pry. 

As soon as the 'Squire made known his plan to the company 
they with one accord resolved to adopt it. The constable immedi- 
ately rolled out an empty " bee-gum" for a fulcrum, and applied a 
fence rail for a lever; up went the fence, the justice took hold of the 
prisoner's arm, and, with the assisting nudges of the hunter, who 
brought up the rear with rifle in hand, they thurst the prisoner's 
head through the crack, nolens -tw^s, and then took out the prop. 
There lay the offender safe enough, his head on one side of the fence 
and his body on the other. The hunter went on his way, satisfied 
that he had done signal service to his country, and the constable 
could now be spared to hunt up the witnesses. 

The prisoner in the meantime, although the crack in the fence 
was fully large enough without pinching, kept squirming about and 
bawling out lustily, " Choke trap! T4ie devil take your choke 
trap!" Toward sunset the constable returned with the witnesses. 
The prisoner was taken from his singular duress, and was regularly. 




PONTIAC . 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 185 

tried for his misdemeanor. He was found guilty, fined, and, as it 
appeared from the evidence on the trial that the defendant had 
been guilty aforetime of the same offense, the justice sentenced him 
to three hours' imprisonment in jail. There being no jail within 
100 miles, the constable and bystanders led the offender to the 
fence again, rolled up the "bee-gum," applied the rail, and thrust 
his head a second time through the fence. There lie remained in 
limbo until ten o'clock that night, when, after giving security for 
the final costs, he was set at liberty, with not a few cautions that 
he had better " let Betsey alone," or he would get another applica- 
on of the law and the " choke trap." — Cox' Recollections of the 
Wabash Valley. 

MICHIGAN BOTJNDAKY. 

About the year 1834 Michigan claimed that her southern bound- 
ary was properly about 10 miles south of the parallel fixed by Con- 
gress, that is, a line drawn from the extreme southern extremity of 
Lake Michigan directly east to Lake Erie, thus including Toledo. 
Ohio and Indiana, especially the former, stoutly opposed this 
claim. The contest grew so warm that military organization had 
actually commenced, and a war was expected. This was called the 
"Toledo war," and for a time there was as much excitement as on 
the eve of a great revolution. But the blustering Wolverine was 
soothed to rest by an offer of a large extent of territory north and 
west of the Strait of Mackinaw. Had that State succeeded in es- 
tablishing its claim by decree of Congress, Indiana would have 
been cut off from the lakes, thrown entirely inland like Kentucky, 
and lost a very valuable strip of country. This State also would 
have probably lost the co-operation of Ohio in the conduct of the 
Wahash & Erie canal, the greatest and costliest pet of the State. 
It is amusing to observe, by the way, that the people of Michigan 
at first thought that their reward for yielding the golden strip on 
her southern boundary was a very meager one, thinking that she 
had naught but a barren waste and a large body of cold water; but 
behold, how vast are now her mineral resources in that same bleak 
country, the "upper peninsula!" 



THE MEXICAN WAR 

During the administration of Gov. "Whitcomb the war with 
Mexico occurred, which resulted in annexing to the United States 
vast tracts of land in the south and west. Indiana contributed her 
full ratio to the troops in that war. and with a remarkable spirit ot 
promptness and patriotism adopted all measures to sustain the gen- 
eral Government. These new acquisitions of territory re-opened 
the discussion of the slavery question, and Governor Whitcomb 
expressed his opposition to a further extension of the " national 
sin." 

The causes which led to a declaration of war against Mexico in 
1846, must be sought for as far back as the year 1S30, when the 
present State of Texas formed a province of New and Independent 
Mexico. During the years immediately preceding 1S30, Moses 
Austin, of Connecticut, obtained a liberal grant of lauds from the 
established Government, and on his death his son was treated in an 
equally liberal manner. The glowing accounts rendered by Aus- 
tin, and the vivid picture of Elysian fields drawn by visiting jour- 
nalists, soon resulted in the influx of a large tide of immigrants, 
nor did the movement to the Southwest cease until 1830. The 
Mexican province held a prosperous population, comprising 10,000 
American citizens. The rapacious Government of the Mexicans 
looked with greed and jealousy upon their eastern province, and, 
under the presidency of Gen. Santa Anna, enacted such measures, 
both unjust and oppressive, as would meet their design of goading 
the people of Texas on to revolution, and thus afford an opportu- 
nity for the infliction of punishment upon subjects whose only 
crime was industry and its accompaniment, prosperity. Precisely 
in keeping with the course pursued by the British toward the col- 
onists of the Eastern States in the last century, Santa Anna's 
Government met the remonstrances of the colonists of Texas with 
threats; and they, secure in their consciousness of right quietly 
issued their declaration of independence, and proved its literal 
meaning on the field of Gonzales in 1S35, having with a force of 

(186) 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 1S7 

500 men forced the Mexican army of 1,000 to fly for refuge to their 
strongholds. Battle after battle followed, bringing victory always 
to the Colonists, and ultimately resulting in the total rout of the 
Mexican army and the evacuation of Texas. The routed army 
after a short term of rest reorganized, and reappeared in the Terri- 
tory, 8,000 strong. On April 21, a division of this large force 
under Santa Anna encountered the Texans under General Samuel 
Housfon on the banks of the San Jacinto, and though Houston 
could only oppose 800 men to the Mexican legions, the latter were 
driven from the field, nor could they reform their scattered ranks until 
their General was captured next day and forced to sign the declaration 
of 1835. The signature of Santa Anna, though ignored by the 
Congress of the Mexican Republic, and consequently left unratified 
on the part of Mexico, was effected in so much, that after the sec- 
ond defeat of the army of that Republic all the hostilities of an 
important nature ceased, the Republic of Texas was recognized by 
the powers, and subsequently became an integral part of the United 
States, July 4, 1846. At this period General Herrera was pres- 
ident of Mexico. He was a man of peace, of common sense, and 
very patriotic; and he thus entertained, or pretended to enter- 
tain, the great neighboring Republic in high esteem. For this 
reason he grew unpopular with his people, and General Paredes 
was called to the presidential chair, which he continued to occupy 
until the breaking out of actual hostilities with the United States, 
when Gen. Santa Anna was elected thereto. 

President Polk, aware of the state of feeling in Mexico, ordered 
Gen. Zachary Taylor, in command of the troops in the Southwest, to 
proceed to Texas, and post himself as near to the Mexican border 
as he deemed prudent. At the same time an American squadron was 
dispatched to the vicinity, in the Gulf of Mexico. In November, 
Genera] Taylor had taken his position at Corpus Christi, a Texan 
settlement on a bay of the same name, with about 4,000 men. On 
the 13th of January, 1846, the President ordered him to advance 
with his forces to the Rio Grande; accordingly he proceeded, and 
in March stationed himself on the north bank of that river, with- 
in cannon-shot of the Mexican town of Matamoras. Here he 
hastily erected a fortress, called Fort Brown. The territory ly- 
ing between the river Nueces and the Rio Grande river, about 
120 miles in width, was claimed both by Texas and Mexico; ac- 
cording to the latter, therefore, General Taylor had actually 
invaded her Territory, and had thus committed an open. 



1S8 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

act of war. On the 26th of April, the Mexican General, Ampudia, 
gave notice to this effect to General Taylor, and on the same day a 
party of American dragoons, sixty-three in number, being on the 
north side of the Rio Grande, were attacked, and, after the loss of 
sixteen men killed and wounded, were forced to surrender. Their 
commander, Captain Thornton, only escaped. The Mexican forces 
had now crossed the river above Matamoras and were supposed to 
meditate an attack on Point Isabel, where Taylor had established a 
depot of supplies for his army. On the 1st of May, this officer left 
a small number of troops at Fort Brown, and marched with his 
chief forces, twenty-three hundred men, to the defense of Point 
Isabel. Having garrisoned this place, he set out on his return. 
On the 8th of May, about noon, he met the Mexican army, six 
thousand strong, drawn up in battle array, on the prairie near Palo 
Alto. The Americans at once advanced to the attack, and, after an 
action of five hours, in which their artillery was very effective, 
drove the enemy before them, and encamped upon the field. The 
Mexican loss was about one hundred killed; that ot the Americans, 
four killed and forty wounded. Major Ringgold, of the artillery, 
an officer of great merit, was mortally wounded. The next day, as 
the Americans advanced, they again met the enemy in a strong 
position near Resaca de la Palma, three miles from Fort Brown. 
An action commenced, and was fiercely contested, the artillery on 
both sides being served with great vigor. At last the Mexicans 
gave way, and fled in confusion, General de la Vega having fallen 
into the hands of the Americans. They also abandoned their guns 
and a large quantity of ammunition to the victors. The remain- 
ing Mexican soldiers speedily crossed the Rio Grande, and the next 
day the Americans took up their position at Fort Brown. This 
little fort, in the absence of General Taylor, had gallantly sustained 
a.n almost uninterrupted attack of several days from the Mexican 
batteries of Matamoras. 

When the news of the capture of Captain Thornton's party was 
spread over the United States, it produced great excitement. The 
President addressed a message to Congress, then in session, declar- 
ing " that war with Mexico existed by her own act;" and that body, 
May, 1S46, placed ten millions of dollars at the President's dispo- 
sal, and authorized him to accept the services of fifty thousand 
volunteers. A great part of the summer of 1S46 was spent in prep- 
aration for the war, it being resolved to invade Mexico at several 
points. In pursuance of this plan, General Taylor, who had taken 



HISTUHY OF INDIANA. 1S9" 

possession of Matamoras, abandoned by the enemy in May, marched 
northward in the enemy's country in August, and on the 19th of 
September he appeared before Monterey, capital of the Mexican 
State of New Leon. His army, after having garrisoned several 
places along his route, amounted to six thousand men. The attack 
began on the 21st, and after a succession of assaults, during the 
period of four days, the Mexicans capitulated, leaving the town 
in possession of the Americans. In October, General Taylor 
terminated an armistice into which he had entered with the 
Mexican General, and again commenced offensive operations. 
Various towns and fortresses of the enemy now rapidly fell into 
our possession. In November, Saltillo, the capital of the State 
of Coahuila was occupied by the division of General Worth; 
in December, General Patterson took possession of Victoria, 
the capital of Tamaulipas, and nearly at the same period, 
Commodore Perry captured the fort of Tampico. Santa Fe, 
the capital of New Mexico, with the whole territory of the State 
had been subjugated by General Harney, after a march of one 
thousand miles through the wilderness. Events of a startling char- 
acter had taken place at still earlier dates along the Pacific coast. On 
the 4th of July, Captain Fremont, having repeatedly defeated su- 
perior Mexican forces with the small band under his command, de- 
clared California independent of Mexico. Other important places 
in this region had yielded to the American naval force, and in Au- 
gust, 1S46, the whole of California was in the undisputed occupa- 
tion of the Americans. 

The year 1847 opened with still more brilliant victories on the 
part of our armies. By the drawing off of a large part of 
General Taylor's troops for a meditated attack ori Vera Cruz, he 
was left with a comparatively small force to meet the great body of 
Mexican troops, now marching upon him, under command of the 
celebrated Santa Anna, who had again become President of Mexico. 

Ascertaining the advance of this powerful army, twenty thou- 
sand strong, and consisting of the best of the Mexican soldiers. 
General Taylor took up his position at Buena Vista, a valley a few 
miles from Saltillo. His whole troops numbered only four thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-nine, and here, on the 23d of February, he 
was vigorously attacked by the Mexicans. The battle was very 
severe, and continued nearly the whole day, when the Mexicans fled 
from the field in disorder, with a loss of nearly two thousand men. 
Santa Anna speedily withdrew, and thus abandoned the region of 



190 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

the Rio Grande to the complete occupation of oar troops. This left 
onr forces at liberty to prosecute the grand enterprise of the cam- 
paign, the capture of the strong town of Vera Cruz, with its re- 
nowned castle of San Juan d'UUoa. On the 9th of March, 1847, 
General Scott landed near the city with an army of twelve thousand 
men, and on the 18th commenced an attack. For four days and 
nights an almost incessant shower of shot and shells was poured 
upon the devoted town, while the batteries of the castle and the city 
replied with terrible energy. At last, as the Americans were pre- 
paring for an assault, the Governor of the city offered to surrender, 
and on the 26th the American flag floated triumphantly from the 
walls of the castle and the city. General Scott now prepared to 
inarch upon the city of Mexico, the capital of the country, situated 
two hundred miles in the interior, and approached only through a 
series of rugged passes and mountain fastnesses, rendered still more 
formidable by several strong fortresses. On the 8th of April the 
army commenced their inarch. At Cerro Gordo, Santa Anna had 
posted himself with fifteen thousand men. On the 18th the Amer- 
icans began the daring attack, and by midday every intrenchraent 
of the enemy had been carried. The loss of the Mexicans in this 
remarkable battle, besides one thousand killed and wounded, was 
three thousand prisoners, forty-three pieces of cannon, five 
thousand stand of arms, and all their amunitions and mate- 
rials of war. The loss of the Americans was four hundred 
and thirty-one in killed and wounded. The next day our forces 
advanced, and, capturing fortress after fortress, came on the 
18th of August within ten miles of Mexico, a city of two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, and situated in one of the most 
beautiful valleys in the world. On the 20th they attacked and 
carried the strong batteries of Contreras, garrisoned by 7,000 men, 
in an impetuous assault, which lasted but seventeen minutes. On 
the same day an attack was made by the Americans on the fortified 
post of Churubusco, four miles northeast of Contreras Here 
nearly the entire Mexican army — more than 20,000 in number — 
were posted; but they were defeated at every point, and obliged to 
seek a retreat in the city, or the still remaining fortress of Chapul- 
tepec. While preparations were being made on the 21st by Gen- 
eral Scott, to level his batteries against the city, prior to summon- 
ing it to surrender, he received propositions from the enemy, which 
terminated in an armistice. This ceased on the 7th of September. 
On the 8th the outer defense of Chapul tepee was successfully 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 191 

stormed by General "Worth, though he lost one-fourth of his men 
in the desperate struggle. The castle of Chapul tepee, situated on 
an abrupt and rocky eminence, 150 feet above the surrounding 
country, presented a most formidable object of attack. On the 
12th, however, the batteries were opened against it, and on the 
next day the citadel was carried by storm. The Mexicans still strug- 
gled along the great causeway leading to the city, as the Americans 
advanced, but before nightfal a part of our army was within the 
gates of the city. Santa Anna and the officers of the Government 
fled, and the next morning, at seven o'clock, the flag of the Ameri- 
cans floated from the national palace of Mexico. This conquest of 
the capital was the great and final achievement of the war. The 
Mexican republic was in fact prostrate, her sea-coast and chief 
cities being in the occupation of our troops. On the 2d of Feb- 
ruary, 1848, terms of peace were agreed upon by the American 
commissioner and the Mexican Government, this treaty being rati- 
fied by the Mexican Congress on the 30th ot May following, and 
by the United States soon after. President Polk proclaimed peace 
on the 4th of July, 1848. In the preceding sketch we have given 
only a mere outline of the war with Mexico. We have necessarily 
passed over many interesting events, and have not even named 
many of our soldiers who performed gallant and important ser- 
vices. General Taylor's successful operations in the region of the 
Rio Grande were duly honored by the people of the United States, 
by bestowing upon him the Presidency. General Scott's campaign, 
from the attack on Vera Cruz, to the surrender of the city of 
Mexico, was far more remarkable, and, in a military point of view, 
must be considered as oneof the most brilliant of modern times. It 
is true the Mexicans are not to be ranked with the great nations of 
the earth; with a population of seven or eight millions, they have 
little more than a million of the white race, the rest being half-civ- 
ilized Indians and mestizos, that is, those of mixed blood. Their 
government is inefficient, and the people divided among them- 
selves. Their soldiers often fought bravely, but they were badly 
officered. While, therefore, we may consider the conquest of so 
extensive and populous a country, in so short a time, and attended 
with such constant superiority even to the greater numbers of the 
enemy, as highly gratifying evidence of the courage and capacity 
of our army, still we must not, in judging of our achievements, fail 
to consider the real weakness of the nation whom we vanquished. 



192 HIST' l OF INDJANA. 

One thing we may certainly dwell upon with satisfaction — the ad- 
mirable example, not only as a soldier, but as a man, set by our com- 
mander, Gen. Scott, who seems, in the midst of war and the ordinary 
license of the camp, always to have preserved the virtue, kindness, 
and humanity belonging to a state of peace. These qualities 
secured to him the respect, confidence and good-will even of the 
enemy he had conquered. Among the Generals who effectually 
aided General Scott in this remarkable campaign, we must not 
omit to mention the names of Generals Wool, Twiggs, Shields, 
Worth, Smith, and Quitman, who generally added to the high 
qualities of soldiers the still more estimable characteristics of 
good men. The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo stipulated that the 
disputed territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande should 
belong to the United States, and it now forms a part of Texas, as 
has been already stated; that the United States should assume and 
pay the debts due from Mexico to American citizens, to the amount. 
of $3,500,000; and that, in consideration of the sum of $15,000,000 
to be paid by the United States to Mexico, the latter should 
relinquish to the former the whole of New Mexico and Upper 
California. 

The soldiers of Indiana who served in this war were formed into- 
five regiments of volunteers, numbered respectively, 1st, 2d, 3rd, 
4th and 5th. The fact that companies of the three first-named reg- 
iments served at times with the men of Illinois, the New York 
volunteers, the Palmettos of South Carolina, and United States 
marines, under Gen. James Shields, makes for them a history; be- 
cause the campaigns of the Rio Grande and Chihuahua, the siege 
of Vera Cruz, the desperate encounter at Cerro Gordo, the tragic 
contests in the valley, at Contreras and Churubusco, the storming 
of Chapultepec, and the planting of the stars and stripes upon 
every turret and spire within the conquered city of Mexico, were 
all carried out by the gallant troops under the favorite old General, 
and consequently each of them shared with him in the glories at- 
tached to such exploits. The other regiments under Cols. Gorman 
and Lane participated in the contests of the period under other com- 
manders. The 4th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, comprising 
ten companies, was formally organized at Jeffersonville, Indiana, 
by Capt. R. C. Gatlin, June 15, 1847, and on the 16th elected 
Major Willis A. Gorman, of the 3rd Regiment, to the Colonelcy; 
Ebenezer Dumont, Lieutenant-Colonel, and W. McCoy, Major. On 
the 27th of June the regiment left Jeffersonville for the front, and 



HISTORY OF INDF MA. 193 

subsequently was assigned to Brigadier-General Lane's command, 
which then comprised a battery of five pieces from the 3rd Regi- 
ment U. S. Artillery; a battery of two pieces from the 2nd Regiment 
U. S. Rrtillery, the 4th Regiment of Indiana Yolunteers and the 4th 
Regiment of Ohio, with a squadron of mounted Louisianians and 
detachments of recruits for the U. S. army. The troops of this 
brigade won signal honors at Passo de Ovegas, August 10, 1S47; 
National Bridge, on the 12th; Cerro Gordo, on the 15th; Las Ani- 
mas, on the 19th, under Maj. F. T. Lally, of General Lane's staff, 
and afterward under Lane, directly, took a very prominent part in 
the siege of Puebla, which began on the 15th of September and 
terminated on the 12th of October. At Atlixco, October 19th; 
Tlascala, November 10th; Matamoras and Pass Galajara, Novem- 
ber 23rd and 24th; Guerrilla Ranche, December 5th; Napaloncan, 
December 10th, the Indiana volunteers of the 4th' Regiment per- 
formed gallant service, and carried the campaign into the following 
year, representing their State at St. Martin's, February 27, 1848; 
Cholula, March 26th; Matacordera, February I9th; Sequalteplan, 
February 25th; and on the cessation of hostilities reported at 
Madison, Indiana, for discharge, July 11, 1848; while the 5th In- 
diana Regiment, under Col. J. H. Lane, underwent a similar round 
of duty during its service with other brigades, and gained some 
celebrity at Vera Cruz, Churubusco and with the troops of Illinois 
under Gen. Shields at Chapultepec. 

This war cost the people of the United States sixty-six millions 
of dollars. This very large amount was not paid away for the at- 
tainment of mere glory; there was something else at stake, and 
this something proved to be a country larger and more fertile than 
the France of the Napoleons, and more steady and sensible than 
the France of the Republic. It was the defense of the great Lone 
Star State, the humiliation and chastisement of a quarrelsome 
neighbor. 



SLAVERY. 

We have already referred to the prohibition of slavery in the 
Northwestern Territory, and Indiana Territory by the ordinance of 
1787; to the imperfection in the execution of this ordinance and the 
troubles which the authorities encountered; and the complete estab- 
lishment of the principles of freedom on the organization of the State. 
The next item of significance in this connection is the following lan- 
guage in the message of Gov. Ray to the Legislature of 1828: "Since 
onr last separation, while we have witnessed with anxious solicitude 
the belligerent operations of another hemisphere, the cross contend- 
ing against the crescent, and the prospect of a general rupture among 
the legitimates of other quarters of the globe, our attention has 
been arrested by proceedings in our own country truly dangerous 
to liberty, seriously premeditated, and disgraceful to its authors 
if agitated only to tamper with the American people. If such ex- 
periments as we see attempted in certain deluded quarters do not 
fall with a burst of thunder upon the heads of their seditious pro- 
jectors, then indeed the Republic has begun to experience the days 
of its degeneracy. The union of these States is the people's only 
sure charter for their liberties and independence. Dissolve it and 
each State will soon be in a condition as deplorable as Alexander's 
conquered countries after they were divided amongst his victorious 
military captains." 

In pursuance of a joint resolution of the Legislature of 1850, a 
block of native marble was procured and forwarded to Washington, 
to be placed in the monument then in the course of erection at the 
National Capital in memory of George Washington. In the 
absence of any legislative instruction concerning the inscription 
upon this emblem of Indiana's loyalty, Gov. Wright ordered the 
following words to be inscribed upon it: Indiana Knows No 
North, No South, Nothing but the Union. Within a dozen 
years thereafter this noble State demonstrated to the world her loy- 
alty to the Union and the principles of freedom by the sacrifice of 
blood and treasure which she made. In keeping with this senti- 
ment Gov. Wright indorsed the compromise measures of Congress 
on the slavery question, remarking in his message that " Indiana 
takes her stand in the ranks, not of Southern destiny, nor yet of 

(194) 




LAW-LE-WAS-I-KAW, THE SHAWNEE PROPHET. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 197 

Northern destiny: she plants herself on the basis of the Consti- 
tution and takes her stand in the ranks of American destiny." 

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT. 

At the session of the Legislature in January, 1869, the subject 
of ratifying the fifteenth amendment to the Federal Constitution, 
allowing negro suffrage, came up with such persistency that neither 
party dared to undertake any other business lest it be checkmated 
in some way, and being at a dead lock on this matter, they adjourn- 
ed in March without having done much important business. The 
Democrats, as well as a portion of the conservative Republicans, 
opposed its consideration strongly on the ground that it would be 
unfair to vote on the question until the people of the State had had 
an opportunity of expressing their views at the polls; but most of 
the Republicans resolved to push the measure through, while the 
Democrats resolved to resign in a body and leave the Legislature 
without a quorum. Accordingly, on March 4, 17 Senators and 36 
Representatives resigned, leaving both houses without a quorum. 

As the early adjournment of the Legislature left the benevolent 
institutions of the State unprovided for, the Governor convened 
that body in extra session as soon as possible, and after the neces- 
sary appropriations were made, on the 19 th of May the fifteenth 
amendment came up; but in anticipation of this the Democratic 
members had all resigned and claimed that there was no quorum 
present. There was a quorum, however, of Senators in office, 
though some of them refused to vote, declaring that they were no 
longer Senators; but the president of that body decided that as he 
had not been informed of their resignation by the Governor, they 
were still members. A vote was taken and the ratifying resolution 
was adopted. When the resolution came up in the House, the 
chair decided that, although the Democratic members had resigned } 
there was a quorum of the de facto members present, and the 
House proceeded to pass the resolution. This decision of the chair 
was afterward sustained by the Supreme Court. 

At the next regular session of the Legislature, in 1871, the 
Democrats undertook to repeal the ratification, and the Republican 
members resigned to prevent it. The Democrats, as the Republi- 
cans did on the previous occasion, proceeded to pass their resolu- 
tion of repeal; but while the process was under way, before the 
House Committee had time to report on the matter, 34 Republican 
members resigned, thereby preventing its passage and putting a 
stop to further legislation. 



THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 

On the fourth day of March, 1861, after the most exciting and 
momentous political campaign known in the history of this country, 
Abraham Lincoln — America's martyred President — was inaugu- 
rated Chief Magistrate of the United States. This fierce contest 
was principally sectional, and as the announcement was flashed over 
the telegraph wires that the Republican Presidential candidate had 
been elected, it was hailed by the South as a justifiable pretext for 
dissolving the Union. Said Jefferson Davis in a speech at Jackson, 
Miss., prior to the election, "If an abolitionist be chosen Presi- 
dent of the United States you will have presented to you the 
question whether you will permit the government to pass into 
the hands of your avowed and implacable enemies. Without 
pausing for an answer, I will state my own position to be that 
such a result would be a species of revolution by which the 
purpose of the Government would be destroyed, and the obser- 
vances of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In that event, 
in such manner as should be most expedient, I should deem it 
your duty to provide for your safet}' outside of the Union." Said 
another Southern politician, when speaking on the same sub- 
ject, " We shall fire the Southern heart, instruct the Southern 
mind, give courage to each, and at the proper moment, by one 
organized, concerted action, we can precipitate the Cotton States 
into a revolution." To disrupt the Union and form a government 
which recognized the absolute supremacy of the white population 
and the perpetual bondage of the black was what they deemed 
freedom from the galling yoke of a Republican administration. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN DID NOT SEEK THE PRESIDENCY. 

Hon. Rufus W. Miles, of Illinois, sat on the floor by the side 
of Abraham Lincoln in the Library-room of the Capitol, in Spring- 
field, at the secret caucus meeting, held in January, 1859, when 
Mr. Lincoln's name was first spoken of in caucus as candidate for 
President. When a gentleman, in making a short speech, said, 
" We are going to bring Abraham Lincoln out as a candidate for 
President," Mr. Lincoln at once arose to his feet, and exclaimed, 
"For God's sake, let me alone! I have suffered enough!" This 
was soon after lie had been defeated in the Legislature for United 
States Senate by Stephen A. Douglas, and only those who are 

(198) 



I11ST0KY OF INDIANA. 199 

intimate with that important and unparalleled contest can appre- 
ciate the full force and meaning of these expressive words of the 
martyred President. They were spontaneous, and prove beyond a 
shadow of doubt that Abraham Lincoln did not seek the high posi- 
tion of President. Nor did he use any trickery or chicanery to 
obtain it. But his expressed wish was not to be complied with; 
our beloved country needed a savior and a martyr, and Fate had 
decreed that he should be the victim. After Mr. Lincoln was 
elected President, Mr. Miles sent him an eagle's quill, with which 
the chief magistrate wrote his first inaugural address. The letter 
written by Mr. Miles to the President, and sent with the quill, 
which was two feet in length, is such a jewel of eloquence and 
prophecy that it should be given a place in history: 

Peksifer, December 21, 18G0. 
Hon. A. Lincoln : 

Dear Sir : — Please accept the eagle quill I premised you, by the hand of our 
Representative, A. A. Smith. The bird from whose wing the quill was taken, was 
shot by John F. Dillon, in Persifer township, Knox Co., Ills., in Feb., 1857. Hay- 
ing heard thr.t James Buchanan was furnished with an eagle quill to write his 
Inaugural with, and believing that in 1860, a Republican would be elected to take 
his place, 1 determined to save this quill and present it to the fortunate man, who- 
ever he might be. Reports tell us that the bird which furnished Buchanan's quill 
was a captured bird, — tic emblem of the man that used it ; but the bird from 
which this quill was taken, yielded the quill only with his life, — tit emblem of the 
man who is expected to use it, for true Republicans believe that you would not 
think lite worth the keeping after the surrender of principle. Great difficulties 
surround you ; traitors to their country have threatened your life ; and should 
you be called upon to surrender it at the post of duty, your memory will live for- 
ever in the heart of every freeman ; and that is a grander monument than can be 
built of brick or marble. 

u For if hearts may not our memories keep, 
Oblivion haste each vestige sweep, 
And let our memories end.'' 



Yours Truly, 



R W. Miles. 



STATES SECEDING. 



At the time of President Lincoln's accession to power, several 
members of the Union claimed they had withdrawn from it, and 
styling themselves the " Confederate States of America," organ- 
ized a separate government. The house was indeed divided 
against itself, but it should not fall, nor should it long continue 
divided, was the hearty, determined response of every loyal heart 
in the nation. The accursed institution of human slavery was 
the primary cause for this dissolution of the American Union. 
Doubtless other agencies served to intensify the hostile feel- 
ings which existed between the Northern and Southern portions 



200 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

of our country, but their remote origin could be traced to this great 
national evil. Had Lincoln's predecessor put forth a timely, ener- 
getic effort, he might have prevented the bloody war our nation 
was called to pass through. On the other hand every aid was given 
the rebels; every advantage and all the power of the Government 
was placed at their disposal, and when Illinois' honest son took the 
reins of the Republic he found Buchanan had been a traitor to his 
trust, and given over to the South all available means of war. 

THE FALL OF SUMTER. 

On the 12th day of April, 1861, the rebels, who for weeks had 
been erecting their batteries upon the shore, after demanding of 
Major Anderson a surrender, opened fire upon Fort Sumter. For 
thirty-four hours an incessant cannonading was continued; the fort 
was being seriously injured; provisions were almost gone, and Major 
Anderson was compelled to haul down the stars and stripes. That 
dear old flag which had seldom been lowered to a foreign foe by 
rebel hands was now trailed in the dust. The first blow of the 
terrible conflict which summoned vast armies into the field, and 
moistened the soil of a nation in fraternal blood and tears, had 
been struck. The gauntlet thus thrown down by the attack on 
Sumter by the traitors of the South was accepted — not, however, 
in the spirit with which insolence meets insolence — but with a firm, 
determined spirit of patriotism and love of country. The duty of 
the President was plain under the constitution and the laws, and 
above and beyond all, the people from whom all political power is 
derived, demanded the suppression of the Rebellion, and stood ready 
to sustain the authority of their representative and executive 
officers. Promptly did the new President issue a proclamation 
calling for his countrymen to join with him to defend their homes 
and their country, and vindicate her honor. This call was made 
April 1-1, two days after Sumter was first fired upon, and was for 
75,000 men. On the 15th, the same day he was notified, Gov. 
Yates issued his proclamation convening the Legislature. lie also 
ordered the organization of six regiments. Troops were in abund- 
ance, and the call was no sooner made than filled. Patriotism 
thrilled and vibrated and pulsated through every heart. The farm, 
the workshop, the office, the pulpit, the bar, the bench, the college, 
the school-house, — every calling offered its best men, their lives and 
their fortunes, in defense of the Government's honor and unity. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 201 

Bitter words spoken in moments of political heat were forgotten 
and forgiven, and joining hands in a common cause, they repeated 
the oatli of America's soldier-statesman : " By the Great Eternal, 
the Union must and shall be preserved.'''' The honor, the very 
life and glory of the nation was committed to the stern arbitrament 
of the sword, and soon the tramp of armed men, the clash of 
musketry and the heavy boom of artillery reverberated throughout 
the continent; rivers of blood saddened by tears of mothers, wives, 
sisters, daughters and sweethearts flowed from the lakes to the 
gulf, but a nation was saved. The sacrifice was great, but the 
Union was preserved. 

A VAST AKMT RAISED IN ELEVEN DATS. 

In July and August of 1802 the President called for 600,000 
men — our quota of which was 52,296 — and gave until August 18 as 
the limits in which the number might be raised by volunteering, 
after which a draft would be ordered. The State had already fur- 
nished 17,000 in excess of her quota, and it was first thought this 
number would be deducted from the present requisition, but that 
could not be done. But thirteen days were granted to enlist this 
vast army, which had to come from the farmers and mechanics. 
The former were in the midst of harvest, but, inspired by love of 
country, over 50,000 of them left their harvests nngathered, their 
tools and their benches, the plows in their furrows, turning their 
backs on their homes, and before eleven days had expired the 
demands of the Government were met and both quotas filled. 

The war went on, and call followed call, until it began to look as 
if there would not be men enongh in all the Free States to crush 
out and subdue the monstrous war traitors had inaugurated. But 
to every call for either men or money there was a willing and ready 
response. And it is a boast of the people that, had the supply of 
men fallen short, there were women brave enough, daring enough, 
patriotic enough, to have offered themselves as sacrifices on their 
country's altar. On the 21st of December, 1864, the last call for 
troops was made. It was for 300.000. In consequence of an im- 
perfect enrollment of the men subject to military duty, it became 
evident, ere this call was made, that Indiana, was furnishing thous- 
ands of men more than what her quota would have been, had it 
been correct. So glaring had this disproportion become, that 
under this call the quota of some districts exceeded the number of 
able-bodied men in them. 



202 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The people were liberal as well as patriotic; and while the men 
were busy enlisting, organizing and equipping companies, the ladies- 
were no less active, and the noble, generous work performed by 
their tender, loving hands deserves mention along with the bravery, 
devotion and patriotism of their brothers upon the battle-field. 

The continued need of money to obtain the comforts and neces- 
saries for the sick and wounded of our army suggested to the loyal 
women of the North many and various devices for the raising of 
funds. Every city, town and village had its fair, festival, picnic,, 
excursion, concert, which netted more or less to the cause of 
hospital relief, according to the population of the place and the 
amount of energy and patriotism displayed on such occasions. 
Especially was this characteristic of our own fair State, and scarcely 
a hamlet within its borders which did not send something from its- 
stores to hospital or battle-field, and in the larger towns and cities- 
were well-organized soldiers' aid societies, working systematically 
and continuously from the beginning of the war till its close. 
Sherman's march to the sea. 

On the 15th of November, 1S64, after the destruction of Atlanta, 
and the railroads behind him, Sherman, with his army, began his 
march to the sea-coast. The almost breathless anxiety with which 
his progress was watched by the loyal hearts of the nation, and the 
trembling apprehension with which it was regarded by all who- 
hoped for rebel success, indicated this as one of the most remark- 
able events of the war; and so it proved. Of Sherman's army, 45 
regiments of infantry, three companies of artillery, and one of 
cavalry were from this State. Lincoln answered all rumors of 
Sherman's defeat with, "It is impossible; there is a mighty sight 
of fight in 100,000 "Western men." 

CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

One other name from the West comes up in all minds, embalmed 
in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this sketch of 
our glory and of our nation's honor: that name is Abraham 
Lincoln. The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on. 
account of its symmetry. In this age we look with admiration at 
his uncompromising honesty; and well we may, for this saved us. 
Thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country, who 
knew him only as " Honest Old Abe," voted for him on that 
account; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have, 
carried us through the fearful night of war. When his plans were 
too vast for our comDrehension, and his faith in the cause too sub- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 203 

lime for our participation; when it was all night about, us, and all 
dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one 
ray shone upon our cause; when traitors were haughty and exult- 
ant at the South, and fierce and blasphemous at the North; when 
the loyal men seemed almost in the minority; when the stoutest 
heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled: when generals were defeat- 
ing each other for place, and contractois were leeching out the very 
heart's blood of the republic; when everything else had failed us v 
we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in the 
storm, and said, " Mr. Lincoln is honest, and we can trust him still." 
Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair, 
we held together, and under God he brought us through to victory. 
His practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With 
such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate- 
effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. 
He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory will shed 
a glory upon this age that will fill the eyes of men as they look 
into history. Other men have excelled him in some points; but. 
taken at ail points, he stands head and shoulders above every other 
man of 6,000 years. An administrator, he saved the nation in the 
perils of unparalleled civil war; a statesman, he justified his 
measures by their success; a philanthropist, he gave liberty to one 
race and salvation to another; a moralist, he bowed from the sum- 
mit of human power to the foot of the cross; a mediator, he exer- 
cised mercy under the most absolute obedience to law; a leader, 
he was no partisan; a commander, he was untainted with blood; a 
ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime; a man, he 
has left no word of passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, 
no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfish ambition. Thus perfected, 
without a model and without a peer, he was dropped into these 
troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that 
is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the 
representative of the divine idea of free government. It is not 
too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic 
has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war 
itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mist on the 
horizon; when the Anglo-Saxon shall be spoken only by the tongue 
of the stranger, then the generations looking this way shall see 
the great President as the supreme figure in this vortex of history. 



204 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 



THE WAE ENDED — THE UNION RESTORED. 

The rebellion was ended with the surrender of Lee and his army, 
and Johnson and his command in April, 1S65. Our armies at the 
time were up to their maximum strength, never so formidable, 
never so invincible; and, until recruiting ceased by order of Sec- 
retary Stanton, were daily strengthening. The necessity, however, 




LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD. 

for so vast and formidable numbers ceased with the disbanding of 
the rebel forces, which had for more than four years disputed the 
supremacy of the Government over its domain. And now the 
joyful and welcome news was to be borne to the victorious legions 
that their work was ended in triumph, and they were to be per- 
mitted "to see homes and friends once more." 



INDIANA m THE WAR. 

The events of the earlier years of this State have been reviewed 
down to that period in the nation's history when the Republic de- 
manded a first sacrifice from the newly erected States: to the time 
when the very safety of the glorious heritage, bequeathed by the 
fathers as a rich legacy, was threatened with a fate worse than death 
'■ — a life under laws that harbored the slave— a civil defiance of the 
first principles of the Constitution. 

Indiana was among the first to respond to the summons of patri- 
otism, and register itself on the national roll ot honor, even as she 
was among the first to join in that song of joy which greeted a Re- 
public made doubly glorious within a century by the dual victory 
which won liberty for itself, and next bestowed the precious boon 
upon the colored slave. 

The fall of Fort Sumter was a signal for the uprising of the State. 
The news of the calamity was flashed to Indianapolis on the 14th of 
April, 1861, and early the next morning the electric wire brought 
the welcome message to Washington: — 

Executive Department of Indiana, | 
Indianapolis, April 15, 1861. j 
To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States ■— On behalf of the State 
of Indiana, I tender to you for the defense of the Nation, and to uphold the au- 
thority of the Government, ten thousand men. 

OLIVER P. MORTON, 
Governor of Indiana. 

This may be considered the first official act of Governor Morton, 
who had just entered on the duties of his exalted position. The 
State was in an almost helpless condition, and yet the faith of the 
" War Governor " was prophetic, when, after a short consultation 
with the members of the Executive Council, he relied on the fidelity 
of ten thousand men and promised their services to the Protectorate 
at Washington. This will be more apparent when the military 
condition of the State at the beginning of 1861 is considered. At 
that time the armories contained less than five hundred stand of 
serviceable small arms, eight pieces of cannon which might be use- 
ful in a museum of antiquities, with sundry weapons which would 
merely do credit to the aborigines of one hundred years ago. The 
financial condition of the State was even worse than the military. 

(205) 



206 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The sum of $10,3t'>S.5S in trust funds was the amount of cash in the 
hands of the Treasurer, and this was, to all intents and purposes 
unavailahle to meet the emergency, since it could not be devoted 
to the military requirements of the day. This state of affairs was 
dispiriting in the extreme, and would doubtless have militated 
against the ultimate success of any other man than Morton; yet 
he overleaped every difficulty, nor did the fearful realization of 
Floyd's treason, discovered during his visit to Washington, damp 
his indomitable courage and energy, but with rare persistence he 
urged the claims of his State, and for his exertions was requited 
with an order for live thousand muskets. The order was not exe- 
cuted until hostilities were actually entered npon, and consequently 
for some days succeeding the publication of the President's procla- 
mation the people labored under a feeling of terrible anxiety min- 
gled with uncertainty, amid the confusion which followed the crim- 
inal negligence that permitted the disbandment of the magnificent 
corps (V armee (51,000 men) of 1S32 two years later in 1S34, Great 
numbers of the people maintained their equanamity with the result 
of beholding within a brief space of time every square mile of their 
State represented by soldiers prepared to fight to the bitter end in 
defense of cherished institutions, and for the extension of the prin- 
ciple of human liberty to all States and classes within the limits of 
the threatened Tnion This, their zeal, was not animated by hos- 
tility to the slave holders of the Southern States, but rather by a 
fraternal spirit, akin to that which urges the eldest brother to cor- 
rect the persistent follies of his juniors, and thus lead them from 
crime to the maintenance of family honor; in this correction, to 
draw them away from all that was cruel, diabolical and inhuman in 
the Republic, to all that is gentle, holy and sublime therein. Many 
of the raw troops were not only unimated by a patriotic feeling, 
but also by that beautiful idealization of the poet, who in his un- 
conscious Republicanism, said: 

" I would not have a slave to till my ground, 

To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, 

And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 

That sinews bought and sold have ever earned 

No: dear as freedom is — and, in my heart's 

Just estimation, prized above all price — 

I had much rather be myself the slave, 

And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him." 

Thus animated, it is not a matter for surprise to find the first 
call to arms issued by the President, and calling for 75,000 men, 



HISTOKT OF INDIANA. 207 

answered nobly by the people of Indiana. The quota of troops to 
be furnished by the State on the first call \va- 4,683 men for three 
years' service from April 15, 1860. On the 16th of April, Gov- 
ernor Morton issued his proclamation calling on all citizens of the 
State, who had the welfare of the Republic at heart, to organize 
themselves into six regiments in defense of their rights, and in 
opposition to the varied acts of rebellion, charged by him against 
the Southern Confederates. To this end, the Hon. Lewis "Wallace, 
a soldier of the Mexican campaign was appointed Adjutant-General, 
Col. Thomas A. Morris of the United States Military Academy, 
Quartermaster-General, and Isaiah Mansur, a merchant of Indian- 
apolis, Commissary-GeneraL These general officers converted the 
grounds and buildings of the State Board of Agriculture into a 
military headquarters, and designated the position Camp Morton, 
as the beginning of the many honors which were to follow the pop- 
ular Governor throughout his future career. Now the people, im- 
bued with confidence in their Government and leaders, rose to the 
grandeur of American freemen, and with an enthusiasm never 
equaled hitherto, flocked to the standard of the nation; so that 
within a few days (19th April; 2,400 men were ranked beneath 
their regimental banners, until as the official report testifies, the 
anxious question, passing from mouth to mouth, was, " Which of 
us will be allowed to go? " It seemed as if Indiana was about to 
monopolize the honors of the period, and place the 75.000 men 
demanded of the Union by the President, at his disposition. Even 
?iow under the genial sway of guaranteed peace, the features of 
Indiana's veterans flush with righteous pride when these days — re- 
membrances of heroic sacrifice — are named, and freemen, still un- 
born, will read their history only to be blessed and glorified in the 
possession of such truly, noble progenitors. Nor were the ladies 
of the State unmindful of their duties. Everywhere they partook 
■of the general enthusiasm, and made it practical so far as in their 
power, by embroidering and presenting standards and regimental 
■colors, organizing aid and relief societies, and by many other acts 
of patriotism and humanity inherent in the high nature of woman. 
During the days set apart by the military authorities for the or- 
ganization of the regiments, the financiers of the State were en- 
gaged in the reception of munificent grants of money from pri- 
vate citizens, while the money merchants within and without the 
- ite offered large loans to the recognized Legislature without even 
imposing a condition of payment. This most practical generosity 



208 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

strengthened the hands of the Executive, and within a very few days 
Indiana had passed the crucial test, recovered some of her military 
prestige lost in 1834, and so was prepared to vie with the other 
and wealthier States in making sacrifices for the public welfare. 

On the 20th of April, Messrs, I. S. Dobbs and Alvis D. Gall re- 
ceived their appointments as Medical Inspectors of the Division, 
while Major T. J. Wood arrived at headquarters from Washington 
to receive the new!}' organized regiments into the service of the 
Union. At the moment this formal proceeding took place, Morton, 
unable to restrain the patriotic ardor ol the people, telegraphed to 
the capitol that he could place six regiments of infantry at the dis- 
posal of the General Government within six days, if such a pro- 
ceeding were acceptable; but in consequence of the wires being cut 
between the State and Federal capitols, no answer came. Taking 
advantage of the little doubt which ma}' have had existence in re- 
gard to future action in the matter and in the absence of general 
orders, he gave expression to an intention of placing the volunteers 
in camp, and in his message to the Legislature, who assembled three 
days later, he clearly laid down the principle of immediate action 
and strong measures, recommending a uote of §1,000,000 for there- 
organization of the volunteers, for the purchase of arms and supplies, 
and for the punishment of treason. The message was received most 
enthusiastically. The assembly recognized the great points made 
by the Governor, and not only yielded to them in toto, but also made 
the following grand appropriations: 

General military purposes $1,000,000 

Purchase of arms 300,000 

Contingent military expenses 100,000 

Organization and support of militia for two years 140,000 

These appropriations, together with the laws enacted during the 
session of the Assembly, speak for the men of Indiana. The celerity 
with which these laws were put in force, thediligince and economy 
exercised by the officers, entrusted with their administration, and 
that systematic genius, under which all the machinery of Govern- 
ment seemed to work iu harmony, — all, all, tended to make for the 
State a spring-time of noble deeds, when seeds might becast along 
her fertile fields and in the streets of her villages of industry to 
grow up at once and blossom iu the ray of fame, and after to bloom 
throughout the ages. AVithin three days after the opening of the 
extra session of the Legislature (27th April) six new regiments were 
organized, and commissioned for three months' service. These reg- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 209 

iments, notwithstanding the fact that the first six regiments were 
already mustered into the general service, were known as ''The 
First Brigade, Indiana Volunteers," and with the simple object of 
making the way of the future student of a brilliant history clear, 
were numbered respectively 

Sixth Regiment, commanded by Col. T. T. Crittenden. 

Seventh " " " " Ebenezer Dumont. 

Eighth " " " " W. P. Benton. 

Ninth " " " " R. II. Milroy. 

Tenth " " " " T. T. Reynolds. 

Eleventh " " " " Lewis Wallace. 

The idea of these numbers was suggested by the fact that the 
military representation of Indiana in the Mexican Campaign was 
one brigade of five regiments, and to observe consecutiveness the 
regiments comprised in the first division of volunteers were thus 
numbered, and the entire force placed under Brigadier General T. 
A. Morris, with the following staff: John Love, Major; Cyrus C- 
Ilines, Aid-de-camp; and J. A. Stein, Assistant Adjutant General. 
To follow the fortunes of these volunteers through all the vicissi- 
tudes of war would prove a special work; yet their valor and endur- 
ance during their first term of service deserved a notice of even more 
value than that of the historian, since a commander's opinion has 
to be taken as the basis upon which the chronicler may expatiate. 
Therefore the following dispatch, dated from the headquarters of the 
Army of Occupation, Beverly Camp, W. Virginia, July 21, 1861, 
must be taken as one of the first evidences of their utility and 
valor: — 

"Governor O. P. Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Governor:— I have directed the three months' regiments from Indiana to 
move to Indianapolis, there to be mustered out and reorganized for three years' 
service. 

I cannot permit them to return to you without again expressing my high 
appreciation of the distinguished valor and endurance of the Indiana troops, and 
my hope that but a short time will elapse before I have the pleasure of knowing 
that they are again ready for the field. ******* 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
George B. McClellan, 
Major- General, U. 8- A. 

On the return of the troops to Indianapolis, July 29, Brigadier 
Morris issued a lengthy, logical and well-deserved congratulatory 
address, from which one paragraph may be extracted to characterize 



•_'10 HISTORY OF IMUAna. 

the whole. After passing i^lo w v tii^ euloglUm OtJ their military 

qualities and on that unexoelled gallantry displayed at Laurel Hill, 
Phillipi and Carriok's Ford, ho says: — 

u Soldiers! Von have now returned to the Mends whose prayers went with you 
to the field of strife, They welcome you with pride and exultation, Your State 
ami country acknowledge the value of your labors Mo youi Future oareer be as 
your past Las been,— honorable to yourselves and sen Useable lo your country." 

The six regiments forming Morris 1 brigade, together with one 
composed of the surplus volunteers, tor whom there was no regi- 
ment in April, now formed a division of seven regiments, all reor- 
ganised for three years' service, between the 20th August and :20th 
September, with the exception of the now or 12th, whioh was ac- 
cepted for one year's Berviee from Ma\ 11th, under command of 
Colonel John M. Wallace, and reorganized May 17. 1862, for three 
years' Bervioe under Ool, W. 11. Link, who, with 172 officers and 
mon. received their mortal wounds during the Richmond (Ken- 
tucky) engagement, three months after its reorganization. 

The 18th Regiment, under Ool. Jeremiah Sullivan, was mas- 
tered into the I'nited States in 1861 and joined (ion. Mel'lellan's 
command at Rich Mountain on the 10th July. The day following it 
was present under Gen. Rosenorans ami lost eight men killed; three 
successive days it was engaged under Gen. 1. 1. Reynolds, and won 
its laurels at Cheat Mountain summit, where it participated in the 
ive victory over lien. Lee. 
14th Regiment, organized in isr>! for one year's service, and 
. on the 7th of June at Terre Haute for three years' ser. 
Commanded by Col. Kimball and showinga muster roll of 
1,184 men, it was one o( the finest, as it was the first, three years' 
regiment organized in the State, with varying fortunes attached to 
its never ending round of duty from Cheat Mountain, September, 
1861, to Morton's Ford in L864, and during the movement South in 
M ly of that year to the last of its labors, the battle ol' fold Har- 
bor. 

lorn Regiment, reorganized at La Fayette 14th June, 1861, 
under Col. Gf. D. Wagner, moved on Rich Mountain on the 11th 
of July in time to participate in the complete rout of the enemy. 
On the promotion of Col. Wagner, Lieutenant-Col. G. A. Wood 
became Colonel o( the regiment. November, IS62, and during the 
first days of January, 1868, took a distinguished part in the severe 
action of Stone River. From this period down to the battle of Mis- 
sion Ridge it was in a series of destructive engagements, and was. 



211 

iianapolis, where it was mastered oat die l#tb Jane, 
—four dajs after the expiration of its term of lei 

/A under Col. P. A. Haekleman at 
.mond for one y< ; ; ce, after partieip- -oany minor 

Mary events, was n I ont at Washing*. D.< r /n the 14:. 

Pieman was killed at the battle of Ioka, 
. atenant~ f nnas I. Lucas succeeded to the command, 

ft ■.„'.• ' ... _- 7 

■/i<mou' all the brilliant engagements 

- 
Orleans. The survivors, number i ank and file, returned to 

Indianapolis th«: J u ]y amid the rejoicing of the populace. 

was mustered into service at Indianapolis 
the : .. iiree years, under CoL IlascalL who 

on ;r General in March, 1S62, left the 

snaotC D '." . 'V:ider. Tins 

regiment participated in the many exploits of Gen. Reynold's army 

M^y.<n in l'»€.v. u.vier Gen. Wilson. 

irning to Indianapolis the 16th of August, in possession of a 

brilliam reg jent was disbanded. 

The I lonel Thomas Pattison, was organ- 

, and mustered into serviee on the 16th of 

August, 1861, . 

Black water, and succeeded in retaining a reputation made there, 

when it planted the regimental flag on the arsenal of Augusta, 
where it was disbanded Aug-- j 

Sta*. Kt, was ordered to join the army of the 

Po* . at Washington, August 

i later it took part in the battle of Lewinsville, under Colonel 
redith. Occupying Falls Church in SeptemV 
it continue'; stain >, most : viable plaee of honor on the 

military roll until its consolidation with the 20th Regiment, October, 
,nel William : itenant ColoneL 

.yette was organized in July, I 
mustered into three years' service at Indianapolis on the 22d of the 
same month, and reached the front at Coekeysville, Maryland, 
re days later. Throughout all its brilliant actions from Hat- 
teras Bank, on the 4th of 



212 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

including the saving of the United States ship Congress, at New- 
port JNews, it added daily some new name to its escutcheon. This 
regiment was mustered out at Louisville in July, 1S65, and return- 
ing to Indianapolis was welcomed by the great war Governor of 
their State. 

The 21st Regiment was mustered into service under Colonel I. 
W. McMillan, July 24, 1S61, and reported at the front the third 
day of August. It was the first regiment to enter New Orleans. 
The fortunes of this regiment were as varied as its services, so that 
its name and fame, grown from the blood shed by its members, are 
destined to live and flourish. In December, 1863, the regiment 
was reorganized, and on the 19th February, 1864, many of its 
veterans returned to their State, where Morton received them with 
that spirit of proud gratitude which he was capable of showing to 
those who deserve honor for honors won. 

The 22d Regiment, under Colonel Jeff. C. Davis, left Indian- 
apolis the loth of August, and was attached to Fremont's Corps at 
St. Louis on the 17th. From the day it moved to the support of 
Colonel Mulligan at Lexington, to the last victory, won under 
General Sherman at Bentonville, on the 19th of March, 1865, it 
gained a high military reputation. After the fall of Johnston's 
southern army, this regiment was mustered out, and arrived at 
Indianapolis on the 16th June. 

The 23d Battalion, commanded by Colonel W. L. Sanderson, 
was mustered in at New Albany, the 29th July, 1861, and moved 
to the front early in August. From its unfortunate marine ex- 
periences before Fort Henry to Bentonville it won unusual honors, 
and after its disbandment at Louisville, returned to Indianapolis 
July 24, 1865, where Governor Morton and General Sherman 
reviewed and complimented the gallant survivors. 

The 24th Battalion, under Colonel Alvin P. Hovey, was 
mustered at Vincennes the 31st of July, 1861. Proceeding imme- 
diately to the front it joined Fremont's command, and participated 
under many Generals in important affairs during the war. Three 
hundred and ten men and officers returned to their State in August, 
1865, and were received with marked honors by the people and 
Executive. 

The 25th Regiment, of Evansville mustered into service there 
for three years under Col. J. C. Veatch, arrived at St. Louis on the 
26th of August, 1861. During the war this regiment was present 
at 18 battles and skirmishes, sustaining therein a loss of 352 men 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 213 

and officers. Mustered out at Louisville, July 17, 1865, it returned 
to Indianapolis on the 21st amid universal rejoicing. 

The 26th Battalion, under W. M. Wheatley, left Indianapolis 
for the front the 7th of September, 1861, and after a brilliant cam- 
paign under Fremont, Grant, Heron and Smith, may be said to 
disband the 18th of September, 1865, when the non-veterans and 
recruits were reviewed by Morton at the State capital. 

The 27th Regiment, uuder Col. Silas Colgrove, moved from 
Indianapolis to Washington City, September 15th, 1861, and in 
October was allied to Gen. Banks' army. From Winchester 
Heights, the 9th of March 1862, through all the affairs of General 
Sherman's campaign, it acted a gallant and faithful part, and was 
disbanded immediately after returning to their State. 

The 28tii ok 1st Cavalry was mustered into service at Evans- 
ville on the 20th of August, 1S61, uuder Col. Conrad Baker. From 
the skirmish at fronton, on the 12th of September, wherein three 
companies under Col. Gavin captured a position held by a 
few rebels, to the battle of the Wilderness, the First Cavalry per- 
formed prodigies of valor. In June and July, 1865, the troops 
were mustered out at Indianapolis. 

The 29th Battalion of La Porte, under Col. J. F. Miller, left 
on the 5th of October, 1861, and reaching Camp Nevin, Kentucky, 
on the 9th, was allied to Rosseau's Brigade, serving with McCook's 
division at Shiloh, with Buell's army in Alabama, Tennessee and 
Kentucky, with Bosencrans at Murfreesboro, at Decatur, Alabama, 
and at Dalton, Georgia. The Twenty-ninth won many laurels, 
and had its Colonel promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. 
This officer was succeeded in the command by Lieutenant-Col. 
L>. M.Dunn. 

The 30th Regiment of Fort Wayne, under Col. Sion S. Bass, 
proceeded to the front via Indianapolis, and joined General Rosseau 
at Camp Nevin on the 9th of October, 1861. At Shiloh, Col. 
Bass received a mortal wound, and died a few days later at 
Paducah, leaving the Colonelcy to devolve upon Lieutenant-Col. J. 
B. Dodge. In October 1865, it formed a battalion of General Sheri- 
dan's army of observation in Texas. 

The 31st Regiment, organized at Terre Haute, under Col. Charles 
Cruft, in September 1861, was mustered in, and left in a few days 
for Kentucky. Present at the reduction of Fort Donelson on the 
13th, 14th, and loth of February, 1862, its list of killed and 
wounded proves its desperate fighting qualities. The organization 



214 HISTOEY OF INDIANA. 

was subjected to many changes, but in all its phases maintained a 
fair fame won on many battle fields. Like the former regiment, 
it passed into Gen. Sheridan's Army of Observation, and held the 
district of Green Lake, Texas. 

The 32n Regiment of German Infantry, under Col. August 
Willich, organized at Indianapolis, mustered on the '24th of August, 

1861, served with distinction throughout the campaign. Col. 
Willich was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, and Lieut. - 
Col. Henry Von Trebra commissioned to act, under whose com- 
mand the regiment passed into General Sheridan's Army, hold- 
ing the post of Salado Creek, until the withdrawal of the corps of 
observation in Texas. 

The 33d Regiment of Indianapolis possesses a military history 
of no small proportions. The mere facts that it was mustered in 
under Col. John Cobnrn, the 16th of September, won a series of 
distinctions throughout the war district and was mustered out at 
Louisville, July 21, 1865, taken with its name as one of the most' 
powerful regiments engaged in the war, are sufficient here. 

The 34th Battalion, organized at Anderson on the 16th Sep- 
tember, 1861, under Col. Ashbnry Steele, appeared among the in- 
vesting battalions before New Madrid on the 30th of March, 1862. 
From the distinguished part it took in that siege, down to the 
13th of May, 1S65, when at Palmetto Ranche, near Palo Alto, it 
fought for hours against fearful odds the last battle of the war for 
the Union. Afterwards it marched 250 miles up the Rio Grande, 
and was the first regiment to reoccupy the position, so long in 
Southern hands, of Ringold barracks. In 1865 it garrisoned Bea- 
consville as part of the Army of Observation. 

The 35th ok First Irish Regiment, was organized at Indian- 
apolis, and mustered into service on the 11th of December, 1S61, 
under Col. John C. Walker. At Nashville, on the 22d of May, 

1862, it was joined by the organized portion of the Sixty-first or 
Second Irish Regiment, and unassigned recruits. Col. Mullen now 
became Lieut-Colonel of the 35th, and shortly after, its Colonel. 
From the pursuit of Gen. Bragg through Kentucky and the affair 
at Perryville on the 8th of October, 1S62, to the terrible hand to 
hand combat at Kenesaw mountain, on the night of the 20th of 
June, 1S64, and again from the conclusion of the Atlanta campaign 
to September, 1865, with Gen. Sheridan's army, when it was mus- 
tered out, it won for itself a name of reckless daring and unsur- 
passed gallantry. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. Li 15 

The 36th Regiment, of Richmond, Ind., under Col. William 
Grose, mustered into service for three years on the 16th of Sep- 
tember, 1861, went immediately to the front, and shared the for- 
tunes of the Army of the Ohio until the 27th of February, 1862, 
when a forward movement led to its presence on the battle-field of 
Shiloh. Following up the honors won at Shiloh, it participated in 
some of the most important actions of the war, and was, in October, 
1865, transferred to Gen. Sheridan's army. Col. Grose was pro- 
moted in 186A to the position of Brigadier-General, and the 
Colonelcy devolved on Oliver H. P. Carey, formerly Lieut.-Colonel 
of the regiment. 

The 37th Battalion, of Lawrenceburg, commanded by Col. 
Geo. W. Hazzard, organized the 18th of September, 1861, left for 
the seat of war early in October. From the eventful battle of 
Stone river, in December, 1862, to its participation in Sherman's 
march through Georgia, it gained for itself a splendid reputation. 
This regiment returned to, and was present at, Indianapolis, on the 
30th of July, 1865, where a public reception was tendered to men 
and officers on the grounds of the Capitol. 

The 38th Regiment, under Col. Benjamin F. Scribner, was mus- 
tered in at New Albany, on the 18th of September, 1861, and 
in a few days were en route for the front. To follow its continual 
round of duty, is without the limits of this sketch; therefore, it 
will suffice to say, that on every well-fought field, at least from 
February, 1862, until its dissolution, on the loth of July, 1865, it 
earned an enviable renown, and drew from Gov. Morton, on return- 
ing to Indianapolis the 18th of the same month, a congratulatory 
address couched in the highest terms of praise. 

The 39tii Regiment, or Eighth Cavalry, was mustered in as 
an infantry regiment, under Col. T. J. Harrison, on the 2Sth of 
August, 1S61, at the State capital. Leaving immediately for the 
front it took a conspicuous part in all the engagements up to April, 
1863, when it was reorganized as a cavalry regiment. The record of 
this organization sparkles with great deeds which men will extol 
while language lives; its services to the Union cannot be over esti- 
mated, or the memory of its daring deeds be forgotten by the un- 
happy people who raised the tumult, which culminated in their 
second shame. 

The 40tu Regiment, of Lafayette, under Col. W. C. Wilson, 
subsequently commanded by Col. J. W. Blake, and again by Col. 
Henry Learning, was organized on the 30th of December, 1861, and 



216 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

at once proceeded to the front, where some time was necessarily spent 
in the Camp of Instruction at Bardstown, Kentucky. In February, 
1862, it joined in Buell's forward movement. During the war the 
regiment shared in all its hardships, participated in all its honors, 
and like many other brave commands took service under Gen. 
Sheridan in his Army of Occupation, holding the post of Port 
Lavaca, Texas, until peace brooded over the land. 

The 41st Regiment or Second Cavalry, the first complete regi- 
ment of horse ever raised in the State, was organized on the 3d of 
September, 1861, at Indianapolis, under Col. John A. Bridgland, 
and December 16 moved to the front. Its first war experience was 
gained en route to Corinth on the 9th of April, 1862, and at Pea 
Ridge on the 15th. Gallatin, Vinegar Hill, and Perryville, and 
Talbot Station followed in succession, each battle bringing to the 
cavalry untold honors. In May, 18 64, it entered upon a glorious 
career under Gen. Sherman in his Atlanta campaign, and again 
under Gen. Wilson in the raid through Alabama during April, 
1S65. On the 22d of July, after a brilliant career, the regiment was 
mustered out at Nashville, and returned at once to Indianapolis for 
discharge. 

The 42d, under Col J. G. Jones, mustered into service at Evans- 
ville, October 9, 1861, and having participated in the principal 
military affairs of the period, "Wartrace, Mission Ridge, Altoona, 
Kenesaw, Savannah, Charlestown and Bentonville, was discharged 
at Indianapolis on the 25th of July, 1865. 

The 43d Battalion was mustered in on the 27th of September, 
1S61, under Col. George K. Steele, and left Terre Haute en route to 
the front within a few days. Later it was al'ied to Gen. Pope's 
corps, and afterwards served witli Commodore Foote's marines in 
the reduction of Fort Pillow. It was the first Union regiment to 
enter Memphis. From that period until the close of the war it was 
distinguished for its unexcelled qualifications as a military body, 
and fully deserved the encomiums passed upon it on its return to 
Indianapolis in March, 1S65. 

The 44th or the Regimentof the 10th Congressional District 
was organized at Fort Wayne on the 24th of October, 1861, under 
Col. Hugh B. Reed. Two months later it was ordered to the front, 
and arriving in Kentucky, was attached to Gen. Cruft's Brigade, 
then quartered at Calhoun. After years of faithful service it was 
mustered out at Chattanooga, the 14th of September, 1S65. 

The 45th, or Third Cavalry, comprised ten c6mpanies 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 217 

organized at different periods and for varied services in 1861- 
'62, under Colonel Scott Carter and George H. Chapman. The 
distinguished name won by the Third Cavalry is established in 
every village within the State. Let it suffice to add that after its 
brilliant participation in Gen. Sheridan's raid down the James' 
river canal, it was mustered out at Indianapolis on the 7th of Au- 
gust, 1865. 

The 46th Regiment, organized at Logansport under Colonel 
Graham N. Fitch, arrived in Kentucky the 16th of February, 1862, 
and a little later became attached to Gen. Pope's army, then quar- 
tered at Commerce. The capture of Fort Pillow, and its career 
under Generals Curtis, Palmer, Hovey, Gorman, Grant, Sherman, 
Banks and Burbridge are as truly worthy of applause as ever fell to 
the lot of a regiment. The command was mustered out at Louis- 
ville on the 4th of September, 1865. 

The 47th was organized at Anderson, under Col. I. R. Slack, early 
in October, 1S62. Arriving at Bardstown, Kentucky, on the 21st 
of December, it was attached to Gen. Buell's army; but within two 
months was assigned to Gen. Pope, under whom it proved the first 
regiment to enter Fort Thompson near New Madrid. In 1864 the 
command visited Indianapolis on veteran furlough and was enthu- 
siastically received by Governor Morton and the people. Return- 
ing to the front it engaged heartily in Gen. Banks' company. In 
December, Col. Slack received his commission as Brigadier-General, 
and was succeeded on the regimen tal command by Col. J. A. Mc- 
Laughton; at Shreveport under General Heron it received the sub- 
mission of General Price and his army, and there also was it mus- 
tered out of service on the 23d of October, 1865. 

The 48th Regiment, organized at Goshen the 6th of December, 
1861, under Col. Norman Eddy, entered on its duties during the 
siege of Corinth in May, and again in October, 1862. The record 
of this battalion may be said to be unsurpassed in its every feature, 
so that the grand ovation extended to the returned soldiers in 
1865 at Indianapolis, is not a matter for surprise. 

The 49th Regiment, organized at Jeffersonville, under Col. J. W. 
Ray, and mustered in on the 21st of November, 1861, for service, 
left en route for the camp at Bardstown. A month iater it arrived 
at the unfortunate camp-ground of Cumberland Ford, where dis- 
ease carried off a number of gallant soldiers. The regiment, how- 
ever, survived the dreadful scourge and won its laurels on many 



218 HISTOKV UF INDIANA. 

a well-fought field until September, 1865, when it was mustered out 
at Louisville. 

The 50th Regiment, under Col. Cyrus L. Dunham, organized 
during the month of September, 1861, at Seymour, left en route to 
Bardstown for a course of military instruction. On the 20th of 
August, 1862, a detachment of the 50th, under Capt. Atkinson, was 
attacked by Morgan's Cavalry near Edgefield Junction; but the 
gallant few repulsed their oft-repeated onsets and finally drove 
them from the field. The regiment underwent many changes in 
organization, and may be said to muster out on the 10th of Septem- 
ber, 1S65-. 

TheSlsT Regiment, under Col. Abel. D. Streight, left Indianap- 
olis on the 14th of December, 1861, for the South. After a short 
course of instruction at Bardstown, the regiment joined General 
Buell's and acted with great effect during the campaign in Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. Ultimately it became a participator in the 
work of the Fourth Corps, or Army of Occupation, and held the post 
of San Antonio until peace was doubly assured. 

The 52u Regiment was partially raised at Rushville, and the 
organization completed at Indianapolis, where it was consolidated 
with the Railway Brigade, or 56th Regiment, on the 2d of Feb- 
ruary, 1862. Going to the front immediately after, it served with 
marked distinction throughout the war, and was mustered out at 
Montgomery on the 10th of September, 1865. Returning to Indian- 
apolis six days later, it was welcomed by Gov. Morton and a most 
enthusiastic reception accorded to it. 

The 53rd Battalion was raised at New Albany, and with the 
addition of recruits raised at Rockport formed a standard regi- 
ment, under command of Col. W. Q. Gresham. Its first duty was 
that of guarding the rebels confined on Camp Morton, but on 
going to the front it made for itself an endurable name. It was mus- 
tered out in July, 1865, and returned to Indiananoplis on the 25th 
of the same month. 

The 5-trH Regiment was raised at Indianapolis on the 10th of 
June, 1S62, for three months' service under Col. D.G.Rose. The 
succeeding two months saw it in charge of the prisoners at Camp 
Morton, and in August it was pushed forward to aid in the defense 
of Kentucky against the Confederate General, Kirby Smith. The 
remainder of its short term of service was given to the cause. On the 
muster out of the three months' service regiment it was reorgan- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 219 

ized for one year's service and gained some distinction, after which 
it was mustered out in 1863 at New Orleans. 

The 55th Regiment, organized for three months' service, retains 
the brief history applicable to the first organization of the 54th. 
It was mustered in on the 16th of June, 1S62, under Col. J. 11. 
Mahon, disbanded on the expiration of its term and was not reor- 
ganized. 

The 56th Regiment, referred to in the sketch of the 52nd, was 
designed to be composed of railroad men; marshalled under J. JVL 
Smith as Colonel, but owing to the fact that many railroaders had 
already volunteered into other regiments, Col. Smith's volunteers 
were incorporated with the 52nd, and this number left blank in the 
army list. 

The 57th Battalion, actually organized by two ministers of the 
gospel,— the Eev. I. W. T. McMullen and Rev. F. A. Hardin, of 
Richmond, Ind., mustered into service on the ISth of Novem- 
ber, 1861, under the former named reverend gentleman as Colonel, 
who was, however, succeeded by Col. Cyrus C. Haynes, and he in 
turn by G. W. Leonard, Willis Blanch and John S. McGrath, the 
latter holding command until the conclusion of the war. The 
history of this battalion is extensive, and if participation in a num- 
ber of battles with the display of rare gallantry wins fame, the 57th 
may rest assured of its possession of this fragile yet coveted prize. 
Like many other regiments it concluded its military labors in the 
service of General Sheridan, and held the post of Port Lavaca in 
conjunction with another regiment until peace dwelt in the land. 

The 58th Regiment, of Princeton, was organized there early in 
October, 1861, and was mustered into service under the Colonelcy 
of Henry M. Carr. In December it was ordered to join Gen- 
eral Buell's army, after which it took a share in the various 
actions of the war, and was mustered out on the 25th of July, 18L5,. 
at Louisville, having gained a place on the roll of honor. 

The 59th Battalion was raised under a commission issued by 
Gov. Morton to Jesse I. Alexander, creating him Colonel. Owing 
to the peculiarities hampering its organization, Col. Alexander could 
not succeed in having his regiment prepared to muster in before 
the 17th of February, 1862. However, on that day the equipment 
was complete, and on the 18th it left en route to Commerce, where 
on its arrival, it was incorporated under General Pope's command. 
The list of its casualties speaks a history, — no less than 793 men 
were lost during the campaign. The regiment, after a term char- 



220 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

acterized by distinguished service, was mustered out at Louisville 
on the 17th of July, i860. 

The 60th Regiment was partially organized under Lieut. -Col. 
Richard Owen at Evansville during November 1861, and perfected 
at Camp Morton during March, 1862. Its first experience was its 
gallant resistance to Bragg's army investing Munfordsville, which 
culminated in the unconditional surrender of its first seven com- 
panies on the 14th of September. An exchange of prisoners took 
place in November, which enabled it to joine the remaining com- 
panies in the field. The subsequent record is excellent, and forms, 
as it were, a monument to their fidelity and heroism. The main 
portion of this battalion was mustered out at Indianapolis, on the 
21st of March, 1S65. 

The 61st was partially organized in December, 1S61, under Col. 
B. F. Mullen. The failure of thorough organization on the 22d of 
May, 1862, led the men and officers to agree to incorporation with 
the 35th Regiment of Volunteers. 

The 62d Battalion, raised under a commission issued to Wil- 
liam Jones, of Rockport, authorizing him to organize this regiment 
in the First Congressional District was so unsuccessful that consoli- 
dation with the 53d Regiment was resolved upon. 

The 63d Regiment, of Covington, under James McManomy, 
Commandant ot Camp, and J. S. Williams, Adjutant, was partially 
organized on the 31st of December, 1S61, and may be considered 
on duty from its very formation. After guarding prisoners at 
Camp Morton and Lafayette, and engaging in battle on Manassas 
Plains on the 30th of August following, the few companies sent 
out in February, 1862, returned to Indianapolis to find six new 
companies raised under the call of July, 1862, ready to embrace 
the fortunes of the 63d. So strengthened, the regiment went forth 
to battle, and continued to lead in the paths of honor and fidelity 
until mustered out in May and June, 1865. 

The 64th Regiment failed in organization as an artilleiw corps; 
but orders received from the War Department prohibiting the con- 
solidation of independent batteries, put a stop to any further move 
in the matter. However, an infantry regiment bearing the same 
number was afterward organized. 

The 65th was mustered in at Princeton and Evansville, in July 
and August, 1862, under Col. J. W. Foster, and left at once en 
route for the front. The record of this battalion is creditable, not 
onlv to its members, but also to the State which claimed it. Its 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 221 

last action during the war was on the 18th and 20th of February, 
1865, at Fort Anderson and Town creek, after which, on the 22d 
June, it was disbanded at Greensboro. 

The 66th Eegiment partially organized at New Albany, under 
Commandant Boger Martin, was ordered to leave for Kentucky on 
the 19th of August, 1862, for the defense of that State against the 
incursions of Kirby Smith. After a brilliant career it was mus- 
tered out at Washington on the 3d of June, 1865, after which it 
returned to Iudianapolis to receive the thanks of a grateful people. 

The 67th Eegiment was organized within the Third Congressional 
District under Col. Frank Emerson, and was ordered to Louisville 
on the 20th of August, 1S62, whence it marched to Mnnfordville, 
only to share the same fate with the other gallant regiments en- 
gaged against Gen. Bragg's advance. Its roll of honor extends 
down the years of civil disturbance, — always adding garlands, un- 
til Peace called a truce in the fascinating race after fame, and insured 
a term of rest, wherein its members could think on comrades forever 
vanished, and temper the sad thought with the sublime mem- 
ories born of that chivalrous fight for the maintenance and integri- 
ty of a great Eepublic. At Galveston on the 19th of July, 1865, the 
gallant 67th Eegiment was mustered out, and returning within a 
few days to its State received the enthusiastic ovations of her citi- 
zens. 

The 68th Eegiment, organized at Greensburg under Major Ben- 
jamin C. Shaw, was accepted for general service the 19th of August, 
1862, under Col. Edward A. King, with Major Shaw as Lieutenant 
Colonel; on the 25th its arrival at Lebanon was reported and with- 
in a few days it appeared at the defense of Munfordville; but shar- 
ing in the fate of all the defenders, it surrendered unconditionally to 
Gen. Bragg and did not participate further in the actions of that 
year, nor until after the exchange of prisoners in 1S63. From this 
period it may lay claim to an enviable history extending to the end 
of the war, when it was disembodied. 

The 69th Eegiment, of Richmond, Ind., under Col. A. Bickle, 
left for the front on the 20th of August, 1S62, and ten days later 
made a very brilliant stand at Richmond, Kentucky, against 
the advance of Gen. Kirby Smith, losing in the engagement two 
hundred and eighteen men and officers together with its liberty. 
After an exchange of prisoners the regiment was reorganized under 
Col. T. W. Bennett and took the field in December, 1862, under 



222 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Generals Sheldon, Morgan and Sherman of Grant's army. Chick- 
asaw, Vicksburg, Blakely and many other names testify to the valor 
of the 69th. The remnant of the regiment was in January, 1865, 
formed into a battalion under Oran Perry, and was mustered out in 
July following. 

The 70th Regiment was organized at Indianapolis on the 12th of 
August, 1862, under Col. B. Harrison, and leaving for Louisville on 
the 13th, shared in the honors of Brace's division at Franklin 
and Russellville. The record of the regiment is brimful of honor. 
It was mustered out at Washington, June 8, 1865, and received at 
Indianapolis with public honors. 

The 71st or Sixth Cavalry was organized as an infantry regi- 
ment, at Terre Haute, and mustered into general service at Indian- 
apolis on the 18th of August, 1862, under Lieut. -Col. Melville D. 
Topping. Twelve days later it was engaged outside Richmond, 
Kentucky, losing two hundred and fifteen officers and men, includ- 
ing Col. Topping and Major Conklin, together with three hundred 
and forty-seven prisoners, only 225 escaping death and capture. 
After an exchange of prisoners the regiment was re-formed under 
Col. I. Bittle, but on the 28th of December it surrendered to Gen. 
J. II. Morgan, who attacked its position at Muldraugh's Hill with a 
force of 1,000 Confederates. During September and October, 1863, 
it was organized as a cavalry regiment, won distinction throughout 
its career, and was mustered out the loth of September, 1S65, at 
Murfreesboro. 

The 77th Regiment was organized at Lafayette, and left en route 
to Lebanon, Kentucky, on the 17th of August, 1862. Under Col. 
Miller it won a series of honors, and mustered out at Nashville on 
the 26th of June, 1865. 

The 73rd Regiment, under Col. Gilbert Hathaway, was mustered 
in at South Bend on the 16th of August, 1S62, and proceeded im- 
mediately to the front. Day's Gap, Crooked Creek, and the high 
eulogies of Generals Rosencrans and Granger speak its long and 
brilliant history, nor were the welcoming shouts of a great people 
and the congratulations of Gov. Morton, tendered to the regiment 
on its return home, in July, 1865, necessary to sustain its well won 
reputation. 

The 74th Regiment, partially organized at Fort "Wayne and made 
almost complete at Indianapolis, left for the seat of war on the 22d 
of August, 1S62, under Col. Charles W. Chapman. The desperate 
opposition to Gen. Bragg, and the magnificent defeat of Morgan, 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 223 

together with the battles of Dallas, Chattahoochie river, Kenesaw 
and Atlanta, where Lieut. Col. Myron Baker was killed, all bear evi- 
dence of its never surpassed gallantry. It was mustered out of ser- 
vice on the 9th of June, 1865, at Washington. On the return of the 
regiment to Indianapolis, the war Governor and people tendered it 
special honors, and gave expression to the admiration and regard 
in which it was held. 

The 75th Regiment was organized within the Eleventh Congress- 
ional District, and left Wabash, on the 21st of August, 1S63, for the 
front, under Col. I. W. Petit. It was the first regiment to enter 
Tullahoma, and one of the last engaged in the battles of the Repub- 
lic. After the submission of Gen. Johnson's army, it was mustered 
•out at Washington, on the 8th of June 1S65. 

The 76th Battalion was solely organized for thirty days' service 
under Colonel James Gavin, for the purpose of pursuing the rebel 
guerrilas, who plundered Newburg on the 13th July, 1862. It was 
organized and equipped within forty-eight hours, and during its 
term of service gained the name, " The Avengers of Newburg." 

The 77th, or Fourth Cavalry, was organized at the State capi- 
tal in August, 1S62, under Colonel Isaac P. Gray. It carved its 
way to fame over twenty battlefields, and retired from service at 
Edgefield, on the 29th June, 1S65. 

The 79th Regiment was mustered in at Indianapolis on the 2nd 
September, 1862, under Colonel Fred Knefler. Its history may be 
termed a record of battles, as the great numbers of battles, from 
1862 to the conclusion of hostilities, were participated in by it. 
The regiment received its discharge on the 11th June, 1S65, at 
Indianapolis. During its continued round of field duty it captured 
eighteen guns and over one thousand prisoners. 

The 80th Regiment was organized within the First Congress- 
ional District under Col. C. Denby, and equipped at Indianapolis, 
when, on the 8th of September, 1862, it left for the front. During 
its term it lost only two prisoners; but its list of casualties sums 
up 325 men and officers killed and wounded. The regiment may 
be said to muster out on the 22ud of June, 1865, at Saulsbury. 

The 81st Regiment, of New Albany, under Colonel W. W. 
Caldwell, was organized on the 29th August, 1862, and proceeded 
at once to join Buell's headquarters, and join in the pursuit of 
General Bragg. Throughout the terrific actions of the war its 
influence was felt, nor did its labors cease until it aided in driving 
the rebels across the Tennessee. It was disembodied at Nashville 



224 HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 

on the 13th June, 1865, and returned to Indianapolis on the 15th, 
to receive the well-merited congratulations of Governor Morton 
and the people. 

The 82nd Regiment, under Colonel Morton C. Hunter, was 
mustered in at Madison, Ind., on the 30th August, 1S62, and 
leaving immediately for the seat of war, participated in many of 
the great battles flown to the return of peace. It was mustered out 
at Washington on the 9th June, 1865, and soon returned to its 
State to receive a grand recognition of its faithful service. 

The 83rd Regiment, of Lawrenceburg, under Colonel Ben. J. 
Spooner, was organized in September, 1S62, and soon left e>i route 
to the Mississippi. Its subsequent history, the fact of its being 
under fire for a total term of 4,800 hours, and its wanderings over 
6,285 miles, leave nothing to be said in its defense. Master of a 
thousand honors, it was mustered out at Louisville, on the 15th 
July, 1865, and returned home to enjoy a well-merited repose. 

The 84th Regiment was mustered in at Richmond, Ind., on the 
Sth September, 1S62, under Colonel Nelson Trusler. Its first 
military duty was on the defenses of Covington, in Kentucky, and 
Cincinnati; but after a short time its labors became more con- 
genial, and tended to the great disadvantage of the slaveholding 
enemy on many well-contested fields. This, like the other State 
regiments, won many distinctions, and retired from the service on 
the 14th of June, 1865, at Nashville. 

The 85th Regiment was mustered at Terre Haute, under Colonel 
John P. Bayard, on the 2d September, 1862. On the 4th March, 
1S63, it shared in the unfortunate affair at Thompson's Station, 
when in common with the other regiments forming Coburn's Bri- 
gade, it surrendered to the overpowering forces of the rebel 
General, Forrest. In June, 1S63, after an exchange, it again took 
the field, and won a large portion of that renown accorded to 
Indiana. It was mustered out on the 12th of June, 1865. 

The 86th Regiment, of La Fayette, left for Kentucky on the 26th 
August, 1862, under Colonel OrvilleS. Hamilton, and shared in the 
duties assigned to the 84th. Its record is very creditable, particu- 
larly that portion dealing with the battles of Nashville on the 15th 
and 16th December, 1864. It was mustered out on the 6th of June, 
1865, and reported within a few days at Indianapolis for discharge. 

The S7th Regiment, organized at South Bend, under Colonels 
Kline G. Sherlock and N. Gleason, was accepted at Indianapolis 
on the 31st of August, 1862, and left on the same day en route to 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 225 

the front. From Springfield and Perryville on the 6th and 8th of 
October, 1862, to Mission Ridge, on the 25th of November, 1863, 
thence through the Atlanta campaign to the surrender of the South- 
ern armies, it upheld a gallant name, and met with a true and en- 
thusiastic welcome - home on the 21st of June, 1865, with a list of 
absent comrades aggregating 451. 

The 88th Regiment, organized within the Fourth Congressional 
District, under Col. Geo. Humphrey, entered the service on the 
29th of August, 1862, and presently was found among the front 
ranks in war. It passed through the campaign in brilliant form 
down to the time of Gen. Johnson's surrender to Gen. Grant, after 
which, on the 7th of June, 1865, it was mustered out at Washing- 
ton. 

The 89th Regiment, formed from the material of the 
Eleventh Congressional District, was mustered in at Indianapolis, 
on the 28th of August, 1862, under Col. Chas. D. Murray, and 
after an exceedingly brilliant campaign was discharged by Gov. 
Morton on the 4th of August, 1865. 

The 90th Regiment, or Fifth Cavalry, was organized at 
Indianapolis under the Colonelcy of Felix W. Graham, between 
August and November, 1862. The different companies, joining 
headquarters at Louisville on the 11th of March, 1863, engaged in 
observing the movements of the enemy in the vicinity of Cumber- 
land river until the 19th of April, when a first and successful 
brush was had with the rebels. The regiment had been in 22 en- 
gagements during the term of service, captured 640 prisoners, and 
claimed a list of casualties mounting up to the number of 829. 
It was mustered out on the 16th of June, 1865, at Pulaski. 

The 91st Battalion, of seven companies, was mustered into 
service at Evansville, the 1st of October, 1862, under Lieut.-Colonel 
John Mehringer, and in ten days later left for the front. In 
1863 the regiment was completed, and thenceforth took a very 
prominent position in the prosecution of the war. During its ser- 
vice it lost 81 men, and retired from the field on the 26th of June, 
1865. 

The 92n Regiment failed in organizing. 

The 93u Regiment was mustered in at Madison, Ind., on the 
20th of October, 1862, under Col. De Witt C. Thomas and Lieut.- 
Col. Geo. W. Carr. On the 9th of November it began a move- 
ment south, and ultimately allied itself to Buckland's Brigade of 



226 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Gen. Sherman's. On the 14th of May it was among the first regi- 
ments to enter Jackson, the capital of Mississippi; was next pres- 
ent at the assault on Vicksburg, and made a stirring campaign 
down to the storming of Fort Blakely on the 9th of April, 1S65. 
It was discharged on the 11th of August, that year, at Indianapo- 
lis, after receiving a public ovation. 

The 94th and 95th Regiments, authorized to be formed within 
the Fourth and Fifth Congressional Districts, respectively, were 
only partially organized, and so the few companies that could be 
mustered were incorporated with other regiments. 

The 96th Regiment could only bring together three companies, 
in the Sixth Congressional District, and these becoming incorpo- 
rated with the 99th then in process of formation at South Bend, the 
number was left blank. 

The 97th Regiment, raised in the Seventh Congressional Dis- 
trict, was mustered into service at Terre Haute, on the 20th of 
September, 1861, under Col. Robert F. Catterson. Reaching the 
front within a few days, it was assigned a position near Memphis, 
and subsequently joined in Gen. Grant's movement on Vicksburg, 
by overland route. After a succession of great exploits with the 
several armies to which it was attached, it completed its list of 
battles at Bentonville, on the 21st of March, 1865, and was dis- 
embodied at Washington on the 9th of June following. During its 
term of service the regiment lost 341 men, including the three 
Ensigns killed during the assaults on rebel positions along the 
Augusta Railway, from the 15th to the 27th of June, 1864. 

The 9Sth Regiment, authorized to be raised within the Eighth 
Congressional District, failed in its organization, and the number 
was left blank in the army list. The two companies answering to 
the call of July, 1862, were consolidated with the 100th Regiment 
then being organized at Fort Wayne. 

The 99th Battalion, recruited within the Ninth Congressional 
District, completed its muster on the 21st of October, 1S62, under 
Col. Alex. Fawler, and reported for service a few days later at 
Memphis, where it was assigned to the 16th Army Corps. The va- 
ried vicissitudes through which this regiment passed and its remark- 
able gallantry upon all occasions, have gained for it a fair fame. 
It was disembodied on the 5th of June, 1865, at Washington, and 
returned to Indianapolis on the 11th of the same month. 

The 100th Regiment, recruited from the Eighth and Tenth 
Congressional Districts, under Col. Sandford J. Stoughton, mustered 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 227 

into the service on the 10th of September, left for the front on the 
11th of November, and became attached to the Army of Tennessee 
on the 26th of that month, 1862. The regiment participated in 
twenty-five battles, together with skirmishing during fully one-third 
of its term of service, and claimed a list of casualties mounting up 
to four hundred and sixty-four. It was mustered out of the ser- 
vice at Washington on the 9th of June, and reported at Indianapolis 
for discharge on the 14th of June, 1865. 

The 101st Regiment was mustered into service at Wabash on 
the 7th of September, 1862, under Col. William Garver, and pro- 
ceeded immediately to Covington, Kentucky. Its early experiences 
were gained in the pursuit ofBragg's army and John Morgan's 
cavalry, and these experiences tendered to render the regiment one 
of the most valuable in the war for the Republic. From the defeat 
of John Morgan at Milton on the 18th of March, 1863, to the fall 
of Savannah on the 23rd of September, 1863, the regiment won 
many honors, and retired from the service on the 25th of June, 
1865, at Indianapolis. 

THE MORGAN RAID REGIMENTS — MINUTE MEN. 

The 102d Regiment, organized under Col. Benjamin M. Gregory 
from companies of the Indiana Legion, and numbering six hun- 
dred and twenty-three men and officers, left Indianapolis for the 
front early in Jul} 7 , and reported at North Vernon on the 12th of 
July, 1863, aud having completed a round of duty, returned to In- 
dianapolis on the 17th to be discharged. 

The 103d, comprising seven companies from Hendricks county, 
two from Marion and one from Wayne counties, numbering 681 
men and officers, under Col. Lawrence S. Shuler, was contemporary 
with the 102d Regiment, varying only in its service by being mus- 
tered out one day before, or on the 16th of July, 1863. 

The 101th Regiment of Minute Men was recruited from mem- 
bers of the Legion of Decatur, La Fayette, Madison, Marion and Rush 
counties. It comprised 714 men and officers under the command 
of Col. James Gavin, and was organized within forty hours after the 
issue of Governor Morton's call for minute men to protect Indiana 
and Kentucky against the raids of Gen. John H Morgan's rebel 
forces. After Morgan's escape into Ohio the command returned 
and was mustered out on the 18th of July, 1863. 

The 105th Regiment consisted of seven companies of the Legion 
and three of Minute Men, furnished by Hancock, Union, Randolph, 



228 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Putnam, Wayne, Clinton and Madison counties. The command 
numbered seven hundred and thirteen men and officers, under Col. 
Sherlock, and took a leading part in the pursuit of Morgan. Re- 
turning on the 18th of July to Indianapolis it was mustered out. 

The 106th Regiment, under Col. Isaac P. Gray, consisted of 
one company of the Legion and nine companies of Minute Men, 
aggregating seven hundred and ninety-two men and officers. The 
counties of Wayne, Randolph, Hancock, Howard, and Marion were 
represented in its rank and file. Like the other regiments organized 
to repel Morgan, it was disembodied in July, 1S63. 

The 107th Regiment, under Col. De Witt C. Rugg, was organ- 
ized in the city of Indianapolis from the companies' Legion, or 
Ward Guards. The successes of this promptly organized regiment 
were unquestioned. 

The 108th Regiment comprised five companies of Minute Men, 
from Tippecanoe county, two from Hancock, and one from each of 
the counties known as Carroll, Montgomery and Wayne, aggregat- 
ing 710 men and officers, and all under the command of Col. W. C. 
Wilson. After performing the only duties presented, it returned 
from Cincinnati on the 18th of July, and was mustered out. 

The 109th Regiment, composed of Minute Men from Coles 
county, 111., La Porte, Hamilton, Miami and Randolph counties, 
Ind., showed a roster of 709 officers and men, under Col. J. R. 
Mahon. Morgan having escaped from Ohio, its duties were at an 
end, and returning to Indianapolis was mustered out on the 17th 
of July, 1S63, after seven days' service. 

The 110th Regiment of Minute Men comprised volunteers from 
Henry, Madison, Delaware, Cass, and Monroe counties. The men 
were ready and willing, if not really anxious to go to the front. But 
happily the swift-winged Morgan was driven away, and conse- 
quently the regiment was not called to the held. 

The 111th Regiment, furnished by Montgomery, Lafayette, 
Rush, Miami, Monroe, Delaware and Hamilton counties, number- 
ing 733 men and officers, under Col. Robert Canover, was not 
requisitioned. 

The 112th Regiment was formed from nine companies of Min 
uteMen, and the Mitchell Light Infantry Company of the Legion. 
Its strength was 703 men and officers, under Col. Hiram F. I>rax- 
ton. Lawrence, Washington, Monroe and Orange counties were 
represented on its roster, and the historic names of North Vernon 
and Sunman's Station on its banner. Returning from tbe South 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 229 

after seven days' service, it was mustered out on the 17tli of 
July, 1863. 

The 113th Regiment, furnished by Daviess, Martin, "Washington, 
and Monroe counties, comprised 526 rank and tile under Col. Geo. 
W. Burge. Like the 112th, it was assigned to Gen. Hughes' 
Brigade, and defended North Vernon against the repeated attacks 
of John II. Morgan's forces. 

The 114th Regiment was wholly organized in Johnson county, 
under Col. Lambertson, and participated in the affair of North 
Vernon. Returning on the 21st of July, 1S63, with its brief but 
faithful record, it was disembodied at Indianapolis, 11 days after 
its organization. 

All these regiments were brought into existence to meet "an 
emergency, and it must be confessed, that had not a sense of 
duty, military instinct and love of country animated these regi- 
ments, the rebel General, John Ii. Morton, and his 6,000 cavalry 
would doubtless have carried destruction as far as the very capital 
of their State. 

six months' regiments. 

The 115th Regiment, organized at Indianapolis in answer to the 
call of the President in June, 1863, was mustered into service on 
the 17th of August, under Col. J. R. Mahon. Its service was short 
but brilliant, and received its discharge at Indianapolis the 10th 
of February, 1864. 

The 116th Regiment, mustered in on the 17th of August, 1863, 
moved to Detroit, Michigan, on the 30th, under Col. Charles Wise. 
During October it was ordered to Nicholasville, Kentucky, where it 
was assigned to Col. Mahon's Brigade, and with Gen. Willcox's 
entire command, joined in the forward movement to Cumberland 
Gap. After a term on severe duty it returned to Lafayette and 
there was disembodied on the 24th of February, 1864, whither Gov. 
Morton hastened, to share in the ceremonies of welcome. 

The 117th Regiment of Indianapolis was mustered into service 
on the 17th of September, 1863, under Col. Thomas J. Brady. 
After surmounting every obstacle opposed to it, it returned on the 
6th of February, 1S64, and was treated to a public reception on 
the 9th. 

The IISth Regiment, whose organization was completed on the 
3d of September, 1863, under Col. Geo. W. Jackson, joined the 
116th at Nicholasville, and sharing in its fortunes, returned to the 



230 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

State capital on the 14th of February, 1864. Its casualties were 
comprised in a list of 15 killed and wounded. 

The 119th, or Seventh Cavalry, was recruited under Col. John 
P. C. Shanks, and its organization completed on the 1st of Octo- 
ber, 1863. The rank and file numbered 1,213, divided into twelve 
companies. On the 7th of December its arrival at Louisville was 
reported, and on the 14th it entered on active service. After the 
well-fought battle of Guntown, Mississippi, on the 10th of June, 
1864, although it only brought defeat to our arms, General Grier- 
son addressed the Seventh Cavalry, saying: " Your General con- 
gratulates you upon your noble conduct during the late expedition. 
Fighting against overwhelming numbers, under adverse circum- 
stances, your prompt obedience to orders and unflinching courage 
commanding the admiration of all, made even defeat almost a vic- 
tory. For hours on foot you repulsed the charges of the enemies' in- 
fantry, and again in the saddle you met his cavalry and turned his 
assaults into confusion. Your heroic perseverance saved hundreds 
of your fellow-soldiers from capture. You have been faithful to 
your honorable reputation, and have fully justified the confidence, 
and merited the high esteem of your commander." 

Early in 1865, a number of these troops, returning from impris- 
onment in Southern bastiles, were lost on the steamer "Sultana." 
The survivors of the campaign continued in the service for a long 
period after the restoration of peace, and finally mustered out. 

The 120th Regiment. In September, 1863, Gov. Morton re- 
ceived authority from the War Department to organize eleven regi- 
ments within the State for three years' service. By April, 1864, 
this organization was complete, and being transferred to the com- 
mand of Brigadier General Alvin P. Ilovey, were formed by him 
into a division for service with the Army of Tennessee. Of those 
regiments, the 120th occupied a very prominent place, both on ac- 
count of its numbers, its perfect discipline and high reputation. 
It was mustered in at Columbus, and was in all the great battles 
of the latter years of the war. It won high praise from friend 
and foe, and retired with its bright roll of honor, after the success 
of Right and Justice was accomplished. 

The 121st, ok Ninth Cavalry, was mustered in March 1, 1S64, 
under Col. George AY. Jackson, at Indianapolis, and though not 
numerically strong, was so well equipped and possessed such excel- 
lent material that on the 3rd of May 7 it was ordered to the front. 
The record of the 121st, though extending over a brief period, is 



HIST0BY OF INDIANA. . 231 

pregnant with deeds of war of a high character. On the 2f>th of 
April, 1S65, these troops, while returning from their labors in the 
South, lost 55 men, owing to the explosion of the engines of the 
steamer " Sultana." The return of the 3S6 survivors, on the 5th of 
September, 1865, was hailed with joy, and proved how well and 
dearly the citizens of Indiana loved their soldiers. 

The 122d Regiment ordered to be raised in the Third Congres- 
sional District, owing to very few men being then at home, failed 
in organization, and the regimental number became a blank. 

The 123d Regiment was furnished by the Fourth and Seventh 
Congressional Districts during the winter of 1863-'64, and mus- 
tered, March 9, 1SG4, at Greensburg, under Col. John C. McQuis- 
ton. The command left for the front the same day, and after win- 
ning rare distinction during the last years of the campaign, par- 
ticularly in its gallantry at Atlanta, and its daring movement to 
escape Forrest's 15,000 rebel horsemen near Franklin, this regi- 
ment was discharged on the 30th of August, 1865, at Indianapolis, 
being mustered out on the 25th, at Raleigh, North Carolina. 

The 124th Regiment completed its organization by assuming 
three companies raised for the 125th Regiment (which was intended 
to be cavalry), and was mustered in at Richmond, on the 10th of 
March, 1864, under Colonel James Burgess, and reported at Louis- 
ville within nine days. From Buzzard's Roost, on the Sth of May, 
1864, under General Schofield, Lost Mountain in June, and the 
capture of Decatur, on the 15th July, to the 21st March, 1865, in 
its grand advance under General Sherman from Atlanta to the 
coast, the regiment won many laurel wreaths, and after a brilliant 
campaign, was mustered out at Greensboro on the 31st August, 
1865. 

The 125th, or Tenth Cavalry, was partially organized during 
November and December, 1S62, at Vincennes, and in February, 
1863, completed its numbers and equipment at Columbus, under 
Colonel T. M. Pace. Early in May its arrival in Nashville was 
reported, and presently assigned active service. During September 
and October it engaged rebel contingents under Forrest and Hood, 
and later in the battles of Nashville, Reynold's Hill and Sugar 
Creek, and in 1865 Flint River, Courtland and Mount Hope. The 
explosion of the Sultana occasioned the loss of thirty-five men with 
Captain Gaffney and Lieutenants Twigg and Reeves, and in a 
collision on the Nashville & Louisville railroad, May, 1864, lost 
five men killed and several wounded. After a term of service un- 



232 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

surpassed for its utility and character it was disembodied at Vicks- 
burg, Mississippi, ou the 31st August, 1S65, and returning to 
Indianapolis early in September, was welcomed by the Executive 
and people. 

The 120th, or Eleventh Cavalry, was organized at Indian- . 
apolis under Colonel Robert JR. Stewart, on the 1st of March, 1864, 
and left in May for Tennessee. It took a very conspicuous part in 
the defeat of Hood near Nashville, joining in the pursuit as far as 
Gravelly Springs, Alabama, where it was dismounted and assigned 
infantry duty. In June, 1S65, it was remounted at St. Louis, and 
moved to Fort Riley, Kansas, aud thence to Leavenworth, where it 
was mustered out on the 19th September, 1805. 

The 127th, or Twelfth Cavalry, was partially organized at 
Kendallville, in December, 1803, and perfected at the same place, 
under Colonel Edward Anderson, in April, 1804. Reaching the 
front in May, it went into active service, took a prominent part in 
the march through Alabama and Georgia, and after a service bril- 
liant in all its parts, retired from the field, after discharge, on the 
22d of November, 1805. 

The 128tii Regiment was raised in the Tenth Congressional Dis- 
trict of the period, and mustered at Michigan City, under Colonel 
R. P. De Hart, on the 18th March, 1864. On the 25th it was 
reported at the front, and assigned at once to Schotield's Division. 
The battles of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Lost Mountain, 
Kenesaw, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Dalton, Brentwood Hills, Nashville, 
and the six days' skirmish of Columbia, were all participated in by 
the 128th, and it continued in service long after the termination 
of hostilities, holding the post of Raleigh, North Carolina. 

The 129th Regiment was, like the former, mustered in at 
Michigan City about the same time, under Colonel Charles Case, 
and moving to the front on the 7th April, 18(34, shared in the for- 
tunes of the 128th until August 29, 1805, when it was disembodied 
at Charlotte, Notrh Carolina. 

The 130th Regiment, mustered at Kokomo on the 12th March, 
1804., under Colonel C. S. Parrish, left en route to the seat of war 
on the 10th, and was assigned to the Second Brigade, First Division, 
Twenty-third Army Corps, at Nashville, on the 19th. During the 
war it made for itself a brilliant history, and returned to Indian- 
apolis with its well-won honors on the 13th December, 1865. 

The 131sr, or Thirteenth Cavalry, under Colonel G. M L. 
Johnson, was the last mounted regiment recruited within the State. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 233 

It left Indianapolis on the 30th of April, 1864, in infantry trim, 
and gained its first honors on the 1st of October in its magnificent 
defense of Huntsville, Alabama, against the rebel division of 
General Buford, following a line of first-rate military conduct to 
the end. In January, 1865, the regiment was remounted, won 
some distinction in its modern form, and was mustered out at 
Vicksburg on the 18th of November, 1865. The morale and 
services of the regiment were such that its Colonel was promoted 
Brevet Brigadier-General in consideration of its merited honors. 

THE ONE HUNDRED-DATS VOLUNTEERS. 

Governor Morton, in obedience to the offer made under his auspices 
to the general Government to raise volunteer regiments for one hun- 
dred days' service, issued his call on the 23rd of April, 1864. This 
movement suggested itself to the inventive genius of the war Gov- 
ernor as a most important step toward the subjection or annihila- 
tion of the military supporters of slavery within a year, and thus 
conclude a war, which, notwithstanding its holy claims to the name 
of Battles for Freedom, was becoming too protracted, and proving 
too detrimental to the best interests of the Union. In answer to 
the esteemed Governor's call eight regiments came forward, and 
formed The Grand Division of the Volunteers. 

The 132d Regiment, under Col. S. C. Vance, was furnished by 
Indianapolis, Shelbyville, Franklin and Danville, and leaving on 
the 18th of May, 1864, reached the front where it joined the forces 
acting in Tennessee. 

The 133d Regiment, raised at Richmond on the 17th of May, 
1864, under Col. R.N. Hudson, comprised nine companies, and 
followed the 132d. 

The 134th Regiment, comprising seven companies, was organ- 
ized at Indianapolis on the 25th of Mav, 1864, under Col. James 
Gavin, and proceeded immediately to the front. 

The 135th Regiment was raised from the volunteers of Bedford, 
Noblesville and Goshen, with seven companies from the First Con- 
gressional District, under Col. W. C. Wilson, on the 25th of May, 
1864, and left at once en route to the South. 

The 136th Regiment comprised ten companies, raised in the 
same districts as those contributing to the 135th, under Col. J. W. 
Foster, and left for Tennessee on the 24th of May, 1864. 

The 137th Regiment, under Col. E. J. Robinson, comprising 
volunteers from Kokomo, Zanesville, Medora, Sullivan, Rockville, 



234 HISTORY OK INDIANA. 

and Owen and Lawrence counties, left en route to Tennessee on the 
28th of May, 1864, having completed organization the day previous. 

The 138th Regiment was formed of seven companies from the 
Ninth, with three from the Eleventh Congressional District (un- 
reformed), and mustered in at Indianapolis on the 27th of May, 
1864, under Col. J. H. Shannon. This fine regiment was re- 
ported at the front within a few days. 

The 139th Regiment, under Col. Geo. Humphrey, was raised from 
volunteers furnished by Kendallville, Lawrenceburg, EHzaville, 
Kuightstown, Connersville, Newcastle, Portland, Vevay, New 
Albany, Metamora, Columbia City, New Haven and New Phila- 
delphia. It was constituted a regiment on the 8th of June, 1864, 
and appeared among the defenders in Tennessee during that month. 

All these regiments gained distinction, and won an enviable po- 
sition in the glorious history of the war and the no less glorious 
one of their own State in its relation thereto. 

the president's call of JULY, 1864. 

The 140th Regiment was organized with many others, in response 
to the call of the nation. Under its Colonel, Thomas J. Brady, it pro- 
ceeded to the South on the loth of November, 1S64. Having taken 
a most prominent part in all the desperate struggles, round Nash- 
ville and Murfreesboro in 1864, to Town Creek Bridge on the 20th 
of February, 1865, and completed a continuous round of severe duty 
to the end, arrived at Indianapolis for discharge on the 21st of July, 
where Governor Morton received it with marked honors. 

The 14 1st Regiment was only partially raised, and its few com- 
panies were incorporated with Col Brady's command. 

The 142d Regiment was recruited at Fort Wayne, under Col. 1. 
M. Comparet, and was mustered into service at Indianapolis on the 
3d of November, 1864 After a steady and exceedingly effective 
service, it returned to Indianapolis on the 16th of July, 1865. 

THE PRESIDENT'S CALL OF DECEMBER, 1864, 

Was answered by Indiana in the most material terms. No less 
than fourteen serviceable regiments were placed at the disposal of 
the General Government. 

The 143d Regiment was mustered in, under Col J. T. Grill, on 
the 21st February, 1865, reported at Nashville on the 24th, and af- 
ter a brief but brilliant service returned to the State on the 21st 
October, 1S65. 




OPENING AN INDIANA FOKKST. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 237 

The 144th Regiment, under Col. G. W. Riddle, was mustered in 
on the 6th March, 1865, left on the 9th for Harper's Ferry, took an 
effective part in the close of the campaign and reported at Indian- 
apolis for discharge on the 9th August. 1865. 

The 145th Regiment, under Col. W. A. Adams, left Indianapolis 
on the 18th of February, 1865, and joining Gen. Steadman's division 
at Chattanooga on the 23d was sent on active service. Its duties 
were discharged with rare fidelity until mustered out in January, 
1866. 

The 146tii Regiment, under Col. M. C. Welsh, left Indianapolis 
on the 11 tli of March en 'route to Harper's Ferry, where it was as- 
signed to the army of the Shenandoah. The duties ot this regiment 
were severe and continuous, to the period of its muster out at Bal- 
timore on the 31st of August, 1865. 

The 147th Regiment, comprised among other volunteers from 
Benton, Lafayette and Henry counties, organized under Col. Milton 
Peden on the 13th of March, 1865, at Indianapolis. It shared a 
fortune similar to that of the 146th, and returned for discharge on 
the 9th of August, 1S65. 

The 148th Regiment, under Col. N. R. Ruckle, left the State 
capital on the 28th of February, 1865, and reporting at Nashville, 
was sent on guard aud garrison duty into the heart of Tennessee. 
Returning to Indianapolis on the 8th of September, it received a 
final discharge. 

The 149th Regiment was organized at Indianapolis by Col. W. 
H. Fairbanks, and left on the 3d of March, 1865, for Tennessee, 
where it had the honor of receiving the surrender of the rebel 
forces, and military stores of Generals Roddy and Polk. The reg- 
iment was welcomed home by Morton on the 29th of September. 

The 150th Regiment, under Col. M. B. Taylor, mustered in on the 
9th of March, 1865, left for the South on the 13th and reported at 
Harper's Ferry on the 17th. This regiment did guard duty at 
Charleston, Winchester, Stevenson Station, Gordon's Springs, and 
after a service characterized by utility, returned on the 9th of 
August to Indianapolis for discharge. 

The 151st Regiment, under Col. J. Healy, arrived at Nashville on 
the 9th of March, 1865. On the 14th a movement on Tullahoma 
was undertaken, and three months later returned to Nashville for 
garrison duty to the close of the war. It was mustered out on the 
22d of September, 1865. 

The 152d Regiment was organized at Indianapolis, under Col. 



238 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

W. W Griswold, and left for Harper's Ferry on the 18th of March, 
1865. It was attached to the provisional divisions of Shenandoah 
Army, and engaged until the 1st of September, when it was dis- 
charged at Indianapolis. 

The 153d Regiment was organized at Indianapolis on the 1st of 
March, 1865, under Col. O. H. P. Carey. It reported at Louis- 
ville, and by order of Gen. Palmer, was held on service in Ken- 
tuck}', where it was occupied in the exciting but very dangerous 
pastime of fighting Southern guerrillas. Later it was posted at 
Louisville, until mustered out on the 4th of September, 1865. 

The 154th Regiment, organized under Col. Frank Wilcox, left 
Indianapolis under Major Simpson, for Parkersburg, W. Virginia, 
<>n the 28th of April, 1S65. It was assigned to guard and garrison 
duty until its discharge on the 4th of August, 1S65. 

The 155th Regiment, recruited throughout the State, left on the 
26th of April for Washington, and was afterward assigned to a 
provisional Brigade of the Ninth Army Corps at Alexandria. The 
companies of this regiment were scattered over the country, — at 
Dover, Centreville, Wilmington, and Salisbury, but becoming re- 
united on the 4th of August, 1S65, it was mustered out at Dover, 
Delaware. 

The 156tii Battalion, under Lieut. -Colonel Charles M. Smith, 
left en route to the Shenandoah Valley on the 27th of April, 1865, 
where it continued doing guard duty to the period of its muster 
out the 4th of August, 1S65, at Winchester, Virginia. 

On the return of these regiments to Indianapolis, Gov. Morton 
and the people received them with all that characteristic cordiality 
and enthusiasm peculiarly their own. 

INDEPENDENT CAVALRY COMPANY OF INDIANA VOLUNTEERS. 

The people of Crawford county, animated with that inspiriting 
patriotism which the war drew forth, organized this mounted com- 
pany on the 25th of July, 1863, and placed it at the disposal of 
the Government, and it was mustered into service by order of the. 
War Secretary, on the 13th of August, 1863, under Captain L. 
Lamb. To the close of the year it engaged in the laudable pursuit 
of arresting deserters and enforcing the draft; however, on the 
18th of January, 1864, it was reconstituted and incorporated with 
the Thirteenth Cavalry, with which it continued to serve until the 
treason of Americans against America was conquered. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 239 

OUR COLORED TROOPS. 

The 2Sth Eegimknt of Colored Troops was recruited through- 
out the State of Indiana, and under Lieut.-Colonel Charles 8. 
Russell, left Indianapolis for the fronton the 24th of April, 1864. 
The regiment acted very well in its first engagement with the 
rebels at White House, Virginia, and again with Gen. Sheridan's 
Cavalry, in the swamps of the Ohickahominy. In the battle of 
the "Crater," it lost half its roster; but their place was soon filled 
by other colored recruits from the State, and Russell promoted to 
the Colonelcy, and afterward to Brevet Brigadier-General, when he 
was succeeded in the command by Major Thomas II. Logan. 
During the few months of its active service it accumulated quite a 
history, and was ultimately discharged, on the 8th of January, 
1866, at Indianapolis. 

BATTERIES OF LIGHT ARTILLERY. 

First Battery, organized at Evansville, under Captain Martin 
Klauss, and mustered in on the 16th of August, 1861, joined Gen. 
Fremont's army immediately, and entering readily upon its salu- 
tary course, aided in the capture of 950 rebels and their position 
at Blackwater creek. On March the 6th, 1S62 at Elkhorn Tavern, 
mid on the 8th at Pea Ridge, the battery performed good service. 
Port Gibson, Champion Hill, Jackson, the Teche country, Sabine 
Cross Roads, Grand Encore, all tell of its efficacy. In 1864 it was 
subjected to reorganization, when Lawrence Jacoby was raised to 
the Captiancy, vice Klauss resigned. After a long term of useful 
service, it was mustered out at Indianapolis on the 18th of August, 
1865. 

Second Battery was organized, under Captain D. G. Rabb, at 
Indianapolis on the 9th of August, 1861, and one month later pro- 
ceeded to the front. It participated in the campaign against Col. 
Coffee's irregular troops and the rebellious Indians of the Cherokee 
nation. From Lone Jack, Missouri, to Jenkin's Ferry and Fort 
Smith it won signal honors until its reorganization in 1864, and 
even after, to June, 1S65, it maintained a very fair reputation. 

The Third Battery, under Capt. W. W. Frybarger, was organ- 
ized and mustered in at Connersville on the 24th of August, 1861, 
and proceeded immediately to join Fremont's Army of the Mis- 
souri. Moon's Mill, Kirksville, Meridian, Fort de Russy, Alex- 
andria, Round Lake, Tupelo, Clinton and Tallahatchie are names 



240 HISTORY OF INDIANA, 

which may be engraven on its guns. It participated in the affairs 
before Nashville on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864, when 
General Hood's Army was put to route, and at Fort Blakely, out- 
side Mobile, after which it returned home to report for discharge, 
August 21, 1865. 

The Fourth Battery, recruited in La Porte, Porter and Lake 
counties, reported at the front early in October, 1861, and at once 
assumed a prominent place in the army of Gen. Buell. Again 
under Rosencrans and McCook and under General Sheridan at 
Stone River, the services of this battery were much praised, and it 
retained its well-earned reputation to the very day of its muster out 
— -the 1st of August, 1865. Its first organization was completed 
under Capt. A. K. Bush, and reorganized in Oct., 1S64, under Capt 
B. F. Johnson. 

The Fifth Battery was furnished by La Porte, Allen, Whitley 
and Noble counties, organized under Capt. Peter Simonson, and mus- 
tered into service on the 22d of November, 1861. It comprised 
four six pounders, two being rilled cannon, and two twelve-pounder 
Howitzers with a force of 158 men. Reporting at Camp Gil- 
bert, Louisville, on the 29th, it was shortly after assigned to the 
division of Gen. Mitchell, at Bacon Creek. During its term, it 
served in twenty battles and numerous petty actions, losing its Cap- 
tain at Pine Mountain. The total loss accruing to the battery was 
84 men and officers and four guns It was mustered out on the 
20th of July, 1864. 

The Sixth Battery was recruited at Evansville, under Captain 
Frederick Behr, and left, on the 2d of Oct., 1861, for the front, 
reporting at Henderson, Kentucky, a few days after. Early in 
1862 it joined Gen. Sherman's army at Paducah, and participated 
in the battle of Shiloh, on the 6th of April. Its history grew in 
brilliancy until the era of peace insured a cessation of its great 
labors. 

The Seventh Battery comprised volunteers from Terre Haute, 
Arcadia, Evansville, Salem, Lawrenceburg, Columbus, Vin- 
cennes and Indianapolis, under Samuel J. Harris as its first 
Captain, who was succeeded by G. R. Shallow and O. H. Mor- 
gan after its reorganization. From the siege of Corinth to the 
capture of Atlanta it performed vast services, and returned to 
Indianapolis on the 11th of July, 1865, to be received by the peo- 
ple and hear its history from the lips of the veteran patriot and 
Governor of the State. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 241 

The Eighth Batteky, under Captain G. T. Cochran, arrived at 
the front on the 26th of February, 1862, and subsequently entered 
upon its real duties at the siege of Corinth. It served with dis- 
tinction throughout, and concluded a well-made campaign under 
Will Stokes, who was appointed Captain of the companies with 
which it was consolidated in March, 1S65. 

The Ninth Battery. The organization of this battery was 
perfected at Indianapolis, on the 1st of January, 1862, under Capt. 
N. S. Thompson. Moving to the front it participated in the affairs 
of Shiloh, Corinth, Queen's Hill, Meridian, Fort Dick Taylor, Fort 
de Russy, Henderson's Hill, Pleasant Hill, Cotile Landing, Bayou 
Rapids, Mansura, Chicot, and many others, winning a name in 
each engagement. The explosion of the steamer Eclipse at Johnson- 
ville, above Paducah, on Jan. 27, 1865, resulted in the destruction of 
58 men, leaving only ten to represent the battery. The survivors 
reached Indianapolis on the 6th of March, and were mustered out. 

The Tenth Battery was recruited at Lafayette, and mustered in 
under Capt. Jerome B. Cox, in January, 1861. Having passed 
through the Kentucky campaign against Gen. Bragg, it partici- 
pated in many of the great engagements, and finally returned to 
report, for discharge on the 6th of July, 1864, having, in the mean- 
time, won a very fair fame. 

The Eleventh Battery was organized at Lafayette, and mus- 
tered in at Indianapolis under Capt. Arnold Sutermeister, on the 
17th of December, 1861. On most of the principal battle-fields, 
from Shiloh, in 1862, to the capture of Atlanta, it maintained a high 
reputation for military excellence, and after consolidation with the 
Eighteenth, mustered out on the 7th of June, 1S65. 

The Twelfth Battery was recruited at Jeffersonville and sub- 
sequently mustered in at Indianapolis. On the 6th of March, 1862, 
it reached Nashville, having been previously assigned to Buell's 
Army. In April its Captain, G. W.- Sterling, resigned, and the 
position devolved on Capt. James E. White, who, in turn, was suc- 
ceeded by James A. Dunwoody. The record of the battery holds 
a first place in the history of the period, and enabled both men and 
officers to look back with pride upon the battle-fields of the land. 
It was ordered home in June, 1865, and on reaching Indianapolis, 
on the 1st of July, was mustered out on the 7th of that month. 

The Thirteenth Battery was organized under Captain Sewell 
Coulson, during the winter of 1861, at Indianapolis, and proceeded 
to the front in February, 1862. During the subsequent months it 



242 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

was occupied in the pursuit of John H. Morgan's raiders, and 
aided effectively in driving them from Kentucky. Tins artillery 
company returned from the South on the 4th of July, 1S65, and 
were discharged the day following. 

The Fourteenth Battery, recruited in Wabash, Miami, Lafay- 
ette, and Huntington counties, under Captain M. H. Kidd, and 
Lieutenant J. W. fl. McGuire, left Indianapolis on the 11th of 
April, 1S62, and within a few months one portion of it was cap- 
tured at Lexington by Gen. Forrest's great cavalry command. The 
main battery lost two guns and two men at Guntown, on the Mis- 
sissippi, but proved more successful at Nashville and Mobile. It 
arrived home on the 29th of August, 1865, received a public wel- 
come, and its final discharge. 

The Fifteenth Battery, under Captain I. C. H. Von Sehlin, 
was retained on duty from the date of its organization, at Indian- 
apolis, until the 5th of July, 1S62, when it was. moved to Harper's 
Ferry. Two months later the gallant defense of Maryland Heights 
was set at naught by the rebel Stunewall Jackson, and the entire 
garrison surrendered. Being paroled, it was reorganized at Indian- 
apolis, and appeared again in the field in March, 1863, where it 
won a splendid renown on every well-fought field to the close of 
the war. It was mustered.out on the 24th of June, 1865. 

The Sixteenth Battery was organized at Lafayette, under 
Capt. Charles A. Naylor, and on the 1st of June, 1862, left for 
Washington. Moving to the front with Gen. Pope's command, it 
participated m the battle of Slaughter Mountain, on the 9th of 
August, and South Mountain, and Antietam, under Gen. McClel- 
lan. This battery was engaged in a large number of general en- 
gagements and flying column affairs, won a very favorable record, 
and returned on the 5th of July, 1865. 

The Seventeenth Battery, under Capt. Milton L. Miner, was 
mustered in at Indianapolis, oh the 20th of May, 1862, left for the 
front on the 5th of July, and subsequently engaged in the Gettys- 
burg expedition, was present at Harper's Ferry, July 6, 1863, and 
at Opequan on the 19th of September. Fisher's Hill, New Mar- 
ket, and Cedar Creek brought it additional honors, and won from 
Gen. Sheridan a tribute of praise for its service on these battle 
grounds. Ordered from Winchester to Indianapolis it was mus- 
tered out there on the 3d of July, 1865. 

The Eighteenth Battery, under Capt. Eli Lilly, left for the 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 243 

front in August, 1862, but did not take a leading part in the cam- 
paign until 1S63, when, under Gen. Rosencrans, it appeared prom- 
inent at Hoover's Gap. From this period to the affairs of West 
Point and Macon, it performed first-class service, and returned to 
its State on the 25th of June, 1S65. 

The Nineteenth Battery was mustered into service at Indian- 
apolis, on the 5th of August, 1862, under Capt. S. J. Harris, and 
proceeded immediately afterward to the front, where it participated 
in the campaign against Gen. Bragg. It was present at every post 
of danger to the end of the war, when, after the surrender of John- 
son's army, it returned to Indianapolis. Reaching that city on 
the 6th of June, 1865, it was treated to a public reception and 
received the congratulations of Gov. Morton. Four days later it 
was discharged. 

The Twentieth Battery, organized under Capt. Frank A. Rose, 
left the State capital on the 17th of December, 1862, for the front, 
and reported immediately at Henderson, Kentucky. Subsequently 
Captain Rose resigned, and, in 1S63, under Capt. Osborn, turned 
over its guns to the 11th Indiana Battery, and was assigned to the 
charge of siege guns at Nashville. Gov. Morton had the battery 
supplied with new field pieces, and by the 5th of October, 1863, it 
was again in the field, where it won many honors under Sherman, 
and continued to exercise a great influence until its return on the 
23d of June, 1865. 

The Twenty first Battery recruited at Indianapolis, under the 
direction of Captain W. W. Andrew, left on the 9th of September, 
1862, for Covington, Kentucky, to aid in its defense against the 
advancing forces of Gen. Kirby Smith. It was engaged in numerous 
military affairs and may be said to acquire many honors, although 
its record is stained with the names of seven deserters. The battery 
was discharged on the 21st of June, 1865. 

The Twenty-second Battery was mustered in at Indianapolis 
on the 15th of December, 1862, under Capt. B. F. Denning, and 
moved at once to the front. It took a very conspicuous part in the 
pursuit of Morgan's Cavalry, and in many other affairs. It threw 
the first shot into Atlanta, and lost its Captain, who was killed in 
the skirmish line, on the 1st of July. "While the list of casualties 
numbers only 35, that of desertions numbers 37. This battery was 
received with public honors on its return, the 25th of June, 1865, 
and mustered out on the 7th of the same month. 



244 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The Twentt-third Battery, recruited in October 1862, and 
mustered in on the 8th of November, under Capt. I. PI. Myers, pro- 
ceeded south, after having rendered very efficient services at home 
in guarding the camps of rebel prisoners. In July, 1S65, the battery 
took an active part, under General Boyle's command, in routing 
and capturing the raiders at Brandenburgh, and subsequently to 
the close of the war performed very brilliant exploits, reaching 
Indianapolis in June, 1865. It was discharged on the 27th of that 
month. 

The Twenty-fourth Battery, under Capt. I. A. Simms, was 
enrolled for service on the 29th of November, 1862; remained 
at Indianapolis on duty until the 13thof March, 1863, when 
it left for the field. From its participation in the Cumberland 
River campaign, to its last engagement at Columbia, Tennessee, it 
aided materially in bringing victory to the Union ranks and made 
for itself a widespread fame. Arriving at Indianapolis on the 2Sth 
of July, it was publicly received, and in five days later disembodied. 

The Twenty-fifth Battery was recruited in September and Oc- 
tober, 1864, and mustered into service for one year, under Capt. 
Frederick C. Sturm. December 13th, it reported at Nashville, and 
took a prominent part in the defeat of Gen. Hood's army. Its 
duties until July, 1865, were continuous, when it returned to 
report for final discharge. 

The Twenty-sixth Battery, or "Wilder's Battery," was re- 
cruited under Capt. I. T. Wilder, of Greensburg, in May, 1861; but 
was not mustered in as an artillery company. Incorporating itself 
with a regiment then forming at Indianapolis it was mustered as 
company "A," of the 17th Infantry, with Wilder as Lieutenant- 
Colonel of the regiment. Subsequently, at Elk Water, Virginia, 
it was converted into the "First Independent Battery," and became 
known as " Rigby's Battery." The record of this battery is as 
brilliant as any won during the war. On every field it has won a 
distinct reputation; it was well worthy the enthusiastic reception 
given to it on its return to Indianapolis on the 11th and 12th of 
July, 1865. During its term of service it was subject to many 
transmutations; but in every phase of its brief history, areputation 
fur gallantry and patriotism was maintained which now forms a 
living testimonial to its services to the public. 

The total number of battles in the " War of the Rebellion " in 
which the patriotic citizens of the great and noble State of Indiana 
were more or less engaged, was as follows: 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 245 

locality. No. of Battles. Locality. No. of Battles. 

Virginia 90 Maryland 7 

Tennessee 51 Texas 3 

Georgia 41 South Carolina 2 

Mississippi 24 Indian Territory 2 

Arkansas 19 Pennsylvania 1 

Kentucky 16 Ohio , 1 

Louisana 15 Indiana 1 

Missouri 9 

North Carolina 8 Total 308 

The regiments sent forth to the defense of the Eepublic in the 
hour of its greatest peril, when a host of her own sons, blinded by 
some unholy infatuation, leaped to arms that they might trample 
upon the liberty-giving principles of the nation, have beeu passed 
in very brief review. The authorities chosen for the dates, names, 
and figures are the records of the State, and the main subject is 
based upon the actions of those 267,000 gallant men of Indiana 
who rushed to arms in defense of all for which their fathers bled, 
leaving their wives and children and homes in the guardianship of 
a truly paternal Government. 

The relation of Indiana to the Republic was then established; 
for when the population of the State, at the time her sons went 
forth to participate in war for the maintenance of the Union, is 
brought into comparison with all other States and countries, it will 
be apparent that the sacrifices made by Indiana from 1861-'65 
equal, if not actually exceed, the noblest of those recorded in the 
history of ancient or modern times. 

Unprepared for the terrible inundation of modern wickedness, 
which threatened to deluge the country in a sea of blood and rob, 
a people of their richest, their most prized inheritance, the State 
rose above all precedent, and under the benign influence of patriot- 
ism, guided by the well-directed zeal of a wise Governor and 
Government, sent into the field an army that in numbers was 
gigantic, and in moral and physical excellence never equaled 

It is laid down in the official reports, furnished to the War De- 
partment, that over 200,000 troops were specially organized to aid 
in crushing the legions of the slave-holder; that no less than 50,000 
militia were armed to defend the State, and that the large, but abso- 
lutely necessary number of commissions issued was 17,1 14. All 
this proves the scientific skill and military economy exercised by 
the Governor, and brought to the aid of the people in a most terri- 
ble emergency; for he, with some prophetic sense of the gravity of 
the situation, saw that unless the greatest powers of the Union 
were put forth to crush the least justifiable and most pernicious 



246 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

of all rebellions holding a place in the record of nations, the best 
blood of the country would flow in a vain attempt to avert a catas- 
trophe which, if prolonged for many years, would result in at least 
the moral and commercial ruin of the country. 

The part which Indiana took in the war against the Rebellion is 
one of which the citizens of the State may well be proud. In the 
number of troops furnished, and in the amount of voluntary con- 
tributions rendered, Indiana, in proportion and wealth, stands 
equal to any of her sister States. " It is also a subject of gratitude 
and thankfulness," said Gov. Morton, in his message to the Legis- 
lature, " that, while the number of troops furnished by Indiana 
alone in this great contest would have done credit to a first-class 
nation, measured by the standard of previous wars, not a single 
battery or battalion from this State has brought reproach upon the 
national flag, and no disaster of the war can be traced to any want 
of fidelity, courage or efficiency on the part of any Indiana officer. 
The endurance, heroism, intelligence and skill of the officers and 
soldiers sent forth by Indiana to do battle for the Union, have shed 
a luster on our beloved State, of which any people might justly be 
proud. Without claiming superiority over our loyal sister States, 
it is but justice to the brave men who have represented us on 
almost every battle -field of the war, to say that their deeds have 
placed Indiana in the front rank of those heroic States which 
rushed to the rescue of the imperiled Government of the nation. 
The total number of troops furnished by the State for all terms of 
service exceeds 200,000 men, much the greater portion of them 
being for three years; and in addition thereto not less than 50,000 
State militia have from time to time been called into active service 
to repel rebel raids and defend our southern border from inva- 
sion." 

AFTER THE WAR. 

In 1867 the Legislature comprised 91 Republicans and 59 Dem- 
ocrats. Soon after the commencement of the session, Gov. Morton 
resigned his office in consequence of having been elected to the U. 
S. Senate, and Lieut.-Gov. Conrad Baker assumed the Executive 
chair during the remainder of Morton's term. This Legislature, 
by a very decisive vote, ratified the 14th amendment to the Federal 
Constitution, constituting all persons born in the country or sub- 
ject to its jurisdiction, citizens of the United States and of the 
State wherein they reside, without regard to race or color; reduc- 




VIEW ON THE WABASH KIVEK. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 249 

ing the Congressional representation in any State in which there 
should be a restriction of the exercise of the elective franchise on 
account of race or color; disfranchising persons therein named 
who shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States; and declaring that the validity of the public debt 
of the United States authorized by law, shall not be questioned. 

This Legislature also passed an act providing for the registry of 
votes, the punishment of fraudulent practices at elections, and for 
the apportionment and compensation of a Board of Registration; 
this Board to consist, in each township, of two freeholders appointed 
by the County Commissioners, together with the trustee of such 
township; in cities the freeholders are to be appointed in each 
ward by the city council. The measures of this law are very strict, 
and are faithfully executed. No cries of fraud in elections are 
heard in connection with Indiana. 

This Legislature also divided the State into eleven Congressional 
Districts and apportioned their representation; enacted a law for 
the protection and indemnity of all officers and soldiers of the 
United States and soldiers of the Indiana Legion, for acts done in 
the military service of the United States, and in the military ser- 
vice of the State, and in enforcing the laws and preserving the 
peace of the country; made definite appropriations to the several 
benevolent institutions of the State, and adopted several measures 
for the encouragement of education, etc. 

In 1868, Indiana was the first in the field of national politics, 
both the principal parties holding State conventions early in the 
year. The Democrats nominated T. A. Hendricks for Governor, 
and denounced in their platform the reconstruction policy of the 
Republicans; recommended that United States treasury notes be 
substituted for national bank currency; denied that the General 
Government had a right to interfere with the question of suffrage 
in any of the States, and opposed negro suffrage, etc. ; while the 
Republicans nominated Conrad Baker for Governor, defended its 
reconstruction policy, opposed a further contraction of the currency, 
etc. The campaign was an exciting one, and Mr. Baker was 
elected Governor by a majority of only 961. In the Presidential 
election that soon followed the State gave Grant 9,572 more than 
Seymour, 

During 1868 Indiana presented claims to the Government for 
about three and a half millions dollars for expenses incurred in the 
war, and $1,958,917.94 was allowed. Also, this year, a legislative 



250 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

commission reported that $413,599.48 were allowed to parties suf- 
fering loss by the Morgan raid. 

This year Governor Baker obtained a site for the House of 
Refuge. (See a subsequent page.) The Soldiers' and Seamen's- 
Home, near Knightstown, originally established by private enter- 
prise and benevolence, and adopted by the Legislature of the 
previous year, was in a good condition. Up to that date the insti- 
tution had atforded relief and temporary subsistence to 400 men 
who had been disabled in the war. A substantial brick building 
had been built for the home, while the old buildings were used for 
an orphans' department, in which were gathered 86 children of 
deceased soldiers. 

DIVORCE LAWS. 

By some mistake or liberal design, the early statute laws of 
Indiana on the subject of divorce were rather more loose than those 
of most other States in this Union; and this subject had been a 
matter of so much jest among the public, that in 1870 the Governor 
recommended to the Legislature a reform in this direction, which 
was pretty effectually carried out. Since that time divorces can 
be granted only for the following causes: 1. Adultery. 2. Impo- 
tency existing at the time of marriage. 3. Abandonment for two 
years. 4. Cruel and inhuman treatment of one party by the other. 
5. Habitual drunkenness of either party, or the failure of the hus- 
band to make reasonable provision for the family. 6 The failure 
of the husband to make reasonable provision for the family for a 
period of two years. 7. The conviction of either party of an infamous 
crime. 



FINANCIAL. • 

Were it not for political government the pioneers would have got 
along without money much longer than they did. The pressure of 
governmental needs was somewhat in advance of the monetary 
income of the first settlers, and the little taxation required to carry 
on the government seemed great and even oppressive, especially at 
certain periods. 

In November, 1821, Gov. Jennings convened the Legislature in 
extra session to provide for the payment of interest on the State 
debt and a part of the principal, amounting to $20,000. It was 
thought that a sufficient amount would be realized in the notes of 
the State bank and its branches, although they were considerablv 
depreciated. Said the Governor: " It will be oppressive if the 
State., after the paper of this institution (State bank) was author- 
ized to be circulated in revenue, should be prevented by any assign 
ment of the evidences of existing debt, from discharging at least 
so much of that debt with the paper of the bank as will absorb the 
collections of the present year; especially when their notes, after 
being made receivable by the agents of the State, became greatly 
depreciated by great mismanagement on the part of the bank 
itself. It ought not to be expected that a public loss to the State 
should be avoided by resorting to any measures which would not 
comport with correct views of public justice; nor should it be 
anticipated that the treasury of the United States would ultimately 
adopt measures to secure an uncertain debt which would inter- 
fere with arrangements calculated to adjust the demand against the 
State without producing any additional embarrassment." 

The state of the public debt was indeed embarrassing, as the 

bonds which had been executed in its behalf had been assigned. 

The exciting cause of this proceeding consisted in the machinations 

of unprincipled speculators. Whatever disposition the principal 

bank may have made of the funds deposited by the United States, 

the connection of interest between the steam-mill company and the 

bank, and the extraordinary accommodations, as well as their amount, 

effected by arrangements of the steam-mill agency and some of 

the officers of the bank, were among the principal causes which 

(251) 



252 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

had prostrated the paper circulating medium of the State, so far as it 
was dependent on the State bank and its branches. An abnormal 
state of affairs like this very naturally produced a blind disburse- 
ment of the fund to some extent, and this disbursement would be 
called by almost every one an " unwise administration." 

During the first 16 years of this century, the belligerent condi- 
tion of Europe called for agricultural supplies from America, and 
the consequent high price of grain justified even the remote pio- 
neers of Indiana in undertaking the tedious transportation of the 
products of the soil which the times forced upon them. The large 
disbursements made by the general Government among the peo- 
ple naturally engendered a rage for speculation; numerous banks 
with fictitious capital were established; immense issues of paper 
were made; and the circulating medium of the country was in- 
creased fourfold in the course of two or three years. This infla- 
tion produced the consequences which always follow such a scheme, 
namely, unfounded visions of wealth and splendor and the wild 
investments which result in ruin to the many and wealth to the 
few. The year 1S21 was consequently one of great financial panic, 
and was the first experienced by the early settlers of the West. 

In 1822 the new Governor, William Hendricks, took a hopeful 
view of the situation, referring particularly to the "agricultural 
and social happiness of the State." The crops were abundant this 
year, immigration was setting in heavily and everything seemed to 
have an upward look. But the customs of the white race still com- 
pelling them to patronize European industries, combined with the 
remoteness of the surplus produce of Indiana from European mar- 
kets, constituted a serious drawback to the accumulation of wealth. 
Such a state of things naturally changed the habits of the people 
to some extent, at least for a short time, assimilating them to those 
of more primitive tribes. This change of custom, however, was 
not severe and protracted enough to change the intelligent and 
social nature of the people, and they arose to their normal height 
on the very first opportunity. 

In 1822-'3, before speculation started up again, the surplus 
money was invested mainly in domestic manufactories instead of 
other and wilder commercial enterprises. Home manufactories 
were what the people needed to make them more independent. 
They not only gave employment to thousands whose services were 
before that valueless, but also created a market for a great portion 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 253 

of the surplus produce of the farmers. A part of the surplus cap- 
ital, however, was also sunk in internal improvements, some of 
which were unsuccessful for a time, but eventually proved remu- 
nerative. 

Noah Noble occupied the Executive chair of the State from 1831 
to 1837, commencing his duties amid peculiar embarrassments. 
The crops of 1832 were short, Asiatic cholera came sweeping along 
the Ohio and into the interior of the State, and the Black Hawk war 
raged in the Northwest, — all these at once, and yet the work of 
internal improvements was actually begun. 

STATE BANK. 

The State bank of Indiana was established by law January 2S, 
1834. The act of the Legislature, by its own terms, ceased to be a 
law, January 1, 1857. At the time of its organization in 1834, its 
outstanding circulation was $4,208,725, with a debt due to the insti- 
tution, principally from citizens of the State, of $6,095,368. During 
the years 1857-'5S the bank- redeemed nearly its entire circulation, 
providing for the redemption of all outstanding obligations; at this 
time it had collected from most of its debtors, the money which they 
owed. The amounts of the State's interest in the stock of the bank 
was $1,390,000, and the money thus invested was procured by the 
issue of five per cent bonds, the last of which was payable July 1 , 1866. 
The nominal profits of the bank were $2,780,604.36. By the law 
creating the sinking fund, that fund was appropriated, first, to pay 
the principal and interest on the bonds; second]}', the expenses of 
the Commissioners; and lastly the cause of common-school educa- 
tion. 

The stock in all the branches authorized was subscribed by indi- 
viduals, and the installment paid as required by the charter. The 
loan authorized for the payment on the stock allotted to the State, 
amounting to $500,000, was obtained at a premium of 1.05 per 
per cent, on five per cent, stock, making the sum of over $5,000 on 
the amount borrowed. In 1836 we find that the State bank was 
doing good service; agricultural products were abundant, and the 
market was good; consequently the people were in the full enjoy- 
ment of all the blessings of a free government. 

By the year 1843 the State was experiencing the disasters and 
embarassment consequent upon a system of over-banking, and its 
natural progeny, over-trading and deceptive speculation. Such a 
state of things tends to relax the hand of industry by creating false 



254 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

notions of wealth, and tempt to sudden acquisitions by means as delu- 
sive in their results as they are contrary to a primary law of nature. 
The people began more than ever to see the necessity of falling 
back upon that branch of industry for which Indiana, especially 
at that time, was particularly fitted, namely, agriculture, as the 
true and lasting source of substantial wealth. 

Gov. Whitcomb, lS43-'49, succeeded well in maintaining the 
credit of the State. Measures of compromise between the State 
and its creditors were adopted by which, ultimately, the public 
works, although incomplete, were given in payment for the claims 
against the Government. 

At the close of his term, Gov. Whitcomb was elected to the 
Senate of the United States, and from December, 1S4S, to Decem- 
ber, 1849, Lieut-Gov. Paris C. Dunning was acting Governor. 

In 1S51 a general banking law was adopted which gave a new 
impetus to the commerce of the State, and opened the way for a 
broader volume of general trade; but this law was the source of 
many abuses; currency was expanded, a delusive idea of wealth 
again prevailed, and as a consequence, a great deal of damaging 
speculation was indulged in. 

In 1857 the charter of the State bank expired, and the large 
gains to the State in that institution were directed to the promotion 
of common-school education. 

WEALTH AND PROGRESS. 

During the war of the Rebellion the financial condition of the 
people was of course like that of the other Northern States generally. 
1870 found the State in a very prosperous condition. October 31 
of this year, the date of the fiscal report, there was a surplus of 
8373. "249 in the treasury. The receipts of the year amounted to 
$3,005,639, and the disbursements to $2,943,600, leaving a balance 
of $1,035,288. The total debt of the State in November, 1871, was 
$3,937,821. 

At the present time the principal articles of export from the State 
are flour and pork. Nearly all the wheat raised within the State 
is manufactured into flour within its limits, especially in the north- 
ern part. The pork business is the leading one in the southern 
part of the State. 

When we take into consideration the vast extent of railroad lines 
in this State, in connection with the agricultural and i .ineral 
resources, both developed and undeveloped, as already noted, we can 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 255 

see what a substantial foundation exists for the future welfare of 
this great commonwealth. Almost every portion of the State is 
coming up equally. The disposition to monopolize does not exist 
to a greater degree than is desirable or necessary for healthy compe- 
tition. Speculators in flour, pork and other commodities appeared 
during the war, but generally came to ruin at their own game. 
The agricultural community here is an independent one, under- 
standing its rights, and " knowing them will maintain them." 

Indiana is more a manufacturing State, also, than many imagine. 
It probably has the greatest wagon and carriage manufactory in the 
world. In 1S75 the total number of manufacturing establishments 
in this State was 16,812; number of steam engines, 3,684, with a 
total horse-power of 114,961; the total horse-power of water wheels, 
38.614; number of hands employed in the manufactories, 86,402; 
capital employed, is $117,462,161; wages paid, $35,461,9S7; cost of 
material, $104,321,632; value of products, $301,304,271. These 
figures are on an average about twice what they were only five years 
previously, at which time they were about double what they were 
ten years before that. In manufacturing enterprise, it is said that 
Indiana, in proportion to her population, is considerably in advance 
of Illinois and Michigan. 

In 1870 the assessed valuation of the real estate in Indiana was 
$460,120,974; of personal estate, $203,334,070; true valuation of 
both, $1,26S,180,543. According to the evidences of increase at 
that time, the value of taxable property in this State must be double 
the foregoing figures. This is utterly astonishing, especially when 
viz consider what a large matter it is to double the elements of a 
large and wealthy State, compared with i t-^ increase in infancy. 

The taxation for State purposes in 1870 amounted to $2,943,078; 
for county purposes, $4,654,476; and for municipal purposes, 
$3,193,577. The total county debt of Indiana in 1S70 was $1,127,- 
269, and the total debt of towns, cities, etc., was $2,523,934. 

In the compilation of this statistical matter we have before us the 
statistics of every element of progress in Indiana, in the U. S. 
Census Reports; but as it would be really improper for us further 
to burden these pages with tables or columns of large numbers, we 
will conclude by remarking that if any one wishes further details in 
these matters, he can readily find them in the Census Reports of 
the Government in any city or village in the country. Besides, 
almost any one can obtain, free of charge, from his representative in 



256 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Congress, all these and other public documents in which he may be 
interested. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

This subject began to be agitated as early as 1818, during the 
administration of Governor Jennings, who, as well as all the 
Governors succeeding him to 1843, made it a special point in their 
messages to the Legislature to urge the adoption of measures for 
the construction of highways and canals and the improvement of 
the navigation of rivers. Gov. Hendricks in 1822 specified as the 
most important improvement the navigation of the Falls of the 
Ohio, the Wabash and White rivers, and other streams, and the 
construction of the National and other roads through the State. 

In 1S26 Governor Ray considered the construction of roads and 
canals as a necessity to place the State on an equal financial footing 
with the older States East, and in 1S29 he added: "This subject 
can never grow irksome, since it must be the source of the bless- 
ings of civilized life. To secure its benefits is a duty enjoined upon 
the Legislature by the obligations of the social compact." 

In 1830 the people became much excited over the project of con- 
necting the streams of the country by "The National New York 
& Mississippi railroad." The National road and the Michigan 
and Ohio turnpike were enterprises in which the people and Legis- 
lature of Indiana were interested. The latter had already been the 
cause of much bitter controversy, and its location was then the 
subject of contention. 

In 1S32 the work of internal improvements fairly commenced, 
despite the partial failure of the crops, the Black Hawk war and 
the Asiatic cholera. Several war parties invaded the Western 
settlements, exciting great alarm and some suffering. This year 
the canal commissioners completed the task assigned them and had 
negotiated the canal bonds in New York city, to the amount of 
§100,000, at a premium of 13J per cent., on terms honorable to the 
State and advantageous to the work. Before the close of tnis year 
§54,000 were spent for the improvement of the Michigan road, and 
$52,000 were realized from the sale of lands appropriated for its 
construction. In 1832, 32 miles of the Wabash and Erie canal was 
placed under contract and work commenced. A communication 
was addressed to the Governor of Ohio, requesting him to call the 
attention of the Legislature of that State to the subject of the 
extension of the canal from the Indiana line through Ohio to the 



HISTORY OK INDIANA. 257 

Lake. In compliance with this request, Governor Lucas promptly 
laid the subject before the Legislature of the State, and, in a spirit 
of courtesy, resolutions were adopted by that body, stipulating that 
if Ohio should ultimately decline to undertake the completion of 
that portion of the work within her limits before the time fixed by 
the act of Congress for the completion of the canal, she would, on 
just and equitable terms, enable Indiana to avail herself of the bene- 
fit of the lands granted, by authorizing her to sell them and invest 
the proceeds in the stock of a coinpan}- to be incorporated by Ohio; 
and that she would give Indiana notice of her final determination 
on or before January 1, 1838. The Legislature of Ohio also 
authorized and invited the agent of the State of Indiana to select, 
survey and set apart the lands lying within that State. In keeping 
with this policy Governor Noble, in 1834, said: "With a view of 
engaging in works of internal improvement, the propriety of 
adopting a general plan or system, having reference to the several 
portions of the State, and the connection of one with the other, 
naturally suggests itself. No work should be commenced but such 
as would be of acknowledged public utility, and when completed 
would form a branch of some general system. In view of this 
object, the policy of organizing a Board of Public Works is again 
respectfully suggested." The Governor also called favorable atten- 
tion to the Lawrenceburg & Indianapolis railway, for which a 
charter had been granted. 

In 1835 the Wabash & Erie canal was pushed rapidly forward. 
The middle division, extending from the St. Joseph dam to the 
forks of the Wabash, about 32 miles, was completed, for about 
$232,000, including all repairs. Upon this portion of the line nav- 
igation was opened on July 4, which day the citizens assembled 
"to witness the mingling of the waters of the St. Joseph with 
those of the Wabash, uniting the waters of the northern chain of 
lakes with those of the Gulf of Mexico in the South." On other 
parts of the line the work progressed with speed, and the sale of 
canal lands was unusually active 

In 1836 the first meeting 'of the State Board of Internal Im- 
provement was convened and entered upon the discharge of its 
numerous and responsible duties. Having assigned to each mem- 
ber the direction and superintendence of a portion of the work, 
the next duty to be performed preparatory to the various spheres of 
active service, was that of procuring the requisite number of 
engineers. A delegation was sent to the Eastern cities, but returned 



258 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

without engaging an Engineer-in-Chiet' for the roads and railways, 
and without the desired number for the subordinate station; but 
after considerable delay the Board was fully organized and put in 
operation. Under their management work on public improve- 
ments was successful; the canal progressed steadily; the naviga- 
tion of the middle division, from Fort Wayne to Huntington, was 
uninterrupted; 16 miles of the line between Huntington and La 
Fontaine creek were filled with water this year and made ready for 
navigation; and the remaining 20 miles were completed, except a 
portion of the locks; from La Fontaine creek to Logansport prog- 
ress was made; the line from Georgetown to Lafayette was placed 
under contract; about 30 miles of the Whitewater canal, extending 
from Lawrenceburg through the beautiful valley of the White- 
water to Brookville, were also placed under contract, as also 23 
miles of the Central canal, passing through Indianapolis, on which 
work was commenced; also about 20 miles of the southern divis- 
ion of this work, extending from Evansville into the interior, 
were also contracted for; and on the line of the Cross-Cut canal, 
from Terre Haute to the intersection of the Central canal, near 
the mouth of Eel river, a commencement was also made on all the 
heavy sections. All this in 1836. 

Early in this year a party of engineers was organized, and 
directed to examine into the practicability of the Michigan & 
Erie canal line, then proposed. The report of their operations 
favored its expediency. A party of engineers was also fitted out, 
who entered upon the field of service of the Madison & Lafayette 
railroad, and contracts were let for its construction from Madison 
to Vernon, on which work was vigorously commenced. Also, con- 
tracts were let for grading and bridging the New Albany & Vin- 
cennes road from the former point to Paoli, about 40 mile6. 
Other roads were also undertaken and surveyed, so that indeed a 
stupendous system of internal improvement was undertaken, and 
as Gov. Noble truly remarked, upon the issue of that vast enter- 
prise the State of Indiana staked her fortune. She had gone too 
far to retreat. 

In 1S37, when Gov. Wallace took the Executive chair, the 
reaction consequent upon '-over work" by the State in the internal 
improvement scheme began to be felt by the people. They feared 
a State debt was being incurred from which they could never he 
extricated; but the Governor did all he could throughout the term 
of his administration to keep up the courage of the citizens. He 



11IST0KY OF INDIANA. 259 

told them that the astonishing success so far, surpassed even the 
hopes of the most sanguine, and that the flattering auspices of the 
future were sufficient to dispel every doubt and quiet every fear. 
Notwithstanding all his efforts, however, the construction of pub- 
lic works continued to decline, and in his last message he exclaimed: 
" Never before — I speak it advisedly — never before have you wit- 
nessed a period in our local history that more urgently called for 
the exercise of all the soundest and best attributes of grave and 
patriotic legislators than the present. * * The 

truth is — and it would be folly to conceal it — we have our hands 
full — full to overflowing; and therefore, to sustain ourselves, to 
preserve the credit and character of the State unimpaired, and to 
continue her hitherto unexampled march to wealth and distinction, 
we have not an hour of time, nor a dollar of money, nor a hand 
employed in labor, to squander and dissipate upon mere objects of 
idleness, or taste, or amusement." 

The State had borrowed $3,827,000 for internal improvement pur- 
poses, of which $1,327,000 was for the Wabash & Erie canal and 
the remainder for other works. The Ave per cent, interest on 
debts — about $200,000 — which the State had to pay, had become 
burdensome, as her resources for this purpose were only two, 
besides direct taxation, and they were small, namely, the interest 
on the balances due for canal lands, and the proceeds of the third 
installment of the surplus revenue, both amounting, in 1S3S, 
to about $45,000. 

In August, 1S39, all work ceased on these improvements, with 
one or two exceptions, and most of the contracts were surrendered 
to the State. This was done according to an act of the Legislature 
providing for the compensation of contractors by the issue of 
treasury notes. In addition to this state of affairs, the Legisla- 
ture of 1839 had made no provision for the payment of interest on 
the State debt incurred for internal improvements. Concerning 
this situation Gov. Bigger, in 1840, said that either to go ahead 
with the works or to abandon them altogether would be equally 
ruinous to the State, the implication being that the people should 
wait a little while for a breathing spell and then take hold again. 

Of course much individual indebtedness was created during the 
progress of the work on internal improvement. When operations 
ceased in 1839, and prices fell at the same time, the people were 
left in a great measure without the means of commanding money 
to pay their debts. This condition of private enterprise more than 



260 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

ever rendered direct taxation inexpedient. Hence it became the 
policy of Gov. Bigger to provide the means of paying the interest 
on the State debt without increasing the rate of taxation, and to 
continue that portion of the public works that could be immedi- 
ately completed, and from which the earliest returns could be 
expected. 

In 1840 the system embraced ten different works, the most im- 
portant of which was the Wabash & Erie canal. The aggregate 
length of the lines embraced in the system was 1,160 miles, and 
of this only 140 miles had been completed. The amount expended 
had reached the sum of $5,600,000, and it required at least $14,000,- 
000 to complete them. Although the crops of 1841 were very 
remunerative, this perquisite alone was not sufficient to raise the 
State again up to the level of going ahead with her gigantic 
works. 

We should here state in detail the amount of work completed and 
of money expended on the various works up to this time, 1841, 
which were as follows : 

1. The Wabash & Erie canal, from the State line to Tippe- 
canoe, 129 miles in length, completed and navigable for the whole 
length, at a cost of $2,041,012. This sum includes the cost of the 
steamboat lock afterward completed at Delphi. 

2. The extension of the Wabash & Erie canal from the mouth 
of the Tippecanoe to Terre Haute, over 104 miles. The estimated 
cost of this work was $1,500,000; and the amount expended for the 
same $408,855. The navigation was at this period opened as far 
down as Lafayette, and a part of the work done in the neighbor- 
hood of Covington. 

3. The cross-cut canal from Terre Haute to Central canal, 
49 miles in length; estimated cost, $718,672; amount expended, 
$420,679; and at this time no part of the course was navigable. 

4. The White Water canal, from Lawrenceburg to the mouth 
of Kettle creek, 76£ miles; estimated cost, $1,675,738; amount 
expended to that date, $1,099,867; and 31 miles of the work 
was navigable, extending from the Ohio river to Brookville. 

5. The Central canal, from the Wabash & Erie canal, to 
Indianapolis, including the feeder bend at Muncietown, 124 miles 
in length; total estimated cost, $2,299,853; amount expended, 
$568,046; eight miles completed at that date, and other portions 
nearly done. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 261 

6. Central canal, from Indianapolis to Evansville on the Ohio 
river, 194 miles in length; total estimated cost, $3,532,394; amount 
expended, $831,302, 19 miles of which was completed at that date, 
at the southern end, and 16 miles, extending south from Indianao- 
olis, were nearly completed. 

7. Erie & Michigan canal, 182 miles in length; estimated cost, 
$2,624,823; amount expended, $156,394. No part of this work 
finished. 

8. The Madison & Indianapolis railroad, over 85 miles in 
length; total estimated cost, $2,046,600; amount expended, $1,493,- 
013. Road finished and in operation for about 28 miles; grad- 
ing nearly finished for 27 miles in addition, extending to Eden- 
burg. 

9. Indianapolis & Lafayette turnpike road, 73 miles in length; 
total estimated cost, $593, 737; amount expended, $72,118. The 
bridging and most of the grading was done on 27 miles, from 
Crawfordsville to Lafayette. 

10. New Albany & Vincennes turnpike road, 105 miles in 
length; estimated cost, $1,127,295; amount expended, $654,411. 
Forty-one miles graded and macadamized, extending from New 
Albany to Paoli, and 27 miles in addition partly graded. 

11. Jefferson ville & Crawfordsville road, over 164 miles long; 
total estimated cost, $1,651,800; amount expended, $372,737. 
Forty -five miles were partly graded and bridged, extending from 
Jeffersonville to Salem, and from Greencastle north. 

12. Improvement of the Wabash rapids, undertaken jointly by 
Indiana and Illinois; estimated cost to Indiana, $102,500; amount 
expended by Indiana, $9,539. 

Grand totals: Length of roads and canals, 1,289 miles, only 
281 of which have been finished; estimated cost of all the works, 
$19,914,424; amount expended, $8,164,528. The State debt at 
this time amounted to $18,469,146. The two principal causes 
which aggravated the embarrassment of the State at this juncture 
were, first, paying most of the interest out of the money borrowed, 
and, secondly, selling bonds on credit. The first error subjected 
the State to the payment of compound interest, and the people, 
not feeling the pressure of taxes to discharge the interest, natu- 
rally became inattentive to the public policy pursued. Postpone- 
ment of the payment of interest is demoralizing in every way. 
During this period the State was held up in an unpleasant manner 
before the craze of the world; but be it to the credit of this great 



26:3 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

and glorious State, she would not repudiate, as many other States 
and municipalities have done. 

By the year 1850, the so-called "internal improvement" system 
having been abandoned, private capital and ambition pushed for- 
ward various "pnblic works." During this year about 400 miles 
of plank road were completed, at a cost of $1,200 to $1,500 per 
mile, and about 1,200 miles more were surveyed and in progress. 
There were in the State at this time 212 miles of railroad in suc- 
cessful operation, of which 124 were completed this year. More 
than 1,000 miles of railroad were surveyed and in progress. 

An attempt was made during the session of the Legislature iu 
1S69 to re-burden the Statu with the old canal debt, and the matter 
was considerably agitated in the canvass of 1S70. The subject of the 
Wabash & Erie canal was lightly touched in the Republican plat- 
form, occasioning considerable discussion, which probably had 
some effect on the election in the fall. That election resulted in 
an average majority in the State of about 2,86-4 for the Democracy. 
It being claimed that the Legislature had no authority under the 
constitution to tax the people for the purpose of aiding in the con- 
struction of railroads, the Supreme Court, in April, 1871, decided 
adversely to such a claim. 

GEOLOGY. 

In 1869 the development of mineral resources in the State 
attracted considerable attention. Rich mines of iron and coal were 
discovered, as also fine quarries of building stone. The Vincennes 
railroad passed through some of the richest portions of the mineral 
region, the engineers of which had accurately determined the 
quality of richness of the ores. Near Brooklyn, about 20 miles 
from Indianapolis, is a fine formation of sandstone, yielding good 
material for buildings in the city; indeed, it is considered the best 
building stone in the State. The limestone formation at Gosport, 
continuing 12 miles from that point, is of great variety, and 
includes the finest and most durable building stone in the world. 
Portions of it are susceptible only to the chisel; other portions are 
soft and can be worked with the ordinary tools. At the end of this 
limestone formation there commences a sandstone series of strata 
which extends seven miles farther, to a point about 60 miles from 
Indianapolis. Here an extensive coal bed is reached consisting of 
seven distinct veins. The first is about two feet thick, the next 
three feet, another four feet, and the others of various thicknesses. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



263 



These beds are all easily worked, having a natural drain, and they 
yield heavy profits. In the whole of the southwestern part of the 
State and for 300 miles up the Wabash, coal exists in good quality 
and abundance. 

The scholars, statesmen and philanthropists of Indiana work- 
ed hard and long for the appointment of a State Geologist, with 
sufficient support to enable him to make a thorough geological 
survey of the State. A partial survey was made as early as 1S37-'S, 
by David Dale Owen, State Geologist, but nothing more was done 
until 1869, when Prof. Edward T. Cox was appointed State Geolo- 
gist. For 20 years previous to this date the Governors urged and 
insisted in all their messages that a thorough survey should be 
made, but almost, if not quite, in vain. In 1852, Dr. Ryland T. 
Brown delivered an able address on this subject before the Legis- 
lature, showing how much coal, iron, building stone, etc., there 
were probably; in the State, but the exact localities and qualities 
not ascertained, and how millions of money could be saved to the 
State by the expenditure of a few thousand dollars; but "they 
answered the Doctor in the negative. It must have been because 
they hadn't time to pass the bill. They were very busy. They had 
to pass all sorts of regulations concerning the negro. They had to 
protect a good many white people from marrying negroes. And as 
they didn't need any labor in the State, if it was ' colored,' they 
had to make regulations to shut out all of that kind of labor, and 
to take steps to put out all that unfortunately got in, and they didn't 
have time to consider the scheme proposed by the white people " — 
W. W. Clayton. 

In 1S53, the State Board of Agriculture employed Dr. Brown to 
make a partial examination of the geology of the State, at a salary 
of $500 a year, and to this Board the credit is due for the final 
success of the philanthropists, who in 1869 had the pleasure of 
witnessing the passage of a Legislative act " to provide for a Depart- 
ment of Geology and Natural Science, in connection with the State 
Board of Agriculture." Under this act Governor Baker immedi- 
ately appointed Prof. Edward T. Cox the State Geologist, who has 
made an able and exhaustive report of the agricultural, mineral 
and manufacturing resources of this State, world-wide in its celeb- 
rity, and a work of which the people of Indiana may be very 
proud. We can scarcely give even the substance of his report in a 
work like this, because it is of necessity deeply scientific and made 
up entirely of local detail. 



264 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

COAL. 

The coal measures, says Prof. E. T. Cox, cover an area of about 
6,500 square miles, in the southwestern part of the State, and 
extend from Warren county on the north to the Ohio river on the 
south, a distance of about 150 miles. This area comprises the fol- 
lowing counties:Warren, Fountain, Parke, Vermillion, Vigo, Clay, 
Sullivan, Greene, Knox, Daviess, Martin, Gibson, Pike, Dubois, 
Vanderburg. Warrick, Spencer, Perry and a small part of Crawford, 
Monroe, Putnam and Montgomery. 

This coal is all bituminous, but is divisible into three well-marked 
varieties: caking-coal, non-caking-coal or block coal and cannel 
coal. The total depth of the seams or measures is from 600 to 800 
feet, with 12 to 14 distinct seams of coal; but these are not all to 
be found throughout the area; the seams range from one foot to 
eleven feet in thickness. The caking coal prevails in the western 
portion of the area described, and has from three to four workable 
seams, ranging from three and a half to eleven feet in thickness. 
At most of the places where these are worked the coal is rained by 
adits driven in on the face of the ridges, and the deepest shafts in 
the State are less than 300 i'eet, the average depth for successful 
mining not being over 75 feet. This is a bright, black, sometimes 
glossy, coal, makes good coke and contains a very large percentage 
of pure illuminating gas. One pound will yield about 4£ cubic feet 
of gas, with a power equal to 15 standard sperm candles. The 
average calculated calorific power of the caking coals is 7,745 heat 
units, pure carbon being 8,080. Both in the northern and southern 
portions of the field, the caking coals present similar good qualities, 
and are a great source of private and public wealth. 

The block coal prevails in the eastern part of the field and has an 
area of about 450 square miles. This is excellent, in its raw state, 
for making pig iron. It is indeed peculiarly fitted for metal- 
lurgical purposes. It has a laminated structure with carbonaceous 
matter, like charcoal, between the lamina, with slaty cleavage, and 
it rings under the stroke of the hammer. It is " free-burning," 
makes an open fire, and without caking, swelling, scaffolding in the 
furnace or changing form, burns like hickory wood until it is con- 
sumed to a white ash and leaves no clinkers. It is likewise valuable 
for generating steam and for household uses. Many of the principal 
railway lines in the State are using it in preference to any other 
coal, as it does not burn out the fire-boxes, and gives as little trouble 
as wood. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 265 

There are eight distinct seams of block coal in this zone, three of 
which are workable, having an average thickness of four feet. In 
some places this coal is mined by adits, but generally from shafts, 
40 to 80 feet deep. The seams are crossed by cleavage lines, and 
the coal is usually mined without powder, and may be taken out in 
blocks weighing a ton or more. When entries or rooms are driven 
angling across the cleavage lines, the walls of the mine present a 
zigzag, notched appearance resembling a Virginia worm fence. 

In 1871 there were about 24 block coal mines in operation, and 
about 1,500 tons were mined daily. Since that time this industry 
has vastly increased. This coal consists of 81£ to 83£ percent, of 
carbon, and not quite three fourths of one per cent, of sulphur. 
Calculated calorific power equal to 8,283 heat units. This coal also 
is equally good both in the northern and southern parts of the field. 

The great Indiana coal field is within 150 miles of Chicago or 
Michigan City, by railroad, from which ports the Lake Superior 
specular and red hematite ores are landed from vessels that are able 
to run in a direct course from the ore banks. Considering the 
proximity of the vast quantities of iron in Michigan and Missouri 
one can readily see what a glorious future awaits Indiana in respect 
to manufactories. 

Of the cannel coal, one of the finest seams to be found in the 
country is in Daviess county, this State. Here it is three and a 
half feet thick, underlaid by one and a half feet of a beautiful, jet- 
black caking coal. There is no clay, shale or other foreign matter 
intervening, and fragments of the caking coal are often found 
adhering to the cannel. There is no gradual change from one to 
the other, and the character of each is homogeneous throughout. 

The cannel coal makes a delightful fire in open grates, and does 
not pop and throw off scales into the room, as is usual with this 
kind of coal. This coal is well adapted to the manufacture of 
illuminating gas, in respect to both quantity and high illuminating 
power. One ton of 2,000 pounds of this coal yields 10,400 feet of 
gas, while the best Pennsylvania coal yields but 8,680 cubic feet. 
This gas has an illuminating power of 25 candles, while the best 
Pennsylvania coal gas has that of only 17 candles. 

Cannel coal is also found in great abundance in Perry, Greene, 
Parke aud Fountain counties, where its commercial value has already 
been demonstrated. 

Numerous deposits of bog iron ore are found in the northern part 
of the State, and clay iron-stones and impure carbonates and brown 



2GG HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

oxides are found scattered in the vicinity of the coal field. In some 
places the beds are quite thick and of considerable commercial 
value. 

An abundance of excellent lime is also found in Indiana, espe- 
cially in Huntington county, where many large kilns are kept in 
profitable operation. 

AGRICULTURAL. 

In 1S53 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the organization 
of county and district agricultural societies, and also establishing a 
State Board, the provisions of which act are substantially as follows: 

1. Thirty or more persons in any one or two counties organizing 
into a society for the improvement of agriculture, adopting a consti- 
tution and by-laws agreeable to the regulations prescribed by the 
State Board, and appointing the proper officers and raising a sum 
of $50 for its own treasury, shall be entitled to the same amount 
from the fund arising from show licenses in their respective 
counties. 

2. These societies shall offer annual premiums for improvement 
of soils, tillage, crops, manures, productions, stock, articles of 
domestic industry, and such other articles, productions and improve- 
ments as they may deem proper; they shall encourage, by grant 
of rewards, agricultural and. household manufacturing interests, and 
so regulate the premiums that small farmers will have equal 
opportunity with the large; and they shall pay special attention to 
cost and profit of the inventions and improvements, requiring an 
exact, detailed statement of the processes competing for rewards. 

3. They shall publish in a newspaper annually their list of 
awards and an abstract of their treasurers' accounts, and they shall 
report in full to the State Board their proceedings. Failing to do 
the latter they shall receive no payment from their county funds. 

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 

The act of Feb. 17, 1852, also established a State Board of Agri- 
culture, with perpetual succession; its annual meetings to be held 
at Indianapolis on the first Thursday after the first Monday in 
January, when the reports of the county societies are to be received 
and agricultural interests discussed and determined upon; it shall 
make an annual report to the Legislature of receipts, expenses, 
proceedings, etc., of its own meeting as well as of those of the local 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 267 

societies; it shall hold State fairs, at such times and places as they 
may deem proper; may hold two meetings a year, certifying to the 
State Auditor their expenses, who shall draw his warrant upon the 
Treasurer for the same. 

In 1861 the State Board adopted certain rules, embracing ten 
sections, for the government of local societies, but in 1S6S they 
were found inexpedient and abandoned. It adopted a resolution 
admitting delegates from the local societies. 

THE EXPOSITION. 

As the Board found great difficulty in doing justice to exhibitors 
without an adequate building, the members went earnestly to work 
in the fall of 1872 to get up an interest in the matter. They 
appointed a committee of five to confer with the Councilor citizens 
of Indianapolis as to the best mode to be devised for a more 
thorough and complete exhibition of the industries of the State. 
The result of the conference was that the time had arrived for a 
regular "exposition," like that of the older States. At the Janu- 
ary meeting in 1873, Hon. Thomas Dowling, of Terre Haute, 
reported for the committee that tbey found a general interest in 
this enterprise, not only at the capital, but also throughout the 
State. A sub-committee was appointed who devised plans and 
specifications for the necessary structure, taking lessons mainly 
from the Kentucky Exposition building at Louisville. All the 
members of the State Board were in favor of proceeding with the 
building except Mr. Poole, who feared that, as the interest of the 
two enterprises were somewhat conflicting, and the Exposition being 
the more exciting show, it would swallow up the State and county 
fairs. 

The Exposition was opened Sept. 10, 1873, when Hon. John 
Sutherland, President of the Board, the Mayor of Indianapolis, 
Senator Morton and Gov. Hendricks delivered addresses. Senator 
Morton took the high ground that the money spent for an exposi- 
tion is spent as strictly for educational purposes as that which goes 
directly into the common school. The exposition is not a mere 
show, to be idly gazed upon, but an industrial school where one 
should study and learn. He thought that Indiana had less untill- 
able land than any other State in the Union; 'twas as rich as any 
and yielded a greater variety of products; and that Indiana was 
the most prosperous agricultural community in the United States. 



268 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The State had nearly 3,700 miles of railroad, not counting side- 
track, with 400 miles more under contract for building. In 15 
or 18 months one can go from Indianapolis to every county in 
the State by railroad. Indiana has 6,500 square miles of coal field> 
450 of which contain block coal, the best in the United States for 
manufacturing purposes. 

On the subject of cheap transportation, he said: " By the census 
of 1870, Pennsylvania had, of domestic animals of all kinds, 4,006,- 
589, and Indiana, 4,511,094. Pennsylvania had grain to the amount 
of 60,460,000 bushels, while Indiana had 79,350,454. The value of 
the farm products of Pennsylvania was estimated to be $183,946,- 
000; those of Indiana, $122,914,000. Thus you see that while 
Indiana had 505,000 head of live stock more, and 19,000,000 
bushels of grain more than Pennsylvania, yet the products of Penn- 
sylvania are estimated at $183,946,000, on account of her greater 
proximity to market, while those of Indiana are estimated at only 
$122,914,000. Thus yon can understand the importance of cheap 
transportation to Indiana. 

"Let us see how the question of transportation affects us on the 
other hand, with reference to the manufacturer of Bessemer steel. 
Of the 174,000 tons of iron ore used in the blast furnaces of Pitts- 
burg last year, 84,000 tons came from Lake Superior, 64,000 tons 
from Iron Mountain, Missouri, 20,000 tons from Lake Champlain, 
and less than 5,000 tons from the home mines of Pennsylvania. 
They cannot manufacture their iron with the coal they have in 
Pennsylvania without coking it. We have coal in Indiana with 
which we can, in its raw state, make the best of iron; while we are 
250 miles nearer Lake Superior than Pittsburg, and 430 miles 
nearer to Iron Mountain. So that the question of transportation 
determines the fact that Indiana must become the great center for 
the manufacture of Bessemer steel." 

"What we want in this country is diversified labor.'' 

The grand hall of the Exposition buildings is on elevated ground 
at the head of Alabama street, and commands a fine view of the 
city. The structure is of brick, 308 feet long by 150 in width, and 
two stories high. Its elevated galleries extend quite around the 
building, under the roof, thus affording visitors an opportunity to 
secure the most commanding view to be had in the city. The 
lower floor of the grand hall is occupied by the mechanical, geologi- 
cal and miscellaneous departments, and by the offices of the Board, 
which extend along the entire front. The second floor, which is 



HISTORY OK INDIANA. 269 

approached by three wide stairways, accommodates the tine art, 
musical and other departments of light mechanics, and is brilliantly 
lighted by windows and skylights. But as we are here entering 
the description of a subject magniticent to behold, we enter a 
description too vast to complete, and we may as well stop here as 
anywhere. 

The Presidents of the State Fairs have been: Gov. J. A. Wright, 
1852-'4; Gen. Jos. Orr, 1855; Dr. A. C. Stevenson, 1856-'8; G. D. 
Wagner; 1859-60; D. P. llolloway, 1861; Jas. D.Williams, 1S62, 
1870-'l; A. D. Hamrick, 1863, 1867-'9; Stearns Fisher, lS61-'6; 
John Sutherland, 1872-'4; Wm. Grim, 1875. Secretaries: John B. 
Dillon, 1852-'3, 1855, 1858-'9; Ignatius Brown, 1856-7; W.T. Den- 
nis, 1854, 1860-'l; W. H. Loomis, 1862-'6; A. J. Holmes, 1867-'9; 
Joseph Poole, 1870-'l; Alex. Heron, 1872-'5. Place of fair, Indian- 
apolis every year except: Lafayette, 1S53; Madison, 1854; New 
Albany, 1859,- Fort Wayne, 1865; and Terre Haute, 1867. In 
1861 there was no fair. The gate and entry receipts increased from 
$4,651 in 1852 to $45,330 in 1874. 

On the opening of the Exposition, Oct. 7, 1874, addresses were 
delivered by the President of the Board, Hon. John Sutherland, 
and by Govs. Hendricks, Bigler and Pollock. Yvon's celebrated 
painting, the " Great Republic," was unveiled with great ceremony, 
and many distinguished guests were present to witness it. 

The exhibition of 1875 showed that the plate glass from the 
southern part of the State was equal to the finest French plate; that 
the force-blowers made in the eastern part of the State was of a 
world-wide reputation; that the State has within its bounds the 
largest wagon manufactory in the world; that in other parts of the 
State there were all sorts and sizes of manufactories, including roll- 
ing mills and blast furnaces, and in the western part coal was mined 
and shipped at the rate of 2,500 tons a day from one vicinity; and 
many other facts, which " would astonish the citizens of Indiana 
themselves even more than the rest of the world." 

INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

This society was organized in 1812, thus taking the lead in the 
West. At this time Henry Ward Beecher was a resident of Indian- 
apolis, engaged not only as a minister but also as editor of the 
Indiana Farmer and Gardener, and his influence was very exten- 
sive in the interests of horticulture, floriculture and farming. 
Prominent among his pioneer co-laborers were Judge Coburn, 



270 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Aaron Aldridge, Capt. James Sigarson, D. V. Culley, Reuben 
Ragan, Stephen Hampton, Cornelius Ratliff, Joshua Lindley, 
Abner Pope and many others. In the autumn of this year the 
society held an exhibition, probably the first in the State, if not 
in the West, in the hall of the new State house. The only pre- 
mium offered was a set of silver teaspoons for the best seedling 
apple, which was won by Reuben Ragan, of Putnam county, for 
an apple christened on this occasion the " Osceola." 

The society gave great encouragement to the introduction of 
new varieties of fruit, especially of the pear, as the soil and cli- 
mate of Indiana were well adapted to this fruit. But the bright 
horizon which seemed to be at this time looming up all around the 
field of the young society's operations was suddenly and thoroughly 
darkened by the swarm of noxious insects, diseases, blasts of win- 
ter and the great distance to market. The prospects of the cause 
scarcely justified a continuation of the expense of assembling from 
remote parts of the State, and the meetings of the society therefore 
soon dwindled away until the organization itself became quite 
extinct. 

But when, in 1852 and afterward, railroads began to traverse the 
State in all directions, the Legislature provided for the organization 
of a State Board of Agriculture, whose scope was not only agri- 
culture but also horticulture and the mechanic and household arts. 
The rapid growth of the State soon necessitated a differentiation of 
this body, and in the autumn of I860, at Indianapolis, there was 
organized the 

INDIANA POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

October 18, Reuben Ragan was elected President and Wm H. 
Loomis, of Marion county, Secretary. The constitution adopted 
provided for biennial meetings in January, at Indianapolis. At 
the first regular meeting, Jan. 9, 1861, a committee-man for each 
congressional district was appointed, all of them together to be 
known as the "State Fruit Committee," and twenty-five members 
were enrolled during this session. At the regular meeting in 1863 
the constitution was so amended as to provide for annual sessions, 
and the address of the newly elected President, Hon. I. G. D. Nel- 
son, of Allen county, urged the establishment of an agricultural 
college. He continued in the good cause until his work was 
crowned with success. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 271 

In 1SG-1 there was but little done on account of the exhaust- 
ive demands of the great war; and the descent of mercury 60° in 
eighteen hours did so much mischief as to increase the discourage- 
ment to the verge of despair. The title of the society was at this 
meeting, Jan., 1864 changed to that of the Indiana Horticultural 
Society. 

The first several meetings of the society were mostly devoted to 
revision of fruit lists; and although the good work, from its vast- 
ness and complication, became somewhat monotonous, it has been 
no exception in this respect to the law that all the greatest and 
most productive labors of mankind require perseverance and toil. 

In 1866, George M. Beeler, who had so indefatigably served as 
secretary for several years, saw himself hastening to his grave and 
showed his love for the cause of fruit culture by bequeathing to 
the society the sum of $1,000. This year also the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction was induced to take a copy of the 
Societ3''s transactions for each of the township libraries in the State, 
and this enabled the Society to bind its volume of proceedings in 
a substantial manner. 

At the meeting in 1867 many valuable and interesting papers 
were presented, the office of corresponding secretary was created, 
and the subject of Legislative aid was discussed. The State Board 
of Agriculture placed the management of the horticultural depart- 
ment of the State fair in the care of the Society. 

The report for 1S68 shows for the first time a balance on hand, 
after paying expenses, the balance being $61.55. Up to t;iis time 
the Society had to take care of itself,— meeting current expenses, do- 
ing its own printing and binding, " boarding and clothing itself," 
and diffusing annually an amount of knowledge utterly incalcu- 
lable. During the year called meetings were held at Salem, in the 
peach and grape season, and evenings during the State fair, which 
was held in Terre Haute the previous fall. The State now assumed 
the cost of printing and binding, but the volume of transactions 
was not quite so valuable as that of the former year. 

In 1870 $160 was given to this S tciety by the State Board of 
Agriculture, to be distributed as prizes for essays, which object 
was faithfully carried out. The practice has since then been con- 
tinued. 

In 1871 the Horticultural Society brought out the best volume 
of papers and proceedings it ever has had published. 



272 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

In 1872 the office of corresponding secretary was discontinued; 
the appropriation by the State Board of Agriculture diverted to 
the payment of premiums on small fruits given at a show held the 
previous summer; results of the exhibition not entirely satisfac- 
tory. 

In 1873 the State officials refused to publish the discussions of 
the members of the Horticultural Society, and the Legislature 
appropriated $500 for the purpose for each of the ensuing two 
years. 

In 1S75 the Legislature enacted a law requiring that one of the 
trustees of Purdue University shall be selected by the Horticultu- 
ral Society. 

The aggregate annual membership of this society from its organ- 
ization in 1860 to 1875 was 1,225. 

EDUCATION. 

The subject of education has been referred to in almost every 
gubernatorial message from the organization of the Territory to 
the present time. It is indeed the most favorite enterprise of the 
Iloosier State. In the iirst survey of Western lands, Congress set 
apart a section of land in every township, generally the 16th, for 
school purposes, the disposition of the land to be in hands of the 
residents of the respective townships. Besides this, to this State 
were given two entire townships for the use of a State Seminary. 
to be under the control of the Legislature. Also, the State con- 
stitution provides that all fines for the breach of law and all com- 
mutations for militia service be appropriated to the use of county 
seminaries. In 1825 the common-school lands amounted to 
680,207 acres, estimated at $2 an acre, and valued therefore at 
$1,216,044. At this time the seminary at Bloomington, supported 
in part by one of these township grants, was very flourishing. The 
common schools, however, were in rather a poor condition. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

In 1S52 the free-school system was fully established, which has 
resulted in placing Indiana in the lead of this great nation. Al- 
though this is a pleasant subject, it is a very large one to treat in 
a condensed notice, as this has to be. 

The free-school system of Indiana first became practically oper- 
ative the first Monday of April, 1853, when the township trustees 



UISTOKY OF INDIANA. 273 

for school purposes were elected through the State. The law com- 
mitted to them the charge of all the educational affairs in their 
respective townships. As it was feared by the opponents of the 
law that it would not be possible to select men in all the town- 
ships capable of executing the school laws satisfactorily, the 
people were thereby awakened to the necessity of electing their 
very best men ; and although, of course, many blunders have been 
made by trustees, the operation of the law has tended to elevate the 
adult population as well as the youth; and Indiana still adheres to 
the policy of appointing its best men to educational positions. 
The result is a grand surprise to all old fogies, who indeed scarcely 
dare to appear such any longer. 

To instruct the people in the new law and set the educational 
machinery going, a pamphlet of over 60 pages, embracing the law, 
with notes and explanations, was issued from the office of a super- 
intendent of public instruction, and distributed freely throughout 
the State. The first duty of the Board of Trustees was to establish 
and conveniently locate a sufficient number of schools for the edu- 
cation of all the children of their township. But where were the 
school houses, and what were they? Previously they had been 
erected by single districts, but under this law districts were abol- 
ished, their lines obliterated, and houses previously built by dis- 
tricts became the property of the township, and all the houses were 
to be built at the expense of the township by an appropriation of 
township funds by the trustees. In some townships there was not 
a single school-house of any kind, and in others there were a few 
old, leaky, dilapidated log cabins, wholly unfit for use even in sum- 
mer, and in " winter worse than nothing." Before the people could 
be tolerably accommodated with schools at least 3,500 school-houses 
had to be erected in the State. 

By a general law, enacted in conformity to the constitution of 
1852, each township was made a municipal corporation, and every 
voter in the township a member of the corporation ; the Board of 
Trustees constituted the township legislature as well as the execu- 
tive body, the whole body of voters, however, exercising direct con- 
trol through frequent meetings called by the trustees. Special 
taxes and every other matter of importance were directly voted 
upon. 

Some tax-payers, who were opposed to special townships' taxes, 
retarded the progress of schools by refusing to pay their assess- 
ment. Contracts for building school-houses were given up, houses 



274 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

half finished were abandoned, and in many townships all school 
operations were suspended. In some of them, indeed, a rumor was 
circulated by the enemies of the law that the entire school law from 
beginning to end had been declared by the Supreme Court uncon- 
stitutional and void; and the Trustees, believing this, actually dis- 
missed their schools and considered themselves out of office. Hon. 
W. C. Larrabee, the (first) Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
corrected this error as soon as possible. 

But while the voting of special taxes was doubted on a constitu- 
tional point, it became evident that it was weak in a practical point; 
for in mam - townships the opponents of the system voted down every 
proposition for the erection of school-houses. 

Another serious obstacle was the great deficiency in the number 
of qualified teachers. To meet the newly created want, the law 
authorized the appointment of deputies in each county to examine 
and license persons to teach, leaving it in their judgment to lower 
the standard of qualification sufficiently to enable them to license 
us man}' as were needed to supply all the schools. It was therefore 
found necessary to employ many "unqualified " teachers, especially 
in the remote rural districts. But the progress of the times 
enabled the Legislature of 1853 to erect a standard of qualifica- 
tion and give to the county commissioners the authority to license 
teachers; and in order to supply every school with a teacher, while 
there might not be a sufficient number of properly qualified teach- 
ers, the commissioners were authorized to grant temporary, licenses 
to take charge of particular schools not needing a high grade of 
teachers. 

In 1854 the available common-school fund consisted of the con- 
gressional township fund, the surplus revenue fund, the saline 
lund, the bank tax fund and miscellaneous fund, amounting in all 
to $2,460,G00. This amount, from many sources, was subsequently 
increased to a very great extent. The common-school fund was 
intrusted to the several counties of the State, which were held 
responsible for the preservation thereof and for the payment of the 
annual interest thereon. The fund was managed by the auditors 
and treasiu - ers of the several counties, for which these officers were 
allowed one-tenth of the income. It was loaned out to the citizens 
of the county in sums not exceeding $300, on real estate security. 
The common-school fund was thus consolidated and the proceeds 
equally distributed each year to all the townships, cities and towns 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 275 

of the State, in proportion to the number of children. This phase 
of the law met with considerable opposition in 1854. 

The provisions of the law for the establishment of township 
libraries was promptly carried into effect, and much time, labor 
and thought were devoted to the selection of books, special atten- 
tion being paid to historical works. 

The greatest need in 1S54 was for qualified teachers; but never- 
theless the progress of public education during this and following 
years was very great. School-houses were erected, many of them 
being fine structures, well furnished, and the libraries were consid- 
erably enlarged. 

The city school system of Indiana received a heavy set-back in 
1858, by a decision of the Supreme Court of the State, that the 
law authorizing cities and townships to levy a tax additional to the 
State tax was not in conformity with that clause in the Constitu- 
tion which required uniformity in taxation. The schools were 
stopped for want of adequate funds. For a few weeks in each year 
thereafter the feeble " uniform " supply from the State fund en- 
abled the people to open the schools, but considering the returns 
the public realizes for so small an outlay in educational matters, 
this proved more expensive than ever. Private schools increased, 
but the attendance was small. Thus the interests of popular edu- 
cation languished for years. But since the revival of the free 
schools, the State fund has grown to vast proportions, and the 
schools of this intelligent and enterprising commonwealth compare 
favorably with those of any other portion of the United States. 

There is no occasion to present all the statistics of school prog- 
ress in this State from the first to the present time, but some 
interest will be taken in the latest statistics, which we take from the 
9th Biennial Report (for 1877-'8) by the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, Hon. James H. Smart. This report, by the 
way, is a volume of 480 octavo pages, and is free to all who desire 
a copy. 

The rapid, substantia) and permanent increase which Indiana 
enjoys in her school interests is thus set forth in the above report. 





Length 








Total 




of Scbool 


No of 


Attendance 


School 


Am't Paid 


Year. 


In Days. 


Teachers. 


at School. 


Enumeration. 


Teachers. 


ia55 


61 


4,016 


206,994 


445,791 


$ 239,924 


1860 


65 


7,649 


303,744 


495,019 


481,020 


1865 


66 


9,493 


402,812 


557,092 


1,020 440 


1870 


97 


11,826 


462,527 


619,627 


1,810,866 


1875 


130 


13,133 


502,362 


667,736 


2,830,747 


1878 


129 


13,676 


512,535 


699,153 


3,065,968 



276 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The increase of school population during the past ten years has 
been as follows: 

Total in 1868, 592,865. 

Increase for year ending Increase for year ending 

Sept. 1, 1869 17,699 May 1, 1874 13,922 

" 1,1870 9,063 " 1,1875 13,372 

" 1.1871 3,101 " 1,1876 11,494 

" 1,1872 8,811 " 1,1877 15,476 

May 1, 1873 (8 months) 8,903 " 1,1878 4,447 



Total, 1878 699,153 

No. of white males 354,271 ; females 333,033 687,304 

" "colored" 5,937; " 5,912 11,849 



699,153 

Twenty-nine per cent, of the above are in the 49 cities and 212 
incorporated towns, and 71 per cent, in the 1,011 townships. 

The number of white males enrolled in the schools in 1878 was 
267,315, and of white females, 237,739; total, 505,054; of colored 
males, 3,794; females, 3,687; total, 7,481; grand total, 512,535. 

The average number enrolled in each district varies from 51 to 56, 
and the average daily attendance from 32 to 35; but many children 
reported as "absent attend parochial or private schools. Seventy- 
three per cent, of the white children and 63 per cent, of the colored, 
in the State, are enrolled in the schools. 

The number of days taught vary materially in the different town- 
ships, and on this point State Superintendent Smart iterates: "As 
long as the schools of some of our townships are kept open but 60 
days and others 220 days, we do not have a uniform system, — such 
as was contemplated by the constitution. The school law requires 
the trustee of a township to maintain each of the schools in his 
corporation an equal length of time. This provision cannot be so 
easily applied to the various counties of the State, for the reason 
that there is a variation in the density of the population, in the 
wealth of the people, and the amount of the township funds. I 
think, however, there is scarcely a township trustee in the State 
who cannot, under the present law, if he chooses to do so, bring his 
schools up to an average of six months. I think it would be wise 
to require each township trustee to levy a sufficient local tax to 
maintain the schools at least six months of the year, provided this 
can be done without increasing the local tax beyond the amount 
now permitted by law. This would tend to bring the poorer schools 
up to the standard of the best, and would thus unify the system, 
and make it indeed a common-school system.'' 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 277 

The State, however, averages six and a half months school per 
year to each district. 

The number of school districts in the State in 1878 was 9,380, in 
all but 34 of which school was taught during that year. There are 
396 district and 151 township graded schools. Number of white 
male teachers, 7,977, and of female, 5,699; colored, male, 62, and 
female, 43; grand total, 13,781. For the ten years ending with 
1878 there was an increase of 409 male teachers and Sll female 
teachers. All these teachers, except about 200, attend normal 
institutes, — a showing which probably surpasses that of any other 
State in this respect. 

The average daily compensation of teachers throughout the 
State in 1878 was as follows: In townships, males, $1.90; females, 
$1.70; in towns, males, $3.09; females, $1.81; in cities, males, 
$4.06; females, $2.29. 

In 1878 there were 89 stone school-houses, 1,724 brick, 7,608 
frame, and 124 log; total, 9,545, valued at $11,536,647.39. 

And lastly, and best of all, we are happy to state that Indiana has 
a larger school fund than any other State in the Union. In 1872, 
according to the statistics before us, it was larger than that of any 
other State by $2,000,000! the figures being as follows: 

Indiana $8,437,59:3.47 Michigan $2,500,214.91 

Ohio 6,614,816.50 Missouri 2,525,252.52 

Illinois 6,348,538.32 Minnesota 2,471,199.31 

New York 2,880,017.01 Wisconsin 2,237,414.37 

Connecticut 2,809,770.70 Massachusetts 2,210,864.09 

Iowa 4,274.581.93 Arkansas 2,000,000.00 

Nearly all the rest of the States have less than a million dollars 
in their school fund. 

In 1872 the common-school fund of Indiana consisted of the 
following: 

Non-negotiable bonds $3,591,316.15 Escheated estates 17,866.55 

Common-school fund, 1,666,'- 24.50 Sinking fund, last distrib- 

Sinkingfund, at 8 per cent 569,139.94 ution 67,068.72 

Congressional township Sinking fund undistrib- 

fund 2,281,070.69 uted 100,165.92 

Value of unsold Congres- Swamp land fund 42,418.40 

sinnal township lands.. 94,245.00 

Saline fund 5,727.66 $8,437,593 47 

Bank tax fund .... 1,744.94 

In 1S78 the grand total was $8,974,155.55. 

The origin of the respective school funds of Indiana is as follows: 

1. The " Congressional township " fund is derived from the 

proceeds of the 16th sections of the townships. Almost all of these 



278 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

have been sold and the money put out at interest. The amount of 
this fund in 1877 was $2,452,936.82. 

2. The "saline" fund consists of the proceeds of the sale of 
salt springs, and the land adjoining necessary for working them to 
the amount of 36 entire sections, authorized by the original act of 
Congress. By authority of the same act the Legislature has made 
these proceeds a part of the permanent school fund. 

3. The " surplus revenue " fund. Under the administration of 
President Jackson, the national debt, contracted by the Revolutionary 
war and the purchase of Louisiana, was entirely discharged, and a 
large surplus remained in the treasury. In June, 1836, Congress 
distributed this money amcng the States in the ratio of their repre- 
sentation in Congress, subject to recall, and Indiana's share was 
$860,254. The Legislature subsequently set apart $573,502.96 of 
this amount to be a part of the school fund. It is not probable that 
the general Government will ever recall this money. 

4. " Bank tax " fund. The Legislature of 1834 chartered a State 
Bank, of which a part of the stock was owned by the State and a 
part by individuals. Section 15 of the charter required an annual 
deduction from the dividends, equal to 12£ cents on each share not 
held by the State, to be set apart for common-school education. 
This tax finally amounted to $80,000, which now bears interest in 
favor of education. 

5. "Sinking" fund. In order to set the State bank under 
good headway, the State at first borrowed $1,300,000, and out of 
the unapplied balances a fund was created, increased by unapplied 
balances also of the principal, interest and dividends of the amount 
lent to the individual holders of stock, for the purpose of sinking 
the debt of the bank; hence the name sinking fund. The 114th 
section of the charter provided that after the full payment of the 
bank's indebtedness, principal, interest and incidental expenses, the 
residue of said fund should be a permanent fund, appropriated to 
the cause of education. As the charter extended through a period 
of 25 years, this fund ultimately reached the handsome amount of 
$5,000,000. 

The foregoing are all interest-bearing funds; the following are 
additional school funds, but not productive: 

6. " Seminary " fund. By order of the Legislature in 1852, all 
county seminaries were sold, and the net proceeds placed in the 
common-school fund. 



HISTORY OF INDIA-MA. 279 

7. All fines for the violation of the penal laws of the State are 
placed to the credit of the common-school fund 

8. All recognizances of witnesses and parties indicted for crime, 
when forfeited, are collectible by law and made a part of the 
school fund. These are reported to the office of the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction annually. For the five years ending 
with 1S72, they averaged about $34,000 a year. 

9. Escheats. These amount to $17,S65.55, which was still in 
the State treasury in 1872 and unapplied. 

10. The "swamp-land" fund arises from the sale of certain 
Congressional land grants, not devoted to any particular purpose 
by the terms of the grant. In 1872 there was $42,418.40 of this 
money, subject to call by the school interests. 

11. Taxes on corporations are to some extent devoted by the 
Constitution to school purposes, but the clause on this subject is 
somewhat obscure, and no funds as yet have been realized from this 
source. It is supposed that several large sums of money are due 
the common-school fund from the corporations. 

Constitutionally, any of the above funds may be increased, but 
never diminished. 

INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY. 

So early as 1802 the U. S. Congress granted lands and a charter 
to the people of that portion of the Northwestern Territory resid- 
ing at Yincennes, for the erection and maintenance of a seminary 
of learning in that early settled district; and five years afterward 
an act incorporating the Vincennes University asked the Legisla- 
ture to appoint a Board of Trustees for the institution and order the 
sale of a single township in Gibson county, granted by Congress in 
1802, so that the proceeds might be at once devoted to the objects 
of education. On this Board the following gentlemen were ap- 
pointed to act in the interests of the institution: William H. Har- 
rison, John Gibson, Thomas H. Davis, Henry Vanderburgh, Wal- 
ler Taylor, Benjamin Parke, Peter Jones, James Johnson, John 
Kice Jones, George Wallace, William Bullitt, Ehas McNamee, 
John Badolett, Henry Hurst, Gen. W. Johnston, Francis Vigo, 
Jacob Kuykendall, Samuel McKee, Nathaniel Ewing, George 
Leech, Luke Decker, Samuel Gwathmey and John Johnson. 

The sale of this land was slow and the proceeds small. The 
members of the Board, too, were apathetic, and failing to meet, the 
institution fell out of existence and out of memory. 



280 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

In 1816 Congress granted another township in Monroe county, 
located within its present limits, and the foundation of a university 
was laid. Four years later, and after Indiana was erected into a 
State, an act of the local Legislature appointing another Board of 
Trustees and authorizing them to select a location for a university 
and to enter into contracts for its construction, was passed. The 
new Board met at Bloomington and selected a site at that place for 
the location of the present building, entered into a contract for the 
erection of the same in 1S22, and in 1825 had the satisfaction of being 
present at the inauguration of the university. The first session was 
commenced under the Rev. Baynard R. Hall, with 20 students, and 
when the learned professor could only boast of a salary of $150 a 
year; yet, on this very limited sum the gentleman worked with 
energy and soon brought the enterprise through all its elementary 
stages to the position of an academic institution. Dividing the 
year into two sessions of five months each, the Board acting under 
his advice, changed the name to the " Indiana Academy," under 
which title it was duly chartered. In 1S27 Prof. John H. Harney 
was raised to the chairs of mathematics, natural philosophy and 
astronomy, at a salary of $300 a year; and the salary of Mr. Hall 
raised to $400 a year. In 1828 the name was again changed by the 
Legislature to the " Indiana College," and the following professors 
appointed over the different departments; Rev. Andrew Wylie, 
D. D., Prof, of mental and moral philosophy and belles lettres; 
John H. Harney, Prof, of mathematics and natural philosophy; and 
Rev. Bayard R. Hall, Prof, of ancient languages. Tins year, also, 
dispositions were made for the sale of Gibson county lands and for 
the erection of a new college building. This action was opposed 
by some legal difficulties, which after a time were overcome, and 
the new college building was put under construction, and continued 
to prosper until 1854, when it was destroyed by fire, and 9,000 
volumes, with all the apparatus, were consumed The curriculum 
was then carried out in a temporary building, while a new struct- 
ure was going up. 

In 1873 the new college, with its additions, was completed, and 
the routine of studies continued. A museum of natural history, 
a laboratory and the Owen cabinet added, and the standard of the 
studies and morale generally increased in excellence and in strict- 
ness. 

Bloomington is a fine, healthful locality, on the Louisville, New 
Albany & Chicago railway. The University buildings are in the 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 281 

collegiate Gothic style, simply and truly carried out. The building, 
fronting College avenue is 145 feet in front. It consists of a 
central building 60 feet by 53, with wings each 38 feet by 26, and 
the whole, three stories high. The new building, fronting the 
west, is 130 feet by 50. Buildings lighted by gas. 

The faculty numbers thirteen. Number of students in the col- 
legiate department in 1879-'80, ]83; in preparatory, 169; total, 
349, allowing for three counted twice. 

The university may now be considered on a fixed foundation, car- 
rying out the intention of the President, who aimed at scholarship 
rather than numbers, and demands the attention of eleven pro- 
fessors, together with the State Geologist, who is ex-officio member 
of the faculty, and required to lecture at intervals and look after 
the geological and mineralogical interests of the institution. The 
faculty of medicine is represented by eleven leading physicians 
of the neighborhood. The faculty of law requires two resident 
professors, and the other chairs remarkably well represented. 

The university received from the State annually about $15,000, 
and promises with the aid of other public grants and private dona- 
tions to vie with any other State university within the Republic. 

PURDUE UNIVERSITY. 

This is a " college for the benefit of agricultural and the mechanic 
arts," as provided for by act of Congress, July 2, 1S62, donating 
lands for this purpose to the extent of 30,000 acres of the public 
domain to each Senator and Representative in the Federal assem- 
bly. Indiana having in Congress at that time thirteen members, 
became entitled to 390,000 acres; but as there was no Congress 
land in the State at this time, scrip had to be taken, and it was 
upon the following condition (we quote the act): 

" Section 4. That all moneys derived from the sale of land 
scrip shall be invested in the stocks of the United States, or of 
some other safe stocks, yielding no less than five per centum upon 
the par value of said stocks; and that the moneys so invested shall 
constitute a perpetual fund, the capital of which shall remain undi- 
minished, except so far as may be provided in section 5 of this act, 
and the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated by each 
State, which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the 
endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where 
the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and 



282 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such 
brandies of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, in such a manner as the Legislatures of the States may re- 
spectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical 
education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and pro- 
fessions of life. 

" Sec. 5. That the grant of land and land scrip hereby author- 
ized shall be made on the following conditions, to which, as well as 
the provision hereinbefore contained, the previous assent of the 
several States shall be signified by Legislative act: 

" First. If any portion of the funds invested as provided by the 
foregoing section, or any portion of the interest thereon, shall by 
any action or contingency be diminished or lost, it shall be replaced 
by the State to which it belongs, so that the capital of the fund 
shall remain forever undiminished, and the annual interest shall be 
regularly applied, without diminution, to the purposes mentioned 
in the fourth section of this act, except that a sum not exceeding ten 
per centum upon the amount received by any State under the pro- 
visions of this act may be expended for the purchase of lands for 
sites or experimental farms, whenever authorized by the respective 
Legislatures of said States. 

" Second. No portion of said fund, nor interest thereon, shall 
be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretence whatever, to 
the purchase, erection, preservation or repair of any building or 
buildings. 

" Third. Any State which may take and claim the benefit of 
the provisions of this act, shall provide, within five years at least, 
not less than one college, as provided in the fourth section of this 
act, or the grant to such State shall cease and said State be bound 
to pay the United States the amount received of any lands pre- 
viously sold, and that the title to purchase under the States shall 
be valid. 

" Fourth. An annual report shall be made regarding the prog- 
ress of each college, recording any improvements and experiments 
made, with their cost and result, and such other matter, including 
State industrial and economical statistics, as may be supposed use- 
ful, one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free, by each, 
to all other colleges which may be endowed under the provisions 
of this act, and also one copy to the Secretary of the Interior. 

"Fifth. When lands shall be selected from those which have 
been raised to double the minimum price in consequence of railroad 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 283 

grants, that they shall be computed to the States at the maximum 
price, and the number of acres proportionately diminished. 

"Sixth. No State, while in a condition of rebellion or insur- 
rection against the Government of the United States, shall be 
entitled to the benefits of this act. 

"Seventh. No State shall be entitled to the benefits of this act 
unless it shall express its acceptance thereof by its Legislature 
within two years from the date of its approval by the President." 

The foregoing act was approved by the President, July 2, 1S62. 
It seemed that ttiis law, amid the din of arms with the great Rebel- 
lion, was about to pass altogether unnoticed by the next General 
Assembly, January, 1863, had not Gov. Morton's attention been 
called to it by a delegation of citizens from Tippecanoe county, who 
visited him in the interest of Battle Ground. He thereupon sent 
a special message to the Legislature, upon the subject, and then 
public attention was excited to it everywhere, and several localities 
competed for the institution; indeed, the rivalry was so great that 
this session failed to act in the matter at all, and would have failed 
to accept of the grant within the two years prescribed in the last 
clause quoted above, had not Congress, by a supplementary act. 
extended the time two years longer. 

March 6, 1865, the Legislature accepted the conditions ot the 
national gift, and organized the Board of "Trustees of the Indiana 
Agricultural College." This Board, by authority, sold the scrip 
April 9, 1867, for $212,23S.50, which sum, by compounding, has 
increased to nearly $100,000, and is invested in IT. S. bonds. Not 
until the special session of May, 1869, was the locality for this col- 
lege selected, when John Purdue, of Lafayette, offered $150,000 
and Tippecanoe county $50,000 more, and the title of the institution 
changed to il Purdue University." Donations were also made by 
the Battle Ground Institute and the Battle Ground Institute of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. 

The building was located on a 100-acre tract near Chauncey, 
which Purdue gave in addition to his magnificent donation, and to 
which 86i acres more have since been added on the north. The 
boarding-house, dormitory, the laboratory, boiler and gas house, 
a frame armory and gymnasium, stable with shed and work-shop 
are all to the north of the gravel road, and form a group of build- 
ings within a circle of 600 feet. The boiler and gas house occupy 
a rather central position, and supply steam and gas to the boarding- 
house, dormitory and laboratory. A description of these buildings. 



284 HISTOET OF INDIANA. 

may be apropos. The boarding-Louse is a brick structure, in the 
modern Italian style, planked by a turret at each of the front angles 
and measuring 120 feet front by 68 feet deep. The dormitory is a 
quadrangular edifice, in the plain Elizabethan style, four stories 
high, arranged to accommodate 125 students. Like the other build- 
ings, it is heated by steam and lighted by gas. Bathing accommo- 
dations are in each end of all the stories. The laboratory is almost 
a duplicate of a similar department in Brown University, R. I. It 
is a much smaller building than the boarding-house, but yet suffi- 
ciently large to meet the requirements. A collection of minerals, 
fossils and antiquities, purchased from Mr. Richard Owen, former 
President of the institution, occupies the temporary cabinet or 
museum, pending the construction of a new building. The military 
hall and gymnasium is 100 feet frontage by 50 feet deep, and only 
one story high. The uses to which this hall is devoted are exer- 
cises in physical and military drill. The boiler and gas house is an 
establishment replete in itself, possessing every facility for supply- 
ing the buildings of the university with adequate heat and light. 
It is further provided with pumping works. Convenient to this 
department is the retort and great meters of the gas house, capable 
of holding 9,000 cubic feet of gas, and arranged upon the principles 
of modern science. The barn and shed form a single building, 
both useful, convenient and ornamental. 

In connection with the agricultural department of the university, 
a brick residence and barn were erected and placed at the disposal 
of the farm superintendent, Maj. L. A. Burke. 

The buildings enumerated above have been erected at a cost 
approximating the following: boarding-house, $37,807.07; labora- 
tory, $15,000; dormitory, $32,000; military hall and gymnasium, 
$6,410.47; boiler and gas house, $1,814; barn and shed, $1,500; 
work-shop, $1,000; dwelling and barn, $2,500. 

Besides the original donations, Legislative appropriations, vary- 
ing in amount, have been made from time to time, and Mr. Pierce, 
the treasurer, has donated his official salary, $600 a year, for the time 
he served, for decorating the grounds, — if neoessary. 

The opening of the university was, owing to varied circumstan- 
ces, postponed from time to time, and not until March, 1S74, was a 
class formed, and this only to comply with the act of Congress in 
that connection in its relation to the university. However, in 
September following a curriculum was adopted, and the first regu- 
lar term of the Purdue University entered upon. This curriculum 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 285 

comprises the varied subjects generally pertaining to a first-class 
university course, namely: in the school of natural science — 
physics and industrial mechanics, chemistr} 7 and natural history; 
in the school of engineering — civil and mining, together with the 
principles of architecture; in the school of agriculture — theoret- 
ical and practical agriculture, horticulture and veterinary science; 
in the military school — the mathematical sciences, German and 
French literature, free-hand and mechanical drawing, with all the 
studies pertaining to the natural and military sciences. Modern 
languages and natural history embrace their respective courses to 
the fullest extent. 

There are this year (1880) eleven members of the faculty, 86 
students in the regular courses, and 117 other students. In respect 
to attendance there has been a constant increase from the first. 
The first year, 1874-'5, there were but 6-i students. 

INDIANA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

This institution was founded at Tcrre Haute in 1870, in accord- 
ance with the act of the Legislature of that year. The building is 
a large brick edifice situated upon a commanding location and 
possessing some architectural beauties. From its inauguration 
many obstacles opposed its advance toward efficiency and success; 
but the Board of Trustees, composed of men experienced in edu- 
cational matters, exercised their strength of mind and body to 
overcome every difficulty, and secure for the State Normal School 
every distinction and emolument that lay within their power, 
their efforts to this end being very successful; and it is a fact that 
the institution has arrived at, if not eclipsed, the standard of their 
expectations. Not alone does the course of study embrace the 
legal subjects known as reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, 
geography, United States history, English grammar, physiology, 
manners and ethics, but it includes also universal history, the 
mathematical sciences and many other subjects foreign to older 
institutions. The first studies are prescribed by law and must be 
inculcated; the second are optional with the professors, and in the 
case of Indiana generally hold place in the curriculum of the nor- 
mal school. 

The model, or training school, specially designed for the training 
of teachers, forms a most important factor in State educational 
matters, and prepares teachers of both sexes for one of the most 
important positions in life; viz., that of educating the youth of the 



286 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

State. The advanced course of studies, together with the higher 
studies of the normal school, embraces Latin and German, and pre- 
pares young men and women for entrance to the State University. 

The efficiency of this school may be elicited from the following 
facts, taken from the official reports: out of 41 persons who had 
graduated from the elementary course, nine, after teaching success- 
fully in the public schools of this State from two terms to two 
years, returned to the institution and sought admission to the 
advanced classes. They were admitted; three of them were gentle- 
men and six ladies. After spending two years and two terms in the 
elementary course, and then teaching in the schools during the 
time already mentioned they returned to spend two and a half or 
three years more, and for the avowed purpose of qualifying them- 
selves for teaching in the most responsible positions of the public 
school service. In fact, no student is admitted to the school who 
does not in good faith declare his intention to qualify himself for 
teaching in the schools of the State. This the law requires, and 
the rule is adhered to literally. 

The report further says, in speaking of the government of the 
school, that the fundamental idea is rational freedom, or that free- 
dom which gives exemption from the power of control of one over 
another, or, in other words, the self-limiting of themselves, in their 
acts, by a recognition of the rights of others who are equally free. 
The idea and origin of the school being laid down, and also the 
means by which scholarship can be realized in the individual, the 
student is left to form his own conduct, both during session hours 
and while away from school. The teacher merely stands between 
this scholastic idea and the studeut's own partial conception of it, 
as exDOsitor or interpreter. The teacher is not legislator, executor 
or police officer; he is expounder of the true idea of school law, so 
that the only test of the student's conduct is obedience to, or 
nonconformity with, that law as interpreted by the teacher. This 
idea once inculcated in the minds of the students, insures industry, 
punctuality and order. 

NORTHERN INDIANA NORMAL SCHOOL AND BUSINESS INSTITUTE, 

VALPARAISO. 

This institution was organized Sept. 16, 1873, with 35 students 
in attendance. The school occupied the building known as the 
Valparaiso Male and Female College building. Four teachers 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 287 

were employed. The attendance, so small at first, increased rap- 
idly and steadily, until at the present writing, the seventh year 
in the history of the school, the yearly enrollment is more than 
three thousand. The number of instructors now employed is 23. 

From time to time, additions have been made to the school 
buildings, and numerous boarding halls have been erected, so that 
now the value of the buildings and grounds owned by the school 
is one hundred thousand dollars. 

A large library has been collected, and a complete equipment of 
philosophical and chemical apparatus has been purchased. The 
department of physiology is supplied with skeletons, manikins, 
and everything necessary to the demonstration of each branch of 
the subject. A large cabinet is provided for the study of geology. 
In fact, each department of the school is completely furnished 
with the apparatus needed for the most approved presentation of 
every subject. 

There are 15 chartered departments in the institution. These 
are in charge of thorough, energetic, and scholarly instructors, and 
send forth each year as graduates, a large number of finely cultured 
young ladies and gentlemen, living testimonials of the efficiency 
■of the course of study and the methods used. 

The Commercial College in connection with the school is in itself 
a great institution. It is finely fitted up and furnished, and ranks 
foremost among the business colleges of the United States. 

The expenses for tuition, room and board, have been made so 
low that an opportunity for obtaining a thorough education is 
presented to the poor and the rich alike. 

All of this work has been accomplished in the short space of 
seven years. The school now holds a high place among educational 
institutions, and is the largest normal school in the United States. 

This wonderful growth and devolopment is wholly due to the 
energy and faithfulness of its teachers, and the unparalleled exec- 
utive ability of its proprietor and principal. The school is not 
•endowed. 

DENOMINATIONAL AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 

Nor is Indiana behind in literary institutions under denomina- 
tional auspices. It is not to be understood, however, at the present 
day, that sectarian doctrines are insisted upon at the so-called 
" denominational" colleges, universities and seminaries; the youth at 
these places are influenced only by Christian example. 



288 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Notre Dame University, near South Bend, is a Catholic institu- 
tion, and is one of the most noted in the United States. It was 
founded in 1842 by Father Sorin. The first building was erected 
in 1843, and the university has continued to grow and prosper until 
the present time, now having 35 professors, 26 instructor*, 9 tutors, 
213 students and 12,000 volumes in library. At present the main 
building has a frontage of 224 feet and a depth of 155. Thousands 
of young people have received their education here, and a large 
number have been graduated for the priesthood. A chapter was 
held here in 1872, attended by delegates from all parts of the world. 
It is worthy of mention that this institution has a bell weighing 
13,000 pounds, the largest in the United States and one of the finest 
in the world. 

The Indiana Asbury University, at Greencastle, is an old and 
well-established institution under the auspices of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, named after its first bishop, Asbury. It was 
founded in 1S35, and in 1872 it had nine professors and 172 
students. 

Howard College, not denominational, is located at Kokomo, and 
was founded in 1869. In 1872 it had five professors, four instructors, 
and 69 students. 

Union Christian College* Christian, at Merom,was organized in 
1858, and in 1872 had four resident professors, seven instructors 
and 156 students. 

Moore' 1 s Hill College. Methodist Episcopal, is situated at Moore's 
Hill, was founded in 1854, and in 1872 had five resident professors, 
five instructors, and 142 students. 

Earlhanis College, at Richmond, is nnder the management of 
the Orthodox Friends, and was founded in 1859. In 1872 they 
had six resident professors and 167 students, and 3.300 volumes in 
library. 

Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, was organized in 1834, and 
had in 1*72, eight professors and teachers, and 231 students, with 
about 12,000 volumes in the library. It is under Presbyterian 
management. 

Concordia College, Lutheran, at Fort Wayne, was founded in 
1850; in 1872 it had four professors and 148 students: 3,000 volumes 
in library. 

Hanover College, Presbyterian, was organized in 1833, at Han- 
over, and in 1872 had seven professors and 118 students, and 7,000 
volumes in library. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 291 

Hartsville University, United Brethren, at Hartsville, was 
founded in 1854, and in 1872 had seven professors and 117 students. 

Northwestern Christian University, Disciples, is located at 
Irvington, near Indianapolis. It was founded in 1854, and by 
1872 it had 15 resident professors, 181 students, and 5,000 volumes 
in library. 

BENEVOLENT AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS. 

By the year 1830, the influx of paupers and invalid persons was 
so great that the Governor called upon the Legislature to take 
steps toward regulating the matter, and also to provide an asylum 
for the poor, bnt that body was very slow to act on the matter. 
At the present time, however, there is no State in the Union which 
can boast a better system of benevolent institutions. The Benevo- 
lent Society of Indianapolis was organized in 1843. It was a 
pioneer institution; its held of work was small at flrst, but it has 
grown into great usefulness. 

INSTITUTE FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE BLIND. 

In behalf of the blind, the first effort was made by James M. Ray, 
about 1846. Through his efforts William H. Churchman came 
from Kentucky with blind pupils and gave exhibitions in Mr. 
Beecher's church, in Indianapolis. These entertainments were 
attended by members of the Legislature, for whom indeed they 
were especially intended; and the effect upon them was so good, 
that before they adjourned the session they adopted measures to es- 
tablish an asylum for the blind. The commission appointed to carry 
out these measures, consisting of James M. Ray, Geo. W. Mears, 
and the Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor of State, engaged Mr. 
Churchman to make a lecturing: tour through the State and collect 
statistics of the blind population. 

The " Institute for the Education of the Blind " was founded by 
the Legislature of 1847, and first opened in a rented building Oct. 
1, of that year. The permanent buildings were opened and occu- 
pied in February, 1853. The original cost of the buildings and 
ground was $110,000, and the present valuation of buildings and 
grounds approximates $300,000. The main building is 90 feet 
long by 61 deep, and with its right and left wings, each 30 feet in 
front and 83 in depth, give an entire frontage of 150 feet. The 
main building is five stories in height, surmounted by a cupola of 



292 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

the Corinthian style, while each wing is similarly overcapped 
The porticoes, cornices and verandahs are gotten up with exquisite 
taste, and the former are molded after the principle of Ionic archi- 
tecture. The building is very favorably situated, and occupies a 
space of eight acres. 

The nucleus of a fund for supplying indigent graduates of the 
institution with an outfit suitable to their trades, or with money in 
lieu thereof, promises to meet with many additions. The fund is 
the out-come of the benevolence of Mrs. Fitzpatrick, a resident of 
Delaware, in this State, and appears to be suggested by the fact 
that her daughter, wiio was smitten with blindness, studied as a 
pupil in the institute, and became singularly attached to many of 
its inmates. The following passage from the lady's will bears 
testimony not only to her own sympathetic nature but also to the 
efficiency of the establishment which so won her esteem. " I give 
to each of the following persons, friends and associates of my blind 
daughter, Margaret Louisa, the sum of $100 to each, to wit, riz: 
Melissa and Phoebe Garrettson, Frances Cundiff, Dallas Newland, 
Naomi Unthuuk, and a girl whose name before marriage was 
Rachel Martin, her husband's name not recollected. The balance 
of my estate, after paying the expenses of administering, I give to- 
the superintendent of the blind asylum and his successor, in trust, 
for the use and benefit of the indigent blind of Indiana who may 
attend the Indiana blind asylum, to be given to them on leaving 
in such sums as the superintendent may deem proper, but not more 
than $50 to any one person. I direct that the amount above direct- 
ed be loaned at interest, and the interest and principal be distributed 
as above, agreeably to the best judgment of the superintendent, 
so as to do the greatest good to the greatest number of blind 
persons." 

The following rules, regulating the institution, after laying down 
in preamble that the institute is strictly an educational estab- 
lishment, having its main object the moral, intellectual and phys- 
ical training of the young blind of the State, and is not an asylum 
for the aged and helpless, nor an hospital wherein the diseases of 
the eye may be treated, proceed as follows: 

1. The school year commences the first "Wednesday after the 
15th day of September, and closes on the last Wednesday in June, 
showing a session of 40 weeks, and a vacation term of 84 days. 

2. Applicants for admission must be from 9 to 21 years of age; 
but the trustees have power to admit blind students under 9 or 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 293 

over 21 years of age; but this power is extended only in very 
•extreme cases. 

3. Imbecile or unsound persons, or confirmed immoralists, 
■cannot be admitted knowingly; neither can admitted pupils who 
prove disobedient or incompetent to receive instruction be retained 
(in the roll. 

i. No charge is made for the instruction and board given to 
pupils from the State of Indiana; and even those without the State 
have only to pay $200 for board and education during the 40 weeks' 
session. 

5. An abundant and good supply of comfortable clothing for 
both summer and winter wear, is an indispensable adjunct of the 
pupil. 

6. The owner's name must be distinctly marked on each article 
of clothing. 

7. In cases of extreme indigence the institution may provide 
clothing and defray the traveling expenses of such pupil and levy the 
amount so expended on the county wherein his or her home is 
situated. 

8. The pupil, or friends of the pupil, must remove him or her 
from the institute during the annual vacation, and in case of their 
failure to do so, a legal provision enables the superintendent to 
forward such pupil to the trustee of the township where he or she 
resides, and the expense of such transit and board to be charged to 
the county. 

9. Friends of the pupils accompanying them to the institution, 
or visiting them thereat, cannot enter as boarders or lodgers. 

10. Letters to the pupils should be addressed to the care of the 
Superintendent of the Institute for the Education of the Blind, so as 
the better to insure delivery. 

11. Persons desirous of admission of pupils should apply to the 
superintendent for a printed copy of instructions, and no pupil 
should be sent thereto until the instructions have been complied 
with. 

INSTITUTE FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 

In 1843 the Governor was also instructed to obtain plans and 
information respecting the care of mutes, and the Legislature also 
levied a tax to provide for them. The first one to agitate the subject 
was William Willard, himself a mute, who visited Indiana in 1843, 
and opened a school for mutes on his own account, with 16 pupils. 



294 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

The next year the Legislature adopted this school as a State insti- 
tution, appointing a Board of Trustees for its management, consist- 
ing of the Governor and Secretary of State, ex-officio,and Revs. Henry 
Ward Beecher, Phineas D. Gurley, L. H. Jameson, Dr. Dunlap, 
Hon. James Morrison and Rev. Matthew Simpson. They rented the 
large building on the southeast corner of Illinois and Maryland 
streets, and opened the first State asylum there in 1844; but in 1846, 
a site for a permanent building just eastof Indianapolis was selected, 
consisting first of 30 acres, to which 100 more have been added. 
On this site the two first structures were commenced in 1849, and 
completed in the fall of 1850, at a cost of $30,000. The school 
was immediately transferred to the new building, where it is still 
flourishing, with enlarged buildings and ample facilities for instruc- 
tion in agriculture. In 1869-70, another building was erected, 
and the three together now constitute one of the most benefi- 
cent and beautiful institutions to be found on this continent, at 
an aggregate cost of $220,000. The main building has a facade of 
260 feet. Here are the offices, study rooms, the quarters of officers 
and teachers, the pupils' dormitories and the library. The center 
of this building has a frontage of eighty feet, and is five stories high, 
with wings on either side 60 feet in frontage. In this Central 
structure are the store rooms, dining-hall, servants' rooms, hospital, 
laundry, kitchen, bakery and several school-rooms. Another struct- 
ure known as the " rear building " contains the chapel and another 
set of school-rooms. It is two stories high, the center being 50 feet 
square and the wings 40 by 20 feet. In addition to these there are 
many detached buildings, containing the shops of the industrial 
department, the engine-house and wash-house. 

The grounds comprise 105 acres, which in the immediate vicinity 
of the buildings partake of the character of ornamental or pleasure 
gardens, comprising a space devoted to fruits, flowers and veget- 
ables, while the greater part is devoted to pasture and agriculture. 

The first instructor in the institution was Win. Willard, a deaf 
mute, who had up to 1S44 conducted a small school for the instruc- 
tion of the deaf at Indianapolis, and now is employed by the State, 
at a salary of $800 per annum, to follow a similar vocation in its 
service. In 1853 he was succeeded by J. S. Brown, and subse- 
quently by Thomas Mclntire, who continues principal of the 
institution. 



11IST0KY OF INDIANA. 295 



HOSPITAL FOE THE INSANE. 



The Legislature of 1832-'3 adopted measures providing for a 
State hospital for the insane. This good work would have been 
done much earlier had it not been for the hard times of 1837, 
intensified by the results of the gigantic scheme of internal improve- 
ment. In order to survey the situation and awaken public sympa- 
thy, the county assessors were ordered to make a return of the 
insane in their respective counties. During the year 1S42 the 
Governor, acting under the direction of the Legislature, procured 
considerable information in regard to hospitals for the insane in 
other States; and Dr. John Evans lectured before the Legislature 
on the subject of insanity and its treatment. As a result of these 
efforts the authorities determined to take active steps for the estab- 
lishment of such a hospital. Plans and suggestions from the 
superintendents and hospitals of other States were submitted to the 
Legislature in 1844, which body ordered the levy of a tax of one 
cent on the $100 for the purpose of establishing the hospital. In 
1845 a commission was appointed to obtain a site not exceeding 
200 acres. Mount Jackson, then the residence of Nathaniel Bolton, 
was selected, and the Legislature in lS4fi ordered the commissioners 
to proceed with the erection of the building. Accordingly, in 
1847, the central building was completed, at a cost of §75,000. It 
has since been enlarged by the addition of wings, some of which 
are larger than the old central building, until it has become an 
immense structure, having cost over half a million dollars. 

The wings of the main building are four stories high, and entirely 
devoted to wards for patients, being capable of accommodating 
500. 

The grounds of the institution comprise 160 acres, and, like 
those of the institute for the deaf and dumb, are beautifully laid 
out. 

This hospital was opened for the reception of patients in 1848. 
The principal structure comprises what is known as the central 
building and the right and left wings, and like the institute for the 
deaf and dumb, erected at various times and probably under various 
adverse circumstances, it certainly does not hold the appearance of 
any one design, but seems to be a combination of many. Not- 
withstanding these little defects in arrangement, it presents a very 
imposing appearance, and shows what may be termed a frontage 



296 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

of 624 feet. The central building is five stories in height and con- 
tains the store-rooms, offices, reception parlors, medical dispensing 
rooms, mess-rooms and the apartments of the superintendent and 
other officers, with those of the female employes. Immediately 
in the rear of the central building, and connected with it by a 
corridor, is the chapel, a building 50 by 60 feet. This chapel 
occupies the third floor, while the under stories hold the kitchen, 
bakery, employes' dining-room, steward's office, employes' apart- 
ments and sewing rooms. In rear of this again is the engine- 
house, 60 by 50 feet, containing all the paraphernalia for such an 
establishment, such as boilers, pumping works, fire plugs, hose, 
and above, on the second floor, the laundry and apartments of male 
employes. 

THE STATE PRISON SOUTH. 

The first penal institution of importance is known as the "State 
Prison South," located at Jeffersonville, and was the only prison 
until 1859. It was established in 1S21. Before that time it was 
customary to resort to the old-time punishment of the whipping- 
post. Later the manual labor system was inaugurated, and the 
convicts were hired out to employers, among whom were Capt. 
Westover, afterward killed at Alamo, Texas, with Crockett, James 
Keigwin, who in an affray was fired at and severely wounded by a 
convict named Williams, Messrs. Patterson Hensley, and Jos. 
P. Pratt. During the rule of the latter of these lessees, the atten- 
tion of the authorities was turned to a more practical method of 
utilizing convict labor; and instead of the prisoners being per- 
mitted to serve private entries, their work was turned in the direc- 
tion of their own prison, where for the next few years they were 
employed in erecting the new buildings now known as the " State 
Prison South." This structure, the result of prison labor, stands 
on 16 acres of ground, and comprises the cell houses and work- 
shops, together with the prisoners' garden, or pleasure-ground. 

It seems that in the erection of these buildings the aim of the 
overseers was to create so many petty dungeons and unventilated 
laboratories, into which disease in every form would be apt to 
creep. This fact was evident from the high mortality character- 
izing life within the prison; and in the efforts made by the 
Government to remedy a state of things which had been permitted 
to exist far too long, the advance in prison reform has become a 
reality. From 1S57 to 1871 the labor of the prisoners was devoted 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 297 

to the manufacture of wagons and farm implements; and again the 
old policy of hiring the convicts was resorted to; for in the latter 
year, 1871, the Southwestern Car Company was organized, and 
every prisoner capable of taking a part in the work of car-building 
was leased out. This did very well until the panic of 1873, when 
the company suffered irretrievable losses; and previous to its final 
down-fall in 1876 the warden withdrew convict labor a second time, 
leaving the prisoners to enjoy a luxurious idleness around the 
prison which themselves helped to raise. 

In later years the State Prison South has gained some notoriety 
from the desperate character of some of its inmates. During the 
civil war a convict named Harding mutilated in a most horrible 
manner and ultimately killed one of the jailors named Tesley. In 
1871:, two prisoners named Kennedy and Applegate, possessing 
themselves of some arms, and joined by two other convicts named 
Port and Stanley, made a break for freedom, swept past the guard, 
Chamberlain, and gained the fields. Chamberlain went in pursuit 
but had not gone very far when Kennedy turned on his pursuer, 
fired and killed him instantly. Subsequently three of the prisoners 
were captured alive and one of them paid the penalty of death, 
while Kennedy, the murderer of Chamberlain, failing committal for 
murder, was sent back to his old cell to spend the remainder of his 
life. Bill Rodifer, better known as " The Hoosier Jack Sheppard," 
effected his escape in 1875, in the very presence of a large guard, 
but was recaptured and has since been kept in irons. 

This establishment, owing to former mismanagement, has fallen 
very much behind, financially, and has asked for and received an 
appropriation of $20,000 to meet its expenses, while the contrary 
is the case at the Michigan City prison. 

THE STATE PRISON NORTH. 

In 1859 the first steps toward the erection of a prison in the 
northern part of the State were taken, and by an act of the Legis- 
lature approved March 5, this year, authority was given to construct 
prison buildings at some point north of the National road. For this 
purpose $50,000 were appropriated, and a large uumber of convicts 
from the Jeffersonville prison were transported northward to 
Michigan City, which was just selected as the location for the new 
penitentiary. The work was soon entered upon, and continued to 
meet with additions and improvements down to a very recent 
period. So late as 1875 the Legislature appropriated $20,000 



298 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

toward the construction of new cells, and in other directions also 
the work of improvement has been going on. The system of 
government and discipline is similar to that enforced at the Jeffer- 
sonville prison; and, strange to say, by its economical working has 
not only met the expenses of the administration, but very recently 
had amassed over $11,000 in excess of current expenses, from its 
annual savings. This is due almost entirely to the continual 
employment of the convicts in the manufacture of cigars and 
chairs, and in their great prison industry, cooperage. It differs 
widely from the Southern, insomuch as its sanitary condition has 
been above the average of similar institutions. The strictness of its 
silent system is better enforced. The petty revolutions of its 
inmates have been very few and insignificant, and the number of 
punishments inflicted comparatively small. From whatever point 
this northern prison may be looked at, it will bear a very favorable 
comparison with the largest and best administered of like establish- 
ments throughout the world, and cannot fail to bring high credit to 
its Board of Directors and its able warden. 

FEMALE PRISON AND REFORMATORY. 

The prison reform agitation which in this State attained telling 
proportions in 1869, caused a Legislative measure to be brought 
forward, which would have a tendency to ameliorate the condition 
of female convicts. Gov. Baker recommended it to the General 
Assembly, and the members of that body showed their appreciation 
of the Governor's philanthropic desire by conferring upon the bill 
the authority of a statute; and further, appropriated $50,000 to aid 
in carrying out the objects of the act. The main provisions con- 
tained in the bill may be set forth in the following extracts from 
the proclamation of the Governor: 

" Whenever said institution shall have been proclaimed to be 
open for the reception of girls in the reformatory department 
thereof, it shall be lawful for said Board of Managers to receive 
them into their care and management, and the said reformatory 
department, girls under the age of 15 years who may be committed 
to their custody, in either of the following modes, to- wit: 

"1. When committed by any judge of a Circuit or Common 
Pleas Court, either in term time or in vacation, on complaint and 
due proof by the parent or guardian that by reason of her incorrig- 
ible or vicious conduct she has rendered her control beyond the 
power of such parent or guardian, and made it manifestly requisite 



HISTORY OF IK DIANA. 299 

that from regard to the future welfare of such infant, and for the 
protection of society, she should be placed under such guardianship. 

"2. When such infant has been committed by such judge, as 
aforesaid, upon complaint by any citizen, and due proof of such 
complaint that such infant is a proper subject of the guardianship 
of such institution in consequence of her vagrancy or incorrigible 
or vicious conduct, and that from the moral depravity or other- 
wise of her parent or guardian in whose custody she may be, 
such parent or guardian is incapable or unwilling to exercise the 
proper care or discipline over such incorrigible or vicious infant. 

"3. When such infant has been committed by such judge as 
aforesaid, on complaint and due proof thereof by the township 
trustee of the township where such infant resides, that such infant 
is destitute of a suitable home and of adequate means of obtaining 
an honest living, or that she is in danger of being brought up to 
lead an idle and immoral life." 

In addition to these articles of the bill, a formal section of 
instruction to the wardens of State prisons was embodied in the 
act, causing such wardens to report the number of all the female 
convicts under their charge and prepare to have them transferred 
to the female reformatory immediately after it was declared to be 
ready for their reception. After the passage of the act the 
Governor appointed a Board of Managers, and these gentlemen, 
securing the services of Isaac Hodgson, caused him to draft a plan 
of the proposed institution, and further, on his recommendation, 
asked the people for an appropriation of another $50,000, which 
the Legislature granted in February, 1873. The work of construc- 
tion was then entered upon and carried out so steadily, that on the 
fith of September, 1S73, the building was declared ready for the 
reception of its future inmates. Gov. Baker lost no time in 
proclaiming this fact, and October 4 he caused the wardens of the 
State prisons to be instructed to transfer all the female convicts in 
their custody to the new institution which may be said to rest on 
the advanced intelligence of the age. It is now called the 
•' Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls." 

This building is located immediately north of the deaf and 
dumb asylum, near the arsenal, at Indianapolis. It is a three- 
story brick structure in the French style, and shows a frontage of 
17-t feet, comprising a main building, with lateral and transverse 
wings. In front of the central portion is the residence of the 
superintendent and his associate reformatory officers, while in the 



300 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

rear is the engine house, with all the ways and means for heating 
the buildings. Enlargements, additions and improvements are 
still in progress. There is also a school and library in the main 
building, which are sources of vast good. 

October 31, 1S79, there were 66 convicts in the " penal" depart- 
ment and 147 in the " girls' reformatory " department. The 
" ticket-of-leave " system has been adopted, with entire satisfaction, 
and the conduct of the institution appears to be up with the 
times. 

INDIANA HOUSE OF KEFDGE. 

In 1867 the Legislature appropriated $50,000 to aid in the 
formation of an institution to be entitled a house for the correction 
and reformation of juvenile defenders, and vested with full powers 
in a Board of Control, the members of which were to be appointed 
by the Governor, and with the advice and consent of the Senate. 
This Board assembled at the Governor's house at Indianapolis, 
April 3, 1867, and elected Charles F. Coffin, as president, and 
visited Chicago, so that a visit to the reform school there might 
lead to a fuller knowledge and guide their future proceedings. 
The House of Refuge at Cincinnati, and the Ohio State Reform 
school were also visited with this design ; and after full consider- 
ation of the varied governments of these institutions, the Board 
resolved to adopt the method known as the " family " system, 
which divides the inmates into fraternal bodies, or small classes, 
each class having a separate house, house father and family offices, 
— all under the control of a general superintendent. The system 
being adopted, the question of a suitable location next presented 
itself, and proximity to a large city being considered rather 
detrimental to the welfare of such an institution, Gov. Baker 
selected the site three-fourths of a mile south of Plainneld, and 
about fourteen miles from Indianapolis, which, in view of its 
eligibility and convenience, was fully concurred in by the Board 
of Control. Therefore, a farm of 225 acres, claiming a fertile soil 
and a most picturesque situation, and possessing streams of running 
water, was purchased, and on a plateau in its center a site for the 
proposed house of refuge was fixed. 

The next movement was to decide upon a plan, which ultimately 
met the approval of the Governor. It favored the erection of one 
principal building, one house for a reading-room and hospital, two 
large mechanical shops and eight family houses. January 1, 1868, 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 301 

three family houses and work-shop were completed; in 1869 the 
main building, and one additional family house were added; but 
previous to this, in August, 1867, a Mr. Frank P. Aiusworth and 
his wife were appointed by the Board, superintendent and matron 
respectively, and temporary quarters placed at their disposal. In 
1869 they of course removed to the new building. This is 64 by 
128 feet, and three stories high. In its basement are kitchen, 
laundry and vegetable cellar. The first floor is devoted to offices, 
visitors' room, house father and family dining-room and store- 
rooms. The general superintendent's private apartments, private 
offices and five dormitories for officers occupy the second floor; 
while the third floor is given up to the assistant superintendent's 
apartment, library, chapel and hospital. 

The family houses are similar in style, forming rectangular build- 
ings 36 by 58 feet. The basement of each contains a furnace 
room, a store-room and a large wash-room, which is converted into 
a play-room during inclement weather. On the first floor of each 
of these buildings are two rooms for the house father and his 
family, and a school-room, which is also convertible into a sitting 
room for the boys. On the third floor is a family dormitory, a 
clothes-room and a room for the " elder brother," who ranks next 
to the house father. And since the reception of the first boy, from 
Hendricks county, January 23, 1868, the house plan has proved 
equally convenient, even as the management has proved efficient. 

Other buildings have since been erected. 

STATE CAPITOL. 

About 1832, at the suggestion of the architect who was to build 
the State House, with the concurrence of the commissioners, the 
block north of the State House square was reserved for sale, to 
await the determination of the Legislature as to the propriety of 
adding it to the public ground, making it an oblong square corre- 
sponding to the form of the edifice to be erected. The plan drawn 
by Mr. Town, the artist, was adopted by the Legislature, and he 
was to complete the building by November, 1837, for $58,000. The 
building erected in pursuance of this contract served the State 
until within a few years; and now Indiana has a new, beautiful cap- 
itol, equal in proportions, style, etc., to those of her sister States, 
under headway. 



STATE OFFICEKS, 

FROM THE EARLIEST DATE TO THE PRESENT. 

Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Territory of the United States 
Northwest of the Ohio, from Oct. 5, 1787, to July 4, 1800. 

GOVERNORS OF INDIANA TERRITORY. 

Wm. Henry Harrison, from July 4, 1800, to 1812. 
John Gibson, Acting Governor from 1812 to 1813. 
Thomas Posey, from March 3, 1813, to Nov. 7, 1816. 

GOVERNORS OF THE STATE OF INDIANA. 

Jonathan Jennings, from Nov. 7, 1816, to Dec. 4, 1822. 
Wm. Hendricks, from Dec. 4, 1822, to Feb. 12, 1825. 
James B. Ray, from Dec. 7, 1825, to Dec. 7, 1831. 
Noah Noble, from Dec. 7, 1831, to Dec. 6, 1837. 
David Wallace, from Dec. 6, 1837, to Dec. 9, 1840. 
Samuel Bigger, from Dec. 9, 1840, to Dec. 6, 1843. 
James Whitcomb, from Dec. 6, 1843, to Dec. 26, 1848. 
Paris C. Dunning, Acting-Governor, from Dec. 26, 1848, to Dec. 
6, 1849. 

Joseph A. Wright, from Dec. 6, 1849, to Jan. 5, 1857. 

Ashbel P. Willard. 

Abram A. Hammond. 

Henry S. Lane, a few days in January, 1860. 

Oliver P. Morton, acting, from 1860, to January 12, 1865. 

Oliver P. Morton, from Jan. 12, 1865, to Jan. 12, 1867. 

Conrad Baker, acting, from 1867 to 1869. 

Conrad Baker, from 1869 to 1873 

Thomas A. Hendricks, from 1873 to 1877. 

James D. Williams, 1877 to 1881. 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS. 

Christopher Harrison, from 1816 to Dec. 17, 1818. 
Ratliff Boone, from 1819 to 1824. 

(302) 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 303 



James B. Ray, acting, from 1824 to 1825. 

John H. Thompson, from 1825 to 1828. 

Milton Stapp, from 1828 to 1831. 

David Wallace, from 1831 to 1837. 

David Hillis, from 1837 to 1840. 

Samuel Hall, from 1810 to 1843. 

Jesse D. Bright, from 1843 to 1845. 

Godlove S. Orth, acting, 1845. 

James G. Read, acting, 1846. 

Paris C. Dunning, from 1846 to 1848. 

James G. Read, 1849. 

James H. Lane, from 1849 tol853. 

Ashbel P. Willard, from 1853 to 1857. 

Abram A. Hammond, from 1857 to 1859. 

John R. Cravens, acting, from 1859 to 1S63. 

Paris C. Dunning, acting, from 1863 to 1865. 

Conrad Baker, from 1865 to 1867. 

Will Cumback, from 1867 to 1869. 

Will Cumback, from 1869 to 1873. 

Leonidas Sexton, from 1873 to 1877. 

Isaac P. Gray, from 1877 to 1881. 

SECRETARIES OF STATE. 

John Gibson, Territorial, from 1800 to 1816. 
Robert A. New, from 1816 to 1825. 
W. W. Wick, from 1825 to 1829. 
James Morrison, from 1829 to 1833. 
Wm. Sheets, from 1833 to 1837. 
Win. J. Brown, from 1837 to 1841. 
Wm. Sheets, from 1841 to 1845. 
John H. Thompson, from 1845 to 1849. 
Charles H. Test, from 1849 to 1853. 
Nehemiah Hayden, from 1853 to 1855. 
Erasmus B. Collins, from 1855 to 1S57. 
Daniel McClure, from 1857 to 1858. 
Cyrus L. Dunham, from 185S to 1859. 
Daniel McClure, from 1859 to 1861. 
Wm. A. Peele, from 1861 to 1863. 
James S. Anthon from 1863 to 1865. 
Nelson Trusler, from 1865 to 1869. 



304 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

Max F. A. Hoffman, from 1S69 to 1871, 
Norman Eddy, from 1S71 to 1872. 
John H. Farquhar, from 1872 to 1873. 
W. W. Curry, from 1873 to 1874. 
John E. Neff, from IS 74 to 
John P. Shanklin, from 1879 ,o 1881. 

AUDITORS OF STATE. 

Wm. H. Lilley, from 1S16 to 1829. 
Morris Morris, from 1829 to 1844. 
Horatio J. Harris, from 1844 to 1847. 
Douglas McGuire, from 1847 to 1850. 
E. W. H. Ellis, from 1850 to 1853. 
John P. Dunn, from 1853 to 1855. 
Hiram E. Talbot, from 1855 to 1857. 
John W. Dodd, from 1S57 to 1S60. 
Albert Lange, from 1861 to 1863. 
Joseph Ristine, from 1863 to 1865. 
Thomas B. McCarty, from 1S65 to 1869. 
John D. Evans, from 1869 to 1871. 
John C Shoemaker, from 1S71 to 1873. 
James A. Wild man, from 1873 to 1874. 
Ebenezer Henderson, from 1875 to 
M. D. Manson, from 1879 to 1881. 

TREASURERS OF STATE. 

Daniel C. Lane, from 1816 to 1823. 
Samuel Merrill, from 1823 to 1835. 
Nathan B. Palmer, from 1835 to 1841. 
Geo. H. Dunn, from 1841 to 1844. 
Royal Mayhew, from 1844 to 1847. 
Samuel Hanna, from 1847 to 1850. 
J. P. Drake, from 1S50 to 1853. 
Elijah Newland, from 1853 to 1855. 
Wm. B. Noffsinger, from 1855 to 1857. 
Aquilla Jones, from 1857 to 1859. 
Nathaniel F. Cunningham, from 1859 to 1861. 
J. S. Harvey, 1861 to 1863. 
Matthew L. Brett, from 1863 to 1865. 
John I. Morrison, from 1865 to 1867. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 305 



Nathan Kimball, from 1S67 to 1871. 
James B. Ryan, from 1871 to 1873. 
John B. Glover, from 1S73 to 1875. 
B. C. Shaw, from 1875 to 
Wm. Fleming, from 1S79 to 1881. 

ATTORNEY-GENERALS. 

James Morrison, from March 5, 1855. 
J. E. McDonald, from Dec. 17, 1857. 
J. G. Jones, from Dec. 17, 1859. 
John P. Usher, from Nov. 10, 1861. 
Oscar B. Hord, from Nov. 3, 1S62. 
D. E. Williamson, from Nov. 3, 1864. 
Bayliss W. Eanna, from Nov. 3, 1870. 
James C. Denny, from Nov. 6, 1S72. 
Clarence A. Buskirk, from Nov. 6, 1874. 
Thomas Woolen, from Nov., 1878 to Nov., 1880. 

JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COUKT. 

James Scott, from 1816 to 1831. 

John Johnston, from 1816 to 1817. 

J. L. Holman, from 1S16 to 1831. 

Isaac Blackford, from 1817 to 1853. 

S. C. Stevens, from 1S31 to 1836. 

J. T. McKinney, from 1831 to 1S37. 

Charles Dewey, from 1S36 to 1847. 

Jeremiah Sullivan, from 1837 to 1846. 

Samuel E. Perkins, from 1846 to 1865. 

Thomas L. Smith, from 1847 to 1853. 

Andrew Davidson, from 1853 to 1865. 

Wm. L. Stewart, from 1853 to 1857. 

Addison L. Roaclie, from 1853 to 1854. 

Alvin P. Hovey. appointed, to 1854. 

S. B. Gookins, from 1S54 to 1857. 

James L. Worden, appointed, from 1858 to 1865. 

James M. Hanna, appointed, from 185S to 1865. 

Charles A. Ray, from 1865 to 1871. 

John P. Elliott, from 1865 to 1871. 

James S. Frazier, from 1865 to 1871. 

Robert S. Gregory, from 1865 to 1871. 



306 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

James L. Worden, from 1871 to 
Alex. C. Downey, from 1871 to 
Samuel H. Buskirk, from 1871 to 
John Pettit, from 1871 to 
Andrew L. Osborn, from 1872 to 
Horace P. Biddle, from 1S74 to 
Samuel E. Perkins. 
George V. Howk. 
Wm. E. Niblack. 

UNITED STATES SENATORS. 

James Noble, from 1816 to 1S31. 

Waller Taylor, from 1816 to 1S25. 

Wm. Hendricks, from 1825 to 1837. 

Robert Hanna, appointed, 1831. 

John Tipton, from 1831 to 1839. 

Oliver H. Smith, from 1837 to 1843. 

Albert S. While, from 1S39 to 1845. 

Edward A. Hannegan, from 1S43 to 1849. 

Jesse D. Bright, from 1845 to 1861. 

James Whitcomb, from 1849 to 1852. 

Charles W. Cathcart, appointed, from 1852 to 1853. 

John Pettit, from 1853 to 1857. 

Graham N. Fitch, from 1S57 to 1861. 

Joseph A. Wright, from 1861 to 1S63. 

Henry S. Lane, from 1S61 to 1867. 

David Turpie, 1863. 

Thos. A. Hendricks, from 1863 to 1869. 

Oliver P. Morton, from 1867 to 1S77. 

Daniel D. Pratt, from 1869 to 1875. 

Joseph E. McDonald, from 1875 to 

TERRITORIAL DELEGATES. 

Wm. H. Harrison, delegate from the "Territory Northwest of the 
Ohio Piver;" resigned in 1S00, succeeded by Wm. McMillan, who 
took his seat Nov. 24, 1800. 

INDIANA TERRITORY. 

Benjamin Parke, Dec. 12, 1805; resigned in 1808; succeeded 
by Jesse B. Thomas, who took his seat Dec. 1, 1808. Jonathan 
Jennings, Nov. 27, 1809. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 307 

REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS. 

1817-'22 — fra. Hendricks. 

1822-'4. — Jonathan Jennings. 

1823-'5. — Jonathan Jennings, ¥m. Prince, John Test and Jacob 
Call. 

1825-'7. — Ratliff Boon, Jonathan Jennings, John Test. 

lS27-'9. — Thomas H. Blake, Jonathan Jennings, Oliver H. Smith. 

1829-'31. — Ratliff Boon, Jonathan Jennings, John Test. 

1831-'3. — Ratliff Boon, John Carr, Jonathan McCarty. 

1833-'5. — Ratliff Boon, John Carr, John Ewing, Jonathan 
McCarty. 

1835-'7 — Ratliff Boon, John Carr, John W. Davis, Edward A. 
Hannegan, ¥m. Herod, George L. Kinnard, Amos Lane, Jonathan 
McCarty. 

1837-'9.— Ratliff Boon, George H. Dunn, John Ewing, fm. 
Graham, Win. Herod, James Rariden, Albert S. White. 

1839-'41.— John Carr, John W. Davis, Tilghman A. Howard, 
Henry S. Lane, George EL Promt, James Rariden, Thomas Smith, 
Wm. W. Wick. 

lS41-'3. — James H. Cravens, Andrew Kennedy, Henry S. Lane, 
Geo. H. Promt, Richard W. Thompson, David Wallace, Joseph L. 
White. 

1843-'5.— Wm. J. Brown, John W. Davis. Thomas J. Henley, 
Andrew Kennedy, Robert Dale Owen, John Pettit, Samuel C. 
Sample, Caleb B. Smith, Thomas Smith, Joseph A. Wright. 

1845-'7 — Charles W. Cathcart, John W. Davis, Thomas J. 
Henley, Andrew Kennedy, Edward W. McGaughey, Robert D. 
Owen, John Pettit, Caleb B. Smith, Thomas Smith, Wm. W. 
Wick. 

1847-'9.— Chas. W. Cathcart, George G. Dunn, Elisha Embree. 
Thomas J. Henley, John Pettit, John L. Robinson, Wm. Rockhill, 
Caleb B. Smith, Richard W. Thompson, Wm. W. Wick. 

1849-'51. — Nathaniel Albertson, Wm. J. Brown, Cyrus L. Dun- 
ham, Graham N. Fitch, Willis A. Gorman, Andrew J. Harlan, Geo. 
W. Julian, Joseph E. McDonald, Edward W. McGaughey, John L. 
Robinson. 

1851 -'3 — Samuel Brenton, John G. Davis, Cyrus L. Dunham, 
Graham N. Fitch, Willis A. Gorman, Thomas A. Hendricks, Jas. 
Lockhart, Daniel Mace, Samuel W. Parker, John L. Robinson. 



30S 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



1853-'5., — Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, John G. Davis, Cyrus L. 
Duahara, Norman Eddy, fm. H. English, Andrew J. Harlan, 
Thomas A. Hendricks, James H. Lane, Daniel Mace, Smith Mil- 
ler, Samuel W. Parker. 

1855-'7. — Lucien Barbour, Samuel Brenton, Schuyler Colfax, 
Win. Cumback, George G. Dunn, Win. H. English, David P. 
Holloway, Daniel Mace, Smith Miller, John U. Pettit, Harvey D. 
Scott. 

1 857-' 9.— Charles Case, Schuyler Colfax, John G. Davis, Wm. 
H. English, James B. Foley, James M. Gregg, James Hughes, 
David Kilgore, Win. E. Niblack, John U. Pettit, James Wilson. 

1S59-'61. — Charles Case, Schuyler Colfax, John G. Davis, Wm. 
M. Dunn, Wm. II. English, Wm. S. Holtnan, David Kilgore, Wm. 
E. Niblack, John U. Pettit, Albert G. Porter, James Wilson. 

1861-'3. — Schuyler Colfax, James A. Cravens, W. McKee Dunn, 
Win. S. Holman, Geo. W. Julian, John Law, Wm. Mitchell, Albert 
G. Porter, John P. C. Shanks, Daniel W. Voorhees, Albert S. 
White. 

1863-'5. — Schuyler Colfax, James A. Cravens, Ebenezer Dnmont, 
Joseph K. Edgerton, Henry W. Harrington, Wm. S. Holman, 
Geo. W. Julian, John Law, James F. McDowell, Godlove S. Orth, 
Daniel W. Voorhees. 

1865-'7. — Schuyler Colfax, Joseph H. Defrees, Ebenezer Dumont, 
John II. Farquhar, Ealpli Hill, Geo. W. Julian, Michael C. Kerr, 
Wm. E. Niblack, Godlove S. Orth, Thomas N. Stillwell, Daniel 
W. Voorhees, Henry D. Washburn. 

1867-'9.— John Coburn, Schuyler Colfax, Wm. S. Holman, Mor- 
ton C. Hunter, Geo. W. Julian, Michael C. Kerr, Wm. E. Niblack, 
Godlove S. Orth, John P. C. Shanks, Henry D. Washburn, Wm. 
Williams. 

1869-71.— John Coburn, Wm. S. Holman, Geo. W. Julian, 
Michael C. Kerr, Win. E. Niblack, Godlove S. Orth, Jasper Pack- 
ard, John P. C. Shanks, James N. Tyner, Daniel W. Voorhees, 
Win. Williams. 

lS71-'3. — John Coburn, Wm. S. Holman, Michael C. Kerr, 
Mahlon D. Manson, Wm. E. Niblack, Jasper Packard, John P. C. 
Shanks, James N. Tyner, Daniel W. Voorhees, Wm. Williams, 
Jeremiah M. Wilson. 

1873-'5 — Thomas J. Cason, John Coburn, Wm. S. Holman, 
Morton C. Hunter, Wm. E. Niblack, Godlove S. Orth, Jasper 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



309 



Packard, Henry B. Sayler, John P. C. Shanks, James N. Tyner, 
Wm. Williams, Jeremiah M. "Wilson, Simeon K. Wolfe. 

1875-'7— John H. Baker, JSathan T. Carr, Thomas J. Cason, 
James L. Evans, Benoni S. Fuller, Andrew H. Hamilton, Wm. 
S. Haymond, W. S. Holman, Andrew Humphreys, Morton C. 
Hunter, Michael C. Kerr, Franklin Landers, Jeptha D. New, Mil- 
ton S. Robinson, James D. Williams, 

1877-'9— John II. Baker, George A. Bicknell, Thomas M. Browne, 
Wm. H. Calkins, Thomas R. Cobh, James L. Evans, B. S. Fuller, 
A. H. Hamilton, John Hanna, M. C. Hunter, M. S. Pobinson, 
Leonidas Sexton, M. D. White. 

1879-'81— William Heilman, Thomas E. Cobb, George A. Bick- 
nell, Jeptha D. New, Thomas M. Browne, Wm. R. Myers, Gilbert 
De La Matyr, Abraham J. Hostetter, Godlove S. Orth, Wm. H. 
Calkins, Calvin Cowgill, Walpole G. Colerick, John H. Baker. 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

GOVERNORS. 

Arthur St. Clair was born in Scotland in 1731, a grandson 
of the Earl of Rosslyn; educated at the University of Edinburgh; 
studied medicine under John Hunter; inherited a large fortune 
on the death of his mother; entered the British army as an ensign, 
May 13, 1757, and the next year he came to America; became 
distinguished under General "Wolfe at Quebec; married at Boston, 
May 14, 1760, Miss Phcebe Bayard, half-sister of Gov. James Bow- 
doin; resigned his commission in 1762; settled in Pennsylvania, 
in 1764, erecting a fine residence and several mills; held many 
offices, civil and military, and during the Revolutionary war was 
eminent in his services; was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress 1785-'S7; became the first Governor of the Northwestern 
Territory February 1, 1788; made the treaty of Fort Harmar with 
the Indian tribes in 178S; fixed the seat of the Supreme Court for 
the Territory, January, 1790, at a point which he named Cincinnati, 
after the society of which he was an officer; became Commander- 
in-Chief of the XJ. S. army, March 4, 1791, which position he 
resigned, May 5, 1792; made an unsuccessful expedition against 
the Indians of the Miami and the Wabash, but was vindicated from 
all blame by a Congressional committee of investigation; was 
removed from the post of Governor, by Jefferson, Nov. 22, 1802, 
when he settled in a log house on the summit of Chestnut Ridge, near 
Greensburg. Pa., where he passed his remaining years in poverty and 
fruitless efforts to effect a settlement of claims against the U. S. 
Government, but receiving small pensions, both from the National 
and State Governments. He died near Greensburg, Aug. 31, 1818. 
In 1812 he published a " Narrative of the Manner in which the 
Campaign against the Indians in 1791 was conducted." 

William Henri/ Harrison was born at Berkeley, Virginia, in 1773. 
In 1801 he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Indiana, 
which position he held more than ten years. In 1811, in the hard- 
fought battle of Tippecanoe, he defeated the Indians under the 
command of the" Prophet." In 1812, was made Brigadier General ; 

(310) 



II1STOKT OF INDIANA. 311 

and in March, 1813 was made Major-General. In 1S24 lie was 
elected to United States Senate from Ohio. In 1836 was defeated 
by VanBuren for President. He again became the nominee of the 
Whig party in 1S40, and was chosen President by an overwhelming 
majority. He was inaugurated March 4, 1841, but died just one 
month afterward, and his remains now lie near the old homestead at 
North Bend, Ind. 

Thomas Posey was born in Virginia, July 9, 1750; received an 
ordinary common-school education; removed to Western Virginia 
in 1769; participated in expeditions against the Ohio Indians, and 
in many battles of the Revolution, after which he resided for a 
number of years in Spotsylvania county, Va.; was appointed Brig- 
adier-General, Feb. 14, 1793; moved soon afterward to Kentucky, 
where he became Lieut. -Governor and Major-General in 1809; was 
U. S. Senator from Louisiana, 1812 '3; succeeded Harrison as 
Governor of Indiana, in 1S13, and became Agent for Indian affairs 
in 1816. He died at Shawneetown, 111., March, 19, 1818. 

Jonathan Jennings, first Governor of the State of Indiana, 1816- 
'22, was born in Hunterdon county, N. J., and died near Charles- 
town, Clark Co., Indiana, July 26, 1834; he was a member of Con- 
gress, 1809-'16 and 1822-'31, and in 1818 he was appointed Indian 
Commissioner by President Monroe. 

William Hendricks, the second Governor of the State of Indiana, 
was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., in 1783, and settled in 
Madison, Indiana, in 1814, where he died May 16, 1850. Besides 
that of State Executive, he filled many important offices. He was 
Secretary of the Convention which formed the present Constitution 
of Indiana, was a Representative in Congress, 1816-'22, and U. S. 
Senator, 1825-'37. 

Noah Noble, Governor, 1831-'7, was born in Virginia, Jan. 15, 
1794, and died at Indianapolis in February, 1844. During his 
term as Governor occurred the Black Hawk war, the inauguration 
of the great " internal improvements " of so much notoriety, the 
hard times of 1S37, the last exodus of Indians from the State, etc. 

David Wallace was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 4, 1799; 
graduated at West Point in 1S21 as Lieutenant of Artillery, which 
position he resigned June 1, 1822; removed with his father's 
family in 1S17 to Brookville, Ind.; studied law and acquired an 
extensive practice in Franklin county; was several times a member 



312 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

of the Legislature, once a member of the State Constitutional Con- 
vention, Lieutenant-Governor, l$37-'40, member of Congress, 
1841-'3, and Judge of Marion county, 1856-'9. He died Sept. 4, 
1859. 

Samuel Bigger was born in "Warren county, Ohio, about 1800, 
graduated at Athens University; studied law at Lebanon and com- 
menced practice in Indiana, attaining eminence in the profession; 
was a Representative in the State Legislature, 1834-'5, and afterward 
Judge of the Circuit Court. He was elected Governor of Indiana 
in 1840, on the Whig ticket, and served his term acceptably. By 
his recommodation the Indiana Hospital for the Insane was estab- 
lished. He died in 1S45 at Fort Wayne. 

James Whitcomb was born in Stockbridge, Vt., Dec. 1, 1791, 
educated at Transylvania University; Jan. 1, 1824 he established 
himself in the practice of law at Bloomiugton, Ind.; in 1826 he 
was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for his district; was State 
Senator, 1830-'5, and a leader of the Democratic party; in 1836 he 
was appointed Superintendent of the Land Office; resumed prac- 
tice at Terre Haute in 1841; was Governor, 1843-'8, when he was 
elected to the U. S. Senate. He died in New York, October 4, 
1852. 

Joseph A. Wright was born in Pennsylvania, April 17, 1810; 
educational advantages limited; early in life he settled in Indiana; 
admitted to the Bar in 1829, and rose to eminence as a practitioner; 
member of the Legislature in 1833, and State Senator in 1840; 
member of Congress, 1843-'5; Governor of Indiana, 1849-'57; Min- 
ister to Prussia, 1857-'61; U.S. Senator, 1861-'2; U.S. Commissioner 
to the Hamburg Exhibition in 1SG3, and Minister to Prussia again, 
from 1S65 until his death, at Berlin, May 11, 1867. 

Ashbel P. Willard was born in Oneida county, New York, the 
son of Erastus Willard, sheriff of that county, 1832-'5; graduated 
at Hamilton College in 1842; was Governor of Indiana, 1853-'8; 
died at St. Paul in October, 1860. 

Henry S. Lane, brother of Gen. James H. Lane, was born in 
Montgomery county, Ky., Feb., 24, 1811 ; received a good common- 
school education and some knowledge of the classics, studied law, 
moved to Indiana and was admitted to the Bar; elected to the 
Legislature in 1837; to Congress in 1841 ; was Lieutenant-Colonel of 
volunteers in the Mexican war, 1846-'7; elected U. S. Senator, 1859, 
but denied the seat; elected Governor of Indiana in 1861, but in a 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 313 

few days after he took the chair he was elected U. S. Senator again, 
and as such served until 1867. 

Oliver P. Morton was born in Wayne county, Indiana, Aug. 4, 
1S23; was apprenticed to a hatter at the age of 15, and worked at 
the trade four years, spending his leisure in study; graduated at 
the Miami University in 1S43; studied law with John S. Newman, 
admitted to the Bar in 1847, and commenced practice at Centre- 
ville, this State; elected Circuit Judge in 1852; was defeated as the 
Kepublican nominee for Governor in 1856; was elected Lieutenant 
Governor in 1860, with the understanding that Gen. Henry S. 
Lane, who was placed at the head of the ticket, was to be elected 
to the U. S. Senate in the event of Republican success, which plan 
•was carried out, and he became Governor of Indiana; was elected 
Governor in 1864, and United States Senator, as a Union-Republi- 
can, to succeed Henry S. Lane, same politics, and was re-elected, 
serving all together from March 4, 1867, until his death, Nov. 1, 
1877, at Indianapolis. In the autumn of 1865 he was stricken 
with partial paralysis, from which he never recovered. He was 
compelled to do his work by secretaries, to be carried in and out of 
the Senate Chamber, and to address the Senate seated. As he was 
the noted " war Governor " of this glorious State, see section on 
the war with the Rebellion, pages 205 to 249, for further particu- 
lars of this illustrious man's life. 

Conrad Baker first served as acting Governor during the excit- 
ing times over the 15th amendment described on pages 197, sh- 
pra,oi this volume. He was elected by the Republicans Lieutenant 
Governor of the State, on the same ticket with Oliver P. Morton 
for Governor, with the understanding that Mr. Morton should be 
sent to the United States Senate and resign the government of this 
State to Mr. Baker. The programme was carried out, and' Mr. 
Baker served his place so well that at the end of the term he was 
elected by the people Governor, and he served the second term, — 
making in all six years. Governor Baker was a faithful Executive, 
in sympathy with all the institutions of Republicanism and the 
interests of his State. He had a work compiled on " Indiana and 
her Resources," which is well calculated to draw men of capital to 
this fine commonwealth and enable her to compete with all her 
sister States in the Union. 

Thomas A. Hendricks was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, 
Sept. 7, 1819; removed with his father in 1822 to Shelby county, 
Ind.; graduated in 1841 at South Hanover College; admitted to 



314 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

the Bar in 1843. Was an active member of State Constitutional 
Convention of 1S5U, member of Congress 1851-'5 from the Indi- 
anapolis district; Commissioner of the General Land Office of the 
United States 1855-9; United States Senator, Democratic, 1863-'9, 
and lastly Governor of Indiana 1872-'6. In the latter year he was 
candidate for Vice President of the United Stales. 

James D. Williams was born in Pickaway county, O., Jan. 16, 
1808; removed to Knox county, Ind., in ISIS; was educated in 
the log school-house of the country; is by occupation a farmer; was 
a member of the State House of Representatives in 1S43, 1S47, 
1851, 1S56 and 1S5S; was elected to the State Senate in 1S58, 1862 
and 1S70; was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention 
at Baltimore in 1872; was the Democratic nominee for United 
States Senator in 1S73 against O. P. Morton; was elected a Repre- 
sentative from Indiana in the 44th Congress, 1875-'7, receiving 
17,393 votes against 9,545 for Levi Ferguson, and Dec. 1, 1S76, he 
resigned this office, on account of having been elected Governor. 
His term will expire Jan. 3, 1881. 

UNITED STATES SENATORS. 

James Nolle was born at Battletown, Va., went to the frontier 
when a youth, located in Kentucky, and afterward in Indiana; 
served as United States Senator from Dec. 12, 1S16, to Feb. 26, 
1831, when he died, in Washington, D. C. 

Waller Taylor was a Major and Aide to Gen. Harrison at Tippe- 
canoe, United States Senator 1816-'25, and a man of much literary 
culture. He was breveted General, and died at Lunenburg, Va., 
Augnst 26, 1826. 

William Hendricks, see page 311. 

Robert Hanna was born iu Laurens District, S. C, April 6, 
1786; removed with his parents to Indiana and subsequently 
settled in Brookville in 1802; was Sheriff of the Eastern District 
of Indiana in 1S09, and held the position until the organization of 
the State Government; was appointed Register of the Land Office, 
and removed to Indianapolis in 1825; was appointed United States 
Senator as a Whig, in place of James Noble, deceased, serving 
from Dec. 5, 1831, to Jan. 3, 1832, when his successor took his 
seat; was elected a State Senator, but was defeated when a candi- 
date for re-election; was killed by a railroad train while walking 
on the track at Indianapolis, Nov. 19, 1S59. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 315 

John Tipton was born in Sevier count} - , Tenn., in August, 
1785; his father having been killed by the Indians in 1793, he did 
not even enjoy the advantages of a public-school education, having 
to support a mother, two sisters and a half brother; in 1S07 be 
removed with them to Indiana, where he purchased 50 acres of 
land, paving for it by splitting rails at 50 cents a hundred; was 
elected Ensign of that noted frontier company, the " Yellow- 
Jackets," in 1811, and served with them in the Tippecanoe 
campaign; was chosen Sheriff of Harrison county, Ind., in 1815; 
was elected Master of Pisgah Lodge of Freemasons in 1819, and 
was Grand Master of Masons in Indiana in 1819 and 1829; was 
elected a Representative in the State Legislature in 1821; was 
U S. Indian Agent with the Miami and Pottawatomie tribes from 
1824 to 1S31, when he was elected U. S. Senator, to fall the vacancy 
occasioned by the death of James Noble; was re-elected for a full 
term, and served from Jan. 3 1832, until his death, April 5, 1839, 
by pulmonary apoplexy, at Logansport, Ind. 

Oliver H. Smith was born in Trenton, N\ J., Oct. 23, 1794 
emigrated to Indiana in 1817, practiced law, and in 1824 was 
Prosecuting Attorney for the 3d District of Indiana; was a member 
of Legislature in 1822, of Congress lS27-'9, and of the U. S. 
Senate lS37-'43. He published " Recollections of Congressional 
Life." and "Early Indiana Trials, Sketches and Reminiscences.'* 
He died at Indianapolis, March 19, 1859. 

Albert 8. White was born at Blooming Grove, N. Y., Oct. 24,. 
1S°3; received a classical education, graduating at Union College 
in 1822; studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 1S°5, and 
commenced practice at Lafayette, Ind.; was for five years Clerk or" 
the Indiana House of Representatives; was elected Representative 
in Congress as a Whig in 1S37, receiving 10,737 votes against 
3,309 votes for IN". Jackson, Democrat, serving from Sept. 4, 1837, 
to March 3, 1S39; was president of several railroads: was elected 
IT. S. Senator from Indiana, serving from Dec. 2, 1839, to March 
3,1845; declined a re-election ; was again elected Representative 
in Congress in 1861, as a Republican, receiving 13,310 votes against 
11,489 votes for Wilson, Democrat, serving from July 4, 1861, to 
March 3, 1863; was a commissioner to adjust claims against the 
Sioux Indians; was appointed by President Lincoln in 1864, U. S. 
Judge for Indiana; died at Stockwell, Ind., September 4, 1S64. 

Edward A. Hanuegan was born in Ohio, received a good 
education, studied law, admitted to the Bar in his 23d year, settling 



316 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

in Indiana. He was several times a member of the Legislature, and 
was a member of Congress 1833-'7, U. S. Senator lS43-'9, Minister 
to Prussia, 1849-'53. While partially drunk, in 1852, he killed his 
brother-in-law, Capt. Duncan. 

Jesse D. Bright was born in Norwich, Chenango Co., N. Y., Dec. 
18, 1S12; moving to Indiana, he received an academic education, 
and studied and practiced law; was Circuit Judge, State Senator, 
U. S. Marshall, Lieut. Governor of the State, and President of the 
TJ. S. Senate during several sessions. In 1857 the Democratic mem- 
bers of the State Legislature re-elected him to the TJ. S. Senate in 
a manner which was denounced as fraudulent and unconstitutional 
by his Republican opponents, and his seat was contested. He 
continued a Senator until February, 1862, when he was expelled for 
disloyalty by a vote of 32 to 14. The principal proof of his crime 
was recommending to Jeff. Davis, in March, 1861, a person desirous 
of furnishing arms. 

James Whitcomb, see page 312. 

Charles W. Cathcart was born on the island of Madeira in 1809, 
received a good English education, followed the sea in his boyhood, 
located at LaPorte, Ind., in 1831, and engaged in farming; was 
U. S. Land Surveyor several years, a Representative in the State 
Legislature, a Democratic Elector in 1S45, Representative in 
Congress 1845-'7, re-elected to serve 1847-'9, appointed U. S. Senator 
in place of James Whitcomb, deceased, and served from Dec. 6, 
1852, to March 3, 1853; then returned to farming. 

John Pettit was born at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., July 24, 1807; 
received an academical education, studied law and was admitted to 
the Bar in 1838, commencing practice at Lafayette, Ind. ; was a 
member of the State House of Representatives two terms, U. S. 
District Attorney, representative in Congress 1843-'5, as a Democrat, 
re-elected to the next Congress, serving all together from Dec. 4, 
1S43, to March 3, 1849; was a Delegate to the State Constitutional 
Convention in 1850; was a Democratic Elector in 1852; was U. S. 
Senator from Jan. IS, 1853, to March 3, 1855, in place of James 
"Whitcomb, deceased; was appointed by President Buchanan, Chief 
Justice of the U. S. Courts in Kansas; in 1870, was elected Supreme 
Judge of Indiana. He was renominated for this position in 1876, 
but owing to scandals in connection with the Court, which excited 
popular indignation, he was forced off the ticket, and the name of 
Judge Perkins substituted; he died at Lafayette, Ind., June 17, 
1877. 



HISTOBY OF INDIANA. 317 

Graham N '. Fitch was born at LeRoy, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1810; 
received a classical education, studied medicine and practiced at 
Logansport, Ind. ; was professor in Rush Medical College, Chicago, 
1844-'49; was an Indiana Presidential Elector in 1844, 1848 and 
1S56, a member of the State Legislature in 1836 and 1839; was a 
Representative in Congress from Dec. 3, 1849, to March 3, 1853, 
being elected the last time over Schuyler Colfax, Whig; was U. S. 
Senator from Indiana from Feb. 9, 1857, to March 3, 1861; was a 
Delegate to the National Democratic Convention at New York 
City in 1868. 

Henry S. Lane, see page 312. 

David Tnrpie was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, July 8, 1829, 
graduated at Kenyon College in 1848, studied law, admitted to the 
Bar in 1S49, and commenced practice at Logansport, Ind. : was a 
member of the State House of Representatives in 1852; was 
appointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1854, and of 
the Circuit Court in 1856, both of which positions he resigned; 
was again a member of the Legislature in 1858 ; was U. S. Senator, 
as a Democrat, in place of Jesse D. Bright, expelled, from Jan. 22, 
1S63, to March 3, same year. 

Joseph A. Wright, see page 312. 

Thomas A. H endrichs, see page 313. 

Oliver P. Morton, see page 313. 

Daniel D. Pratt was born at Palermo, Me., Oct. 26, 1813, and 
was taken to New York State by his parents when a lad; gradu- 
ated at Hamilton College in 1831; removed to Indiana in 1832 
where he taught school; went to Indianapolis in 1834, where he 
wrote in the Secretary of State's office and studied law; commenced 
practice at Logansport in 1836; was elected to the Legislature in 
1851 and 1853; was elected to the 41st Congress in 1S68, by a 
majority of 2,287, and, before taking his seat, was elected U. S 
Senator as a Republican, to succeed Thos. A. Hendricks, Democrat 
and served from March 4, 1S69, to March 3, 1S75; was appointed 
by President Grant Commissioner of Internal Revenue, serving 
from May 15, 1875, to August 1, 1876; he died at Logansport. 
very suddenly, of heart disease, June 17, 1877. 

Joseph E. McDonald was born in Butler county, Ohio, Aug. 29 
1S19, taken to Indiana in 1826, and at Lafayette was apprenticed 
to the saddler's trade; was two years in college, but did not 
graduate; studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1843, and 
commenced practice; was Prosecuting Attorney in 1843-'7; was 



318 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

elected a Representative in Congress as a Democrat in 1849, 
receiving 7,432 votes against 7,098 for Lane, Whig, and served 
from December 3, 1849, to March 3, 1S51; in 1856 he was elected 
Attorney General of Indiana, and in 1858 re-elected; in 1859 
removed to Indianapolis; in 1864 was the unsuccessful candidate 
for Governor of Indiana, but in 1875 he was elected U. S. Senator, 
as a Democrat, to succeed D. D. Pratt, Republican. 

Daniel W. Voorhees was born in Fountain county, Ind., Sept. 
26, 1828; graduated at the Asbury University in 1849; studied law, 
admitted to the Bar in 1851, when he commenced practice at 
Crawfordsville; was defeated as a candidate for Congress in 1857, 
by only 230 votes in a total of 22,374, James Wilson being his 
opponent. Was appointed by President Buchanan, U.S. Attorney 
for Indiana, lS58-'60; in 1859 he went to Virginia as counsel for 
John E. Cook, one of John Brown's raiders; was elected a 
Representative to Congress from Indiana in 1S61, receiving 12,535 
votes against 11,516 votes for T. H. Nelson, Republican; was 
re-elected in 1863, receiving 12,457 votes against 9,976 for H. D. 
Scott, Republican; was again elected in 1865, by 12,880 against 
12,296 for Washburn, but the latter in 1866 successfully contested 
his seat; was again re-elected twice, serving from March 4, 1S69, to 
March 3, 1873; was appointed U. S. Senator November 12, 1877, 
to serve in place of O. P. Morton; and in 1879 was elected for a 
full term. 



THE SUPEEMACIES. 

Indiana belonged to the "Territory of Louisiana" till 1721; 
was then included in Illinois as a "District" of said Territory 
until 1774; then included in the " Province of Quebec " until 1788; 
then was a part of the '• Territory Northwest of the Ohio river" 
until 1800; then " Indiana Territory " until 1816, since which time 
it has been a " State." French to 1774; British, 1774 to 1788; U. 
S. Government, 1788 to the present time. 

STATES OF THE UNION. 

THEIE SETTLEMENT, ORIGIN OF NAME AND MEANING, COGNOMEN, MOT- 
TOES, ADMISSION INTO THE UNION, POPULATION, AREA, NUMBER OF 
SOLDIERS FURNISHED DURING THE REBELLION, NUMBER OF REPRE- 
SENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, PRESENT GOVERNORS, ETC., ETC., ETC. 

Alabama. — This State was first explored by LaSalle in 16S4, and 
settled by the French at Mobile in 1711, and admitted as a State in 
1817. Its name is Indian, and means " Here we rest." Has no 
motto. Population in 1860,904,201; in 1S70, 996,992. Furnished 
2,576 soldiers for the Union army. Area 50,722 square miles. 
Montgomery is the capital. Has 8 Representatives and 10 Presi- 
dential electors. Rufus W. Cobb is Governor; salary, $3,000; 
politics, Democratic. Length of term, 2 years. 

Arkansas — Became a State in 1836. Population in 1S60, 435,- 
450; in 1870,484,471. Area 52,198 square miles. Little Rock, 
capital. Its motto is Regnant Populi — " The people rule." It has 
the Indian name of its principal river. Is called the "Bear State." 
Furnished 8,289 soldiers. She is entitled to 4.members in Congress) 
and 6 electoral votes. Governor, W. R. Miller, Democrat; salary, 
$3,500; term, 2 years. 

California — Has a Greek motto, Eureka, which means " I have 
found it." It derived its name from the bay forming the peninsula 
of Lower California, and was first applied by Cortez. It was first 
visited by the Spaniards in 1542. and by the celebrated English 

(319) 



320 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 



navigator, Sir Francis Drake, in 1578. In 1S46 Fremont took 
possession of it, defeating the Mexicans, in the name of the United 
States, and it was admitted as a State in 1850. Its gold mines 
from 1868 to 1878 produced over SS00,000,000. Area 188,982 square 
miles. Population in 1860, 379,994. In 1870, 560,247. She gave 
to defend the Union 15,225 soldiers. Sacramento is the capital. 
Has 4 Representatives in Congress. Is entitled to 6 Presidential 
electors. Present Governor is William Irwin, a Democrat; terra, 
4 years ; salary, $6,000. 

Colorado — Contains 106,475 square miles, and had a population 
in 1S60 of 34,277, and in 1870, 39,864. She furnished 4,903 
soldiers. Was admitted as a State in 1876. It has a Latin motto, 
Nil sine Nu mine, which means, "Nothing can be done without 
divine aid." It was named from its river. Denver is the capital. 
Has 1 member in Congress, and 3 electors. T. W. Pitkin is Gov- 
ernor; salary, $3,000; term, 2 years; politics, Republican. 

Connecticut — Qui transtulit sitstinet, " He who brought us over 
sustains us," is her motto. It was named from the Indian Quon- 
ch-ta-Cut, signifying "Long River." It is called the "Nutmeg 
State." Area 4,674 square miles. Population 1860, 460,147; in 
L8 70, 537,454. Gave to the Union army 55,755 soldiers. Hart- 
ford is the capital. Has 4 Representatives in Congress, and is 
entitled to 6 Presidential electors. Salary of Governor $2,000; 
term. 2 years. 

Delaware. — " Liberty and Independence," is the motto of this 
State. It was named after Lord De La Ware, an English states- 
man, and is called, " The Blue Hen," and the " Diamond State." It 
was first settled by the Swedes in 163S. It was one of the original 
thirteen States. Has an area of 2,120 square miles. Population in 
1S60, 112,216; in 1870, 125,015. She "sent to the front to defend 
the Union, 12,265 soldiers. Dover is the capital. Has but 1 mem- 
ber in Congress; entitled to 3 Presidential electors. John W. 
Hall, Democrat, is Governor; salary, $2,000; term, 2 years. 

Florida — Was discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1512, on Easter 
Sunday, called by the Spaniards, Pascua Florida, which, with the 
variety and beauty of the flowers at this early season caused him to 
name it Florida — which means in Spanish, flowery. Its motto is, 
" In God we trust." It was admitted into the Union in 1S45. It has 
an area of 59,268 square miles. Population in I860, 140,424; in 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 321 

1870, 187,756. Its capital is Tallahassee. lias 2 members in Con- 
gress. Has 4 Presidential electors. George F. Drew, Democrat, 
Governor ; term, 4 years ; salary, $3,500. 

Georgia — Owes its name to George II., of England, who first 
established a colony there in 1732. Its motto is, " Wisdom, justice 
and moderation." It was one of the original States. Population 
in 1860, 1,057,2S6; 1870, 1,184,109. Capital, Atlanta. Area 58,- 
000 square miles. Has 9 Representatives in Congress, and 11 
Presidential electors. Her Governor is A. H. Colquitt, Democrat; 
term, 4 years; salary, $4,000. 

Illinois — Motto, " State Sovereignty, National Union." Name 
derived from the Indian word, Illini, meaning, superior men. It 
is called the "Prairie State," and its inhabitants, "Suckers." 
Was first explored by the French in 1673, and admitted into the 
Union in 1818. Area 55,410 square miles. Population, in 1S60 
1,711,951; in 1S70, 2,539,871. She sent to the front to defend the 
Union, 258,162 soldiers. Capital, Springfield Has 19 members in 
Congress, and 21 Presidential electors. Shelby M. Cullom, Repub. 
lican, is Governor; elected for 4 years; salary, $6,000. 

Indiana — Is called " Hoosier State." Was explored in 1682, 
and admitted as a State in 1816. Its name was suggested bv its 
numerous Indian population. Area 33,S09 square miles. Popu- 
lation in 1860, 1,350,428; in 1S70, 1,6S0,637. She put into the 
Federal army, 194,363 men. Capital, Indianapolis. Has 13 mem- 
bers in Congress, and 15 Presidential electors. J. D. Williams 
Governor, Democrat; salary, $3,000; term, 4 year. 

Iowa — Is an Indian name and means "This is the land." Its 
motto is, "Our liberties we prize, our rights we will maintain." 
It is called the " Hawk Eye State." It was first visited by 
Marquette and Joliet in 1673; settled by New Englanders in 
1833, and admitted into the Union in 1846. Des Moines is the 
capital. It has an area of 55,045, and a population in 1860 of 674.913, 
and in 1870 of 1,191,802. She sent to defend the Government, 
75,793 soldiers. Has 9 members in Congress; 11 Presidential 
electors. John H. Gear, Republican, is Governor; salary, $2,500; 
term, 2years. 

Kansas — Was admitted into the Union in 1861, making the 
thirty-fourth State. Its motto is Ad astra per aspera, " To the 
stars through difficulties." Its name means, " Smoky water," and 



322 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

is derived from one of her rivers. Area 78,841 square miles. 
Population in 1S60, 107,209; in 1870 was 362,812. She furnished 
20,095 soldiers. Capital is Topeka. Has 3 Representatives in Con- 
gress, and 5 Presidential electors. John P. St. John, Governor; 
politics, Republican; salary, $3,000; term, 2 years. 

Kentucky — Is the Indian name for " At the head of the rivers." 
Its motto is, " United we stand, divided we fall." The sobriquet 
of "dark and bloody ground " is applied to this State. It was first 
bettled in 17G9, and admitted in 1792 as the fifteenth State. Area 
37,CS0. Population in 1S60, 1,155,684; in 1870, 1,321,000. She 
put into the Federal army 75,285 soldiers. Capital, Frankfort. 
Has 10 members in Congress ; 12 Electors. J. B. McCreary, 
Democrat, is Governor; salary, $5,000; term, 4 years. 

Louisiana — Was called after Louis XIV., who at one time 
owned that section of the country. Its motto is "Union and Con- 
fidence." It is called "The Creole State." It was visited by La 
Salle in 1684, and admitted into the Union in 1S12, making the 
eighteenth State. Population in 1860, 70S,002; in 1S70, 732,731. 
Area 46,431 square miles. She put into the Federal army 5,224 
soldiers. Capital, New Orleans. Has 6 Representatives and 8 
Electors. F. T. Nichols, Governor, Democrat; salary, $8,000; 
term, 4 years. 

Maine. — This State was called after the province of Maine in 
France, in compliment of Queen Henrietta of England, who owned 
that province. Its motto is Dirigo, meaning " I direct." It is 
called "The Pine Tree State." It was settled by the English in 
1625. It was admitted as a State in 1820. Area 31,766 square 
miles. Population in I860, 628,279; in 1S70, 626,463; 69,738 sol- 
diers went from this State. Has 5 members in Congress, and 7 
Electors. Selden Conner, Republican, Governor; term, 1 year; 
salary, $2,500. 

Maryland — Was named after Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles 
I. of England. It has a Latin motto, Crescite et multiplica- 
mini, meaning " Increase and Multiply." It was settled in 1634, 
and was one of the original thirteen States. It has an area of 11,- 
124 square miles. Population in 1860 was 687,049; in 1870, 780,- 
806. This State furnished 46,053 soldiers. Capital, Annapolis, 
lias 6 Representatives, and 8 Presidential electors. J. H. Carroll, 
Democrat, Governor; salary, $4,500; term, 4 years. 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 323 

Massachusetts — Is the Indian for " The country around the great 
hills." It is called the " Bay State," from its numerous bay6. Its 
motto is Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem, " By the sword 
she seeks placid rest in liberty." It was settled in 1620 at Plymouth 
by English Puritans. It was one of the original thirteen States, 
and was the first to take up arms against the English during the 
Eevolution. Area 7,S00 square miles. Population in 1860, 1,231,- 
066; in 1870, 1,457,351. She gave to the Union army 146,467 sol- 
diers. Boston is the capital. Has 11 Representatives in Con- 
gress, and 13 Presidential electors. Thomas Talbot, Republican, is 
Governor; salary, $5,000; term, 1 year. 

Michigan — Latin motto, Tuebor, and Si quceris peninsulain 
amamam circumspice, " I will defend" — " If you seek a pleasant 
peninsula, look around you." The name is a contraction of two 
Indian words meaning " Great Lake." It was early explored by 
Jesuit missionaries, and in 1837 was admitted into the Union. It 
is known as the " Wolverine State." It contains 56,243 square 
miles. In 1860 it had a population of 749,173; in 1870, 1,184,059. 
She furnished 88,111 soldiers. Capital, Lansing. Has 9 Repre- 
sentatives and 11 Presidential electors. C. M. Croswell is Gov- 
ernor; politics, Republican; salary, $1,000; term, 2 years. 

Minnesota — Is an Indian name, meaning " Cloudy "Water." It 
has a French motto, VEtoile du Nord—" The Star of the N orth." 
It was visited in 1680 by La Salle, settled in 1846, and admitted 
into the Union in 185S. It contains 83,531 square miles. In 1S60 
had a population of 172,023; in 1870, 439,511. She gave to the 
Union army 24;002 soldiers. St. Paul is the capital. Has 3 mem- 
bers in Congress, 5 Presidential electors. Governor, J. S. Pills- 
bury, Republican; salary, $3,000; term, 2 years. 

Mississipjn — Is an Indian name, meaning "Long River," and the 
State is named from the " Father of Waters." The State was first 
explored by De Sota in 1541; settled by the French at Natchez in 
1716, and was admitted into the Union in 1817. It has an area of 
47,156 square miles. Population in 1S60, 791,305; in 1870,827,- 
922. She gave to suppress the Rebellion 545 soldiers. Jackson is 
the capital. Has 6 representatives in Congress, and 8 Presidential 
electors. J. M. Stone is Governor, Democrat; salary, $4,000; 
term, 4 years. 

Missouri — Is derived from the Indian word " muddy," which 



324 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

more properly applies to the river that flows through it. Its motto 
is Salus populi supremo, lex esto, " Let the welfare of the people 
be the supreme law." The State was first settled by the French 
near Jefferson City in 1719, and in 1821 was admitted into the 
Union. It has au area of 67,380 square miles, equal to 43,123,200 
acres. It had a population in 1860 of 1,182.012; in 1870, 1,721,- 
000. She gave to defend the Union 108,162 soldiers. Capital, 
Jefferson City. Its inhabitants are known by the offensive cogno- 
men of •' Pukes." Has 13 representatives in Congress, and 15 
Presidential electors. J. S. Phelps is Governor; politics, Demo- 
cratic; salary, $5,000; term, 4 years. 

Nebraska — Has f,r its motto, "Equality before the law." Its 
name is derived from one of its rivers, meaning " broad and shal- 
low, or low." It was admitted into the Union in 1367. Its capital 
is Lincoln. It had a population in 1860 of 2S,841, and in 1870, 
123,993, and in 1S75, 246,280. It has an area of 75,995 square 
miles. She furnished to defend the Union 3,157 soldiers. Has but 
1 Representative and 3 Presidential electors. A. Nance, Repub- 
lican, is Governor; salary, $2,500; term, 2 years. 

Nevada — " The Snowy Land " derived its name from the Span- 
ish. Its motto is Latin, Yolens et patens, and means " willing 
and able." It was settled in 1S50, and admitted into the Union in 
1S64. Capital, Carson City. Its population in 1860 was 6,857; 
in 1870 it was 42,491. It has an area of 112,090 square miles. 
She furnished 1,080 soldiers to suppress the Rebellion. Has 1 Rep- 
resentative and 3 Electors. Governor, J. H. Kinkhead, Republican; 
salary, $6,000; term, 4 years. 

New Hampshire — Was first settled at Dover by the English in 
1623. Was one of the original States. Has no motto. It is 
named from Hampshire county in England. It also bears the 
name of " The Old Granite State." It has an area of 9,2S0 miles, 
which equals 9,239,200 acres. It had a population in ] S60 of 326,- 
073, and in 1S70 of 31S,300. She increased the Union army with 
33,913 soldiers. Concord is the capital. Has 3 Representatives 
and 5 Presidential electors. N. Head, Republican, Governor; 
salary, $1,000; term, 1 year. 

New Jersey — Was named in honor of the Island of Jersey in the 
British channel. Its motto is " Liberty and Independence." It was 
first settled at Bergen by the Swedes in 1624. It is one of the orig- 



HISTORY OF INDIANA. 325 

inal thirteen States. It has an area of 8,320 square miles, or 5,324,- 
800 acres. Population in 1860 was 672,035 ; in 1870 it was 906,096. 
She put into the Federal army 75,315 soldiers. Capital, Trenton. 
Has 7 Representatives and 9 Presidential electors. Governor, 
George B. McClelland, Democrat; salary, $5,000; term, 3 years. 

New York. — The " Empire State " was named by the Duke of 
York, afterward King James II. of England. It has a Latin motto, 
Excelsior, which means " Still Higher." It was first settled by the 
Dutch in 1614 at Manhattan. It has an area of 47,000 square 
miles, or 30,080,000 acres. The population in 1S60 was 3,8S0,735; 
in 1870 it was 4,332,759. It is one of the original thirteen States. 
Capital is Albany. It gave to defend our Government 445,959 
men. Has 33 members in Congress, and 35 Presidential electors. 
Governor, L. Robinson, Democrat; salary, $10,000; term, 3 years. 

North Carolina — Was named after Charles IX., King of France. 
It is called " The Old North," or " The Turpentine State." It was 
first visited in 1524 by a Florentine navigator, sent out by Francis 
I., King of France. It was settled at Albemarle in 1663. It was 
one of the original thirteen States. It has an area of 50,704 square 
miles, equal to 32,450,560 acres. It had in 1SG0 a population of 
992,622, and in 1S70, 1,071,361. Raleigh is the capital. She 
furnished 3,156 soldiers to put down the Rebellion. Has 8 mem- 
bers in Congress, and is entitled to 10 Presidential electors. Z. B. 
Vance, Democrat, is Governor; salary, $5,000; term, 4 years. 

Ohio — Took its name from the river on its Southern boundary, 
and means " Beautiful." Its motto is J inperium i?i Imperio — 
An Empire in an Empire." It was firjt permanently settled in 
1788 at Marietta by New Englanders. It was admitted as a State 
in 1803. Its capital is Columbus. It contains 39,964 square 
miles, or 25,576,960 acres. Population in 1860,2,339,511; in 1870 
it had 2,665,260. She sent to the front during the Rebellion 310,- 
654 soldiers. Has 20 Representatives, and 22 Presidential electors. 
Governor, R. M. Bishop, Democrat; salary, $4,000; term, 2 years. 

Oregon — Owes its Indian name to its principal river. Its motto 
is Alls volat propriis — "She flies with her own wings." It was 
first visited by the Spaniards in the sixteentli century. It was set- 
tled by the English in 1S13, and admitted into the Union in 1S59. 
Its capital is Salem. It has an area of 95,274 square miles, equal 
to 60,975,360 acres. It had in 1S60 a population of 52,465; in 



326 HISTORY OF INDIANA. 

1870, 90,922. She furnished 1,810 soldiers. She is entitled to 1 
member in Congress, and 3 Presidential electors. W. W. Thayer, 
Republican, is Governor; salary, $1,500; term, 4 years. 

Pennsylvania. — This is the "Keystone State," and means "Penn's 
Woods," and was so called after William Penn, its original owner. 
Its motto is, " Virtue, liberty and independence." A colony was 
established by Penn in 16S2. The State was one of the original 
thirteen. It has an area of 46,000 square miles, equaling 29,440,- 
000 acres. It had in I860 a population of 2,906,215; and in 1870, 
3,515,993. She gave to suppress the Rebellion, 33S.155. Harris- 
burg is the capital. Has 27 Representatives and 29 electors. H. 
M. Hoyt, is Governor; salary, $10,000; politics, Republican; term 
of office, 3 years. 

Rhode Island. — This, the smallest of the States, owes its name to 
the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, which domain it is said 
to greatly resemble. Its motto is " Hope," and it is familiarly 
called, "Little Rhody." It was settled by Roger Williams in 1636. 
It was one of the original thirteen States. It has an area of 1,306 
square miles, or 835,840 acres. Its population in 18G0 numbered 
174,620; in 1870, 217,356. She gave to defend the Union, 23,248. 
Its capitals are Providence and Newport. Has 2 Representatives, 
and 4 Presidential electors. C. Vanzandt is Governor; politics, 
Republican; salary, $1,000; term, 1 year. 

South Carolina. — The Palmetto State wears the Latin name of 
Charles IX., of France (Carolus). Its motto is Latin, An i mis 
opibusaue parati, " Ready in will and deed." The first permanent 
settlement was made at Port Royal in 1070, where the French 
Huguenots had failed three-quarters of a century before to found a 
settlement. It is one of the original thirteen States. Its capital is 
Columbia. It has an area of 29,385 square miles, or 18,S06,400 
acres, with a population in 1860 of 703,708; in 1870, 728,000. 
Has 5 Representatives in Congress, and is entitled to 7 Presidential 
electors. Salary of Governor, $3,500; term, 2 years. 

Tennessee — Is the Indian name for the " River of the Bend," i. e. 
the Mississippi, which forms its western boundary. She is called 
"The Big Bend State." Her motto is, " Agriculture, Commerce." 
It was settled in 1757, and admitted into the Union in 1796, mak- 
ing the sixteenth State, or the third admitted after the Revolution- 
ary War — Vermont being the first, and Kentucky the second. It 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 327 

has an area of 45,600 square miles, or 29,1S4,000 acres. In 1860 
its population numbered 1,109,801, and in 1870, 1,257,983 She 
furnished 31,092 soldiers to suppress the Rebellion. Nashville is 
the capital. Has 10 Representatives, and 12 Presidential electors. 
Governor, A. S. Marks, Democrat; salary, $1,000; term, 2 years. 

Texas — Is the American word for the Mexican name by which 
all that section of the country was known before it was ceded to the 
United States. It is known as " The Lone Star State." The first set- 
tlement was made by LaSalle in 1685. After the independence of 
Mexico in 1S22, it remained a Mexican Province until 1836, when 
it gained its independence, and in 1S45 was admitted into the 
Union. It has an area of 237,504 square miles, equal to 152,002,- 
560 acres. Its population in 1S60 was 604,215; in 1870, 818,579. 
She gave to put down the Rebelion 1,965 soldiers. Capital, Austin. 
Has 6 Representatives, and 8 Presidential electors. Governor, O, 
M. Roberts, Democrat; salary, $5,000; term, 2 years. 

Vermont — Bears the French name of her mountains Verde Mont, 
"Green Mountains." Its motto is "Freedom and Unity." It 
wa3 settled in 1731, and admitted into the Union in 1791. Area 
10.212 square miles. Population in 1860, 315,098 ; in 1870, 330,551. 
She gave to defend the Government, 33,272 soldiers. Capital, Mont- 
pelier. Has 3 Representatives, and 5 elect 3rs. Governor, H. Fair- 
banks, Republican; term, 2 years; salary, $1,000. 

Virginia. — The Old Dominion, as this State is called, is the 
oldest of the States. It was named in honor of Queen Elizabeth, 
the " Virgin Queen," in whose reign Sir Walter Raleigh made his 
first attempt to colonize that region. Its motto is Sic semper 
tyrannis, " So always with tyrants." It was first settled at James- 
town, in 1607, by the English, being the first settlement in the 
United States. It is one of original thirteen States, and had before 
its division in 1862, 61,352 square miles, but at present contains 
but 3S,352 square miles, equal to 24,545,280 acres. The population 
in 1860 amounted to 1,596,318, and in 1870 it was 1,224,S30. Rich- 
mond is the capital. Has 9 Representatives, and 11 electors. Gov- 
ernor, F. W. M. Halliday, Democrat; salary, $5,500; term, 4 years. 

West Virginia. — Motto, M ontani semper liber i, " Mountaineers 
are always free." This is the only State ever formed, under the 
Constitution, by the division of an organized State. This was done 
in 1862, and in 1863 was admitted into the Union. It has an area of 



328 



HISTOKY OF INDIANA. 



23,000 square miles, or 14,720,000 acres. The population in 1860 
was 376,000; in 1870 it numbered 445,616. She furnished 32,003. 
Capital, Wheeling. Has 3 Representatives in Congress, and is 
entitled to 5 Presidential electors. The Governor is H. M. Mathews, 
Democrat; term, 4 years; salary, $2,700. 

Wisconsin — Is an Indian name, and means "Wild-rushing 
channel." Its motto, Civitatus successit barbarum. " The civilized 
man succeeds the barbarous." It is called " The Badger State." 
The State was visited by the French explorers in 1665, and a settle- 
ment was made in 1669 at Green Bay. It was admitted into the 
Union in 1848. It has an area of 52,924 square miles, equal to 
34,511,360 acres. In 1S60 its population numbered 775,881; in 
1870, 1,055,167- Madison is the capital. She furnished for the 
Union army 91,021 soldiers. Has 8 members in Congress, and is 
entitled to 10 Presidential electors. The Governor is W. E. Smith; 
politics, Republican; salary, $5,000; terra, 2 years. 





STJOSEPH COUNTY COURT HOUSE 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



CHAPTER I. 



FIRST WHITE MEN IN THE COUNTY. — ORIGINAL INHABITANTS. — AEEA OF 

THE COUNTY. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY. — THE WATER-SHED. 

RIVERS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. — FIRST ENTRIES^ OF LAND. — FIRST 
ROAD. 

Father Marquette was doubtless the first European ever to visit this 
section of the country. In 1673 he passed up the Illinois and Kan- 
kakee rivers and across the portage to the "St. Joseph of the Lakes," 
and tradition tells us that he reached the river and first gazed upon 
its beauties at a point about two miles from where the city of South 
Bend now stands. The mouth of the St. Joseph river was discov- 
ered by La Salle in j679. At that time and for a century and a 
half afterward, the Miami and Pottawatomie tribes of Indians 
were the principal occupants of the country, and interspersed among 
them were French traders who adopted many of the habits and cus- 
toms of the aborigines. It thus becomes impossible to determine 
to whom really belongs the honor of being the first white settler of 
what is now known as St. Joseph county. It is also doubtless the 
fact that during the century and a half following the visit of Father 
Marquette and LaSalle, that many Catholic priests, in the fulfill- 
ment of their work, labored among the Indians in this vicinity. In 
the neighborhood of Niles, Michigan, about three miles from the 
county and State line, are yet to be seen the ruins of an old mission, 
the one doubtless referred to by Father Hennepin, a quotation 
from whose narrative is given elsewhere. 

In 1820 Pierre F. Navarre, in the employ of the American Fur 
Company, came here, and in the vicinity of the present city of 
South Bend married a squaw of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, 
and here made a permanent home, raising a family of some half 
dozen children, who are now scattered throughout the West, one of 
whom became a preacher of the Morman faith. Pierre F. Navarre 
was a man about six feet in height, slimly built, dark complexion, 
with a very intelligent countenance. He was as well educated as 

22 (331) 



332 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

the majority of frontiersmen, and gave bis children as good an 
education as the country afforded at that early day. No one ever 
impeached his honesty, and he was always regarded as an upright 
man. Shortly after the Pottawatomie Indians were removed to 
their reservation in the West, Navarre followed them, remaining but 
a short time, and then returning to South Bend, where he died at 
the residence of one of his daughters, on the 27th dav of December, 
1864. 

The second white man to effect a settlement was Alexis Coquil- 
lard, who, in the employ of the American Fur Company, established 
an agency here in 1S2H, and with his wife, made it his home the 
following year. Mr. Coquillard at this time was a young man of 
fine personal appearance, energetic, and the right kind of a man to 
build up a new place. To him, more than any other one man, is 
due the excellent start made by the count}', and especially the city 
of South Bend. Coquillard was of French parentage and born in 
Detroit. He spent much of bis time among the Indians, and being 
a man of large frame and powerful muscle, weighing ahout two 
hundred and fifty pounds, he was held in high esteem, and was 
greatly feared by them. Many incidents are yet remembered by 
the early settlers of the remarkable influence wielded by him over 
these people. They talked, at one time, of electing him chief, and 
his trading post on the banks of the St. Joseph river was a favorite 
resort for all the tribes in Northern Indiana and Southern Michi- 
gan. (For a sketch of the life of Coquillard, the reader's attention 
is directed to the chapter entitled " Some of the Illustrious Dead of 
St. Joseph County.") 

Lathrop M. Taylor came. next, in September, 1S27. He was 
likewise an Indian trader and agent for a Fort "Wayne firm. He 
was elected the first Clerk and Recorder, and has held various 
important positions in the business and civil concerns of the countv 
for a half century. He was appointed the first postmaster, June 6, 
1829, and held the office for about ten years, being removed in 1839 
on account of his failure to indorse the administration then in power. 

Lewis San Comb, Job Brookfield, Timothy Smith and family, 
settled near the trading posts of Coquillard and Taylor, in 1827, 
and William Brookfield, about two miles down the river, in what is 
now German township. It was on the farm of William Brookfield 
that the village of St. Joseph was laid out, and where the county 
seat was first located by the Commissioners appointed for the pur- 
pose. 

In 1S2S came Samuel L. Cottrell, and settled at the trading post. 
Mr. Cottrell afterward became quite influential in the affairs of the 
county, serving as Sheriff for several terms, besides holding other 
important offices. During the same year came Henry Fainter and 
Eli Smith, who settled in or near South Bend, while William and 
Timothy Moat settled in what is now known as Penn township, 
and Jacob Cripe, Daniel Eiler, and Samuel Cannontook up their 
residence in Clay township. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 333 

In 1829 Benjamin Potter, John Hague, Mr. McCombs, and 
others settled in Clay township; John Smith, David and Aaron 
Miller, in German; and William Holt and S. I. H. Ireland in Penn. 

In 1830 emigrants began to pour into the county in large num- 
bers, among whom were Messrs. Push, Druliner, Vail, Garwood, 
Nickerson, Egbert, White, Boyd, Rupel, Antrim, Whitmer, Bird, 
Eudduck, Haller, Ritter, Oripe, Longley, Millings, Peckover, 
Palmer, Rose, Skinner, Cottrell, West, Smith, Enstler, Harris, Bell, 
Miller, Ringle, Baldwin and others, the names of many of whom 
will be found in the histories of the various townships. 

ORIGINAL INHABITANTS. 

The original inhabitants of that tract of country which now con- 
stitutes the county of St. Joseph, as well as the entire St. Joseph 
Valley, were various tribes of Indians, more particularly the 
Miamis and Pottawatomies, the first named being in possession 
when the Catholics established their missions here in the latter 
part or the seventeenth century. The principal station of the mis- 
sion, for the instruction of the Miamis, was established on the 
borders of the St. Joseph river, then known as the "river of the 
Miamis," but which was changed by the missionaries somewhat 
later to " the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan." 

The Missionary Hennepin gives the following account of the 
building of the first French post within the territory of the Miamis. 
"Just at the mouth of the river Miami there was an eminence with 
a kind of platform naturally fortified. It was pretty high and steep, 
of a triangular form, defended on two sides by the river, and on the 
other by a deep ditch, which the fall of the water had made. We 
fell the' trees that were on the top of the hill, and having cleared the 
same from bushes for about two musket shot, we began to build a 
redoubt of about 80 feet long and 40 feet broad, with great square 
pieces of timber laid one upon another, and prepared a great num- 
ber of stakes of about 25 feet long, to drive into the ground, to 
make our fort the more inaccessible on the river side. We employed 
the whole month of November (1679) about that work, which was 
very hard, though we had no other food but the bear's flesh our 
savage (Indian) killed. These beasts are very common in that place, 
because of the great quantity of grapes that they find there; but 
their flesh being too fat and luscious, our men began to be weary 
of it, and desired leave to go a hunting to kill some wild goats. M. 
LaSalle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs 
among them, and it was but unwillingly that they continued their 
work. This, together with the approach of winter, and the appre- 
hension M. LaSalle had that his vessel (the Griffin) was lost, made 
him very melancholy, though he concealed it as much as he could. 
We had made a cabin wherein we performed divine service every 
Sunday, and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took 
care to take such texts as were suitable to our present circumstances, 



334 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and tit to inspire us with courage, concord and brotherly love. * 
* * The fort was at last perfected and called Fort Miamis." 

In the year 1711, the Missionary Chardon, who, it is said, "was 
full of zeal, and had a rare talent for acquiring languages," had his 
station on the St. Joseph river, about 60 miles above its mouth. 
In 1721, about half a century after, the year in which Allouez and 
Dablon traversed the country lying on the southern shores of Lake 
Michigan, Charlevoix, a distinguished missionary from France, vis- 
ited a small fort, or trading post, on the St. Joseph river, where 
there was a missionary station. In a letter dated " River St. Joseph, 
Aug. 16, 1721," Charlevoix says: " It was eight days yesterday 
since I arrived at this post, where we have a mission, and where 
there is a commandant with a small garrison. The commandant's 
house, which is but a very sorry one, is called the fort, from its 
being surrounded with an indifferent palisado, which is pretty 
near the case in all the rest. We have here two villages of Indians, 
one of the Miamis and the other of the Pottawatomies, both of them 
mostly Christians; but as they have been for a long time without 
any pastor, the missionary who has been lately sent to them will 
have no small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of 
their religion. The river St. Joseph comes from the southeast and 
discharges itself into Lake Michigan, the eastern shore of which is 
a hundred leagues in length, and which you are obliged to sail along 
before you come to the entry of this river. You afterward sail up 
20 leagues in it before you reach the fort, which navigation requires 
great precaution. Several Indians of the two nations (Miamis and 
Pottawatomies) settled upon this river are just returned from the 
English colonies, whither they have been to sell their furs, and 
whence they have brought back, in return, a great quantity of 
spirituous liquors. The distribution of it is made in the usual 
manner; that is to say, a certain number of persons have, daily, 
delivered to each of them a quantity sufficient to get drunk with; 
bo that the whole has been drunk up in eight days. They began 
to drink in the villages as soon as the sun was down; and every 
night the fields echoed with the most hideous howling." 

As has already been stated, this vicinity was then the home of the 
Miami and Pottawatomie tribes of Indians, many of whom, espe- 
cially of the latter tribe, soon became converts to the Christian 
religion as proclaimed by the self-sacrificing priests who cheerfully 
bore the cross into the wilderness. Through the influence of these 
God-fearing men, the latter tribe of Indians became fast friends of 
the whites. Though surrounded by other hostile tribes, and every 
influence brought to bear upon them to compel them to unite in 
an insurrection, they never wavered. In 1792, while other tribes, 
in small war parties, continued to lurk about the white settlements 
on the borders of the Ohio river, way-laying the paths, capturing 
horses and cattle, killing some of the settlers, and carrying others 
into captivity, the Pottawatomies remained true. In response to an 
invitation to visit the capital of the country, Lagesse, the principal 



HISTORY OF ST. .JOSEPH COUNTY. 335 

chief of the tribe, sent an address in which he said : " We are very 
glad to hear from you, but sorry we cannot comply with your 
request. The situation of affairs in this country prevents us. We 
are every day threatened by the other Indians, that if we do not 
take a part with them against the Americans they will destroy our 
villages. This alone, my father, makes it necessary for all the chiefs 
to remain at home. * * * My father: You tell us you are 
ignorant why the red people makes war on your white people. We 
areas ignorant of it as you are; for ever since the beginning of the 
war, we have lain still in our villages, although we have repeatedly 
been invited to go to war; but, my father, the coniidence we have 
in you has prevented us from making war against yon, and we hold 
you by the hand with a stronger grip than ever. My father: Keep 
up your spirits more than ever; for you have this year more red 
people to fight than you have had yet. * * * If I could give 
you a hand I would do it; but I cannot, and I am glad if me and 
my people have a quiet life this summer. If I had been disposed 
to believe all the reports I have heard, I would have made your 
messengers prisoners; for we are told they are spies, and that you 
have an army coming against us; but I am deaf to every thing that 
comes from the Miamis. Every day we receive messengers from 
those people, but we have been deaf to them, and will remain so." 

Various treaties having been made with the Indians by Gov- 
ernor Cass, then Governor of Michigan, and others, and their lands 
having been purchased at various times and places, they were 
removed in 18A0-'43, per order of the general Government, into 
Iowa, under the conduct of Alexis Coquillard. 

The Pottawatomies were a kind and peaceful people when not 
excited by liquor. Many of the old settlers of the county regretted 
their departure from the country, and the Indians seemed equally 
reluctant to go. In many instances they came to the cabins of the 
whites to bid them good-bye, while flowing tears showed the depth 
of their feelings on leaving the hunting grounds and graves of their 
fathers. 

A writer in the South Bend Tribune in 1S78 has this to say of 
the first inhabitants of this country: "Over a century ago the red 
men of the forest were the sole occupants of the northwestern 
part of our country. A number of different tribes were thus scat- 
tered over that portion which now forms the States of Michigan, 
Indiana and Illinois. As they occasionally visited each other during 
favorable seasons, when those who lived in Michigan desired to 
see their friends in Illinois, they would go down the St. Joseph 
river in their canoes, being joined by others along the route who 
wished to accompany them, and proceed on their way to a point on 
the river now known as Pinhook, from a peculiar bend around a 
long, narrow peninsula of pin-like form, being about two miles 
below the present city of South Bend, where they would land; and 
putting their luggage, traps and other things into their canoes, one 
large Indian would shoulder the bow and another the stern of their 



336 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

canoes, and in this way carry them across the high, rolling prairie, 
calling it Portage Prairie on account of the porterage across it. 
Some of them would take the trail to the headwaters of the Kan- 
kakee river, while others would cross over to Terre Coupee (signify- 
ing ' land cut off' i, where the land was cut off by the water for 
many miles around, forming a large, shallow lake. Here they would 
build temporary huts and wait for the rest of the party to come up, 
in the meantime amusing themselves by rowing across and around 
the lake, fishing, trapping and hunting most of the time, until they 
were ready to start again, when they would cross the water in their 
canoes to the Grapevine creek, which was the outlet to this shallow 
lake; then down the Grapevine to the Kankakee river, and down the 
Kankakee, hunting, fishing and trapping on the way to the Illinois 
country, where they would spend some weeks visiting, enjoying 
themselves well, smoking their pipes of peace, and in due time re- 
turn by the same route, and in much the same manner, to their 
homes in Michigan. These were happy days with them, being the 
true owners of all the forests and fields, natives to the manor born. 
The buffalo, the deer and the antelope, as well as the wild fowls and 
fish, all belonged to them for their sustenance and support. The 
wild beasts roamed over these lands unmolested, with the exception 
of an occasionally well-directed arrow from the red man's bow, 
killing one or two for his present need, carefully leaving the rest to 
increase and multiply for his future wants. These red men could 
roam over woodland and field without limit; the soil being all 
their own no one had a right to molest them in their enjoyments. 
Their principal occupations were hunting, fishing, trapping, raising 
a little common tobacco, smoking their pipes of peace, and visiting 
one another." 

AREA OF THE COUNTY. 

In general terms St. Joseph county may be said to be twenty-four 
miles long from east to west, and twenty-one miles wide from north 
to south. From this is to be taken a strip from the west part of 
about seventeen sections, and to which nine sections on the south- 
west part is to be attached, leaving as the area of the county four 
hundred and ninety-seven square miles, or sections, a total of 318,- 
080 acres of land. From the table of assessments, on file in the 
Auditor's office, it is found there are 285,831 acres of land subject 
to taxation, leaving a balance of 32,267 acres not taxable, or that 
have been laid out into city, town and village plats and taxed as town 
lots. Of this total of 285.831, Olive township has 36,111 acres; 
Warren, 20,142; German, 12,350; Clay, 13,293; Harris, 13,320; 
Penn, 40,53-1; Portage, 14,118; Green, 21,969; Union, 27,278; Lib- 
erty, 27,558; Maison, 33,094; Lincoln, 13,395; town of Walker- 
ton, 135. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 337 

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY. 

The surface of the county is pleasingly diversified, there being 
no long stretches of prairie which, in traveling over, becomes tire- 
some to the eye, nor impenetrable forests, nor mountainous ranges; 
but a pleasing variety of prairie, openings, and timber in almost 
every part of the county. The principal prairies are Terre Coupee, 
thelargest in the county, and which was at one time covered by water, 
lying in Olive township; Sumption's, in Green township; Portage, 
in German township; Harris, in Harris township, and Palmer's, in 
Center township. As one passes through the various townships of 
the county, he will notice the light, sandy soil of the original oak 
openings, the dark, sandy loam of the densely wooded regions, the 
decayed vegetable mold of the prairies, and the peat-beds of the 
marshes and natural meadows. There is a large percentage of 
silica in most of the soil, and wheat consequently has always been 
an abundant crop. Corn is excelled nowhere east of the Mississippi 
except in Illinois. Fruit is easily raised, and in large quantities, 
and of excellent quality. 

Along the Kankakee river for quite a distance on either side is 
marsh land, but the marshes are becoming gradually dried each 
year, and one of the most extensive peat-beds in the State has been 
discovered here. It is upward of sixty miles in length and about 
three miles in width, lying on both sides of the Kankakee, and is 
from ten to fifteen feet in depth. This will in time become inval- 
uable as fuel, and will also furnish an inexhaustible fountain for the 
manufacture of gas. On the north and south of Mishawaka are 
marsh lands which furnish an inexhaustible supply of bog ore, 
which was extensively used for some years. 

THE WATER-SHED. 

A line drawn from the east part of the county four miles south 
of the St. Joseph river, and extending due west to Bolin's lake (a 
little to the west of south from South Bend), thence a little to the 
west of north to the head waters of the Kankakee, thence north- 
west to the northwest corner of Warren township, marks the water- 
shed of St. Joseph county. To the north and northeast from this 
line the streams flow into the St. Joseph river, and to Lake Michigan, 
reaching the Atlantic ocean through Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie, 
St. Lawrence river, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; whereas, to the 
south and southwest they flow into the Kankakee, and down the 
Illinois and Mississippi, reaching the Atlantic through the Gulf of 
Mexico. A mill-race was once dug from the head waters of the 
Kankakee to the St. Joseph river at South Bend, and the waters of 
that river made to flow, by the assistance of art, in both directions 
from this fountain head, so level is the division line of the water- 
shed . 



338 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



RIVERS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



The principal river in St. Joseph county is the St. Joseph, which 
takes its rise in Hillsdale county, Michigan, and by a winding, tor- 
tuous way enters the county on section 9, township 37 north of 
range 4 east, taking a westerly course passes through sections 9, 8, 
7, of the same township and range, sections 12, 11, 10, 15, 16, 17, 

18 of township 37 north, of range 3 east, whence it takes a north- 
arly course, through sections 12, 1 and 2, township 37, range 2 east, 
end sections 35, 26, 27, 23, 14 and 11, township 38 north, of range 
2 east, into the State of Michigan, through which'it wends its way 
to Lake Michigan, at the city of St. Joseph, in that State. The 
river was first called the " River of the Miamis," from the fact that 
when discovered by the white men, it was in the country of the 
Miami Indians who lived principally upon its banks. After the 
Catholic missionaries established their missions here in the latter 
part of the seventeenth or the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
the name of the river was changed to the St. Joseph of Lake Mich- 
igan, by which name it is yet sometimes called, to distinguish it 
from the St. Joseph river that takes its rise in Ohio and enters 
Indiana in the northeastern part, emptying into the Maumee river 
near Fort Wayne. 

On this river are some very fine water-powers, the best being at 
South Bend, where it is used to run a large number of manufac- 
tories of various kinds. The river is about 250 miles in length, and 
is the most beautiful and picturesque stream in the State. 

The Kankakee river takes its rise about one mile west of the city 
of South Bend, on section 9, township 37 north of range 2 east. 
Taking a southwesterly course it passes through sections 16, 20, 

19 and 30 of the same town and range where it takes its rise, thence 
through sections 25, 26, 35, 34, 33, township 37 north of range 1 
east sections 4, 5, 6, 7, township 3<i north of range 1 east, and 
sections 12 and 13, township 36 north of range 1 west, into 
La Porte county, whence it passes on to the Illinois river, into 
which it empties. 



FIRST ENTEIES OF LAND. 



The lands in St. Joseph county, although ceded to the United 
States Government some years previous by the Pottawatomie 
Indians, did not come into market until the spring of 1830. The 
first entries made were on the 19th day of April, of the same year. 
John Johnston entered the southwest quarter of the southeast quar- 
ter of section 11, township 3S north, of range 3 east, and Samuel 
Bell entered the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of the 
same section, township and range. Other entries rapidly followed 
these, so that during the first year a large quantity of the most 
valuable land in the county was taken up. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 339 

FIRST ROAD. 

For several years after the settlement of this county by the whites, 
the only roads over which there were any travel were the Indian 
trails, or the blazed path of the white men through the timbers. 

The first regularly located road was made in 1830, under the 
supervision of Judge Polk, of Logansport, Indiana, by order of the 
State, and is known as the Michigan road. This road was run 
from Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio river to the mouth of Trail 
creek, where has since been located Michigan City, on Lake Mich- 
igan. The road first struck this countyin township 35 north, of 
range 2 east, and taking a northerly course, was run to South Bend, 
and thence west, leaving the county on section 34, township 38 
north, of range 1 west, where since has been located the town of 
New Carlisle. The reason the road was run to the present city of 
South Bend, instead of going in a direct course to its terminus was 
to avoid the Kankakee marsh. 




CHAPTER II. 

NATURAL HISTORY— QUADRUPEDS — BIRDS — REPTILES— FISHES!'— LANTS. 

Of the species of native quadrupeds that once roamed the flowery 
prairies and wild forests of this county, but few of the smaller 
remain, and none of the larger. Of the latter we cannot even find 
a specimen preserved in taxidermy. The buffalo which grazed 
upon the verdant prairies has been driven westward. With or be- 
fore it went the beaver, elk, badger, panther, black wolf and black 
bear. Some animals that were quite numerous have become very 
rare, such as the gray fox, the catamount, otter, lynx, the beautiful 
Virginia deer, the opossum, raccoon, mink, muskrat, the common 
weasel, the small brown weasel, skunk, woodchuck, or Maryland 
marmot, prairie mole, common shrew mole, meadow and deer 
mouse, and the gray rabbit. Of squirrels there are the gray tim- 
ber squirrel, the fox, chipmunk, the large gray prairie squirrel, the 
striped and the spotted prairie squirrel, and the beautiful flying 
squirrel. The dark-brown and the reddish bat are common. Other 
small animals have been found here which have strayed from other 
localities. 

BIRDS. 

Of the 5,000 existing species of birds many have sojourned in 
this county, some temporarily and others for a considerable time. 
Many migratory species come only at long intervals, and therefore 
but little is known of them. Most species seen here are migratory 
between. the North and the South. 

There is not a more fascinating study than that afforded by our 
feathered friends. Their free movements through seemingly bound- 
less space, the joyous songs of many, and the characteristic tones of 
all, their brilliant colors, their lively manners, and their wonderful 
instincts, have from earliest ages made a strong impression on the 
minds of men, and in the infancy of intellect gave rise to many 
peculiar and mysterious associations. Hence the flight of birds 
was made the foundation of a peculiar art of divination. Religion 
borrowed many symbols from them, and poetry many of its orna- 
ments. Birds avail themselves of their powers of wing to seek sit- 
uations adapted for them in respect to temperature and supply of 
food. The arrival of summer birds is always a welcome sign of 
advancing spring, and is associated with all that is cheerful and 
delightful. Some birds come almost at the same date annually; 
others are more influenced by tlie character of the season, as mild 

or severe. 

(340) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH 'COUNTY. 341 

The following list is as nearly correct as can .be compiled from 
the available information upon the subject. 

Perchers. — This order of birds is by far the most numerous, and 
includes nearly all those which are attractive either in plumage or 
in song. The ruby-throated humming-bird, with its exquisite 
plumage and almost ethereal existence, is at the head of the list. 
This is the humming-bird which is always the delight of the chil- 
dren, and the only one found in this State. The chimney swallow, 
easily known from other swallows by its very long wings and forked 
tail, and which is a true swift, is quite numerous. Of the Whip- 
poorwill family there are two representatives, — the whippoorwill 
proper, whose note enlivens the forest at night, and the night-hawk. 
The belted king-fisher, so well known to the school boy, is the only 
member of its family in this region. At the head of the fly-catchers 
is the king-bird, the crested fly-catcher and the wood pewee. 

Of the Thrush family are the robin, the wood thrush, Wilson's 
thrush, the blue-bird, the ruby-crowned and the golden-crested 
wren, tit-lark, the black and the white creeper, blue yellow-backed 
warbler, yellow-breasted chat, worm-eating warbler, blue-winged 
yellow warbler, Tennessee warbler, and golden-crowned thrush. 
The Shrike family is represented by the great northern shrike, 
red- eyed fly-catcher, white-eyed fly-catcher, the blue-headed and 
the yellow-throated fly-catcher. The Swallow family of birds are 
very numerous in this country. Among them are the barn swal- 
low, white-bellied swallow, bank swallow, cliff swallow and purple 
martin. The cedar-bird is the representative of the wax-wing 
family in America. The genera of the Mocking-bird family are 
the cat-bird, brown thrush, the house and winter wren. Of the 
Finch and Sparrow family, the snow bunting and Smith's bunting 
appear only in winter. The purple finch, the yellow-bird and the 
lark finch inhabit this count} 7 . Of the Passerine genus of this 
family are the savannah sparrow, the field and the chipping spar- 
row, the black snow-bird, the tree sparrow, the song sparrow, the 
swamp and the fox-colored sparrow, the black-throated bunting, the 
rose-breasted gros-beak and the ground robin. The Titmouse family 
is represented by the chickadee and the tufted titmouse. There are 
two species of the Creeper family — the white bellied nut-hatch and 
the American creeper. The melodious family of Skylarks is rep- 
resented here by only the common skylark of the prairie. Of the 
Black-bird family, the rusty black-bird, the crow black-bird, the 
cow-bird, the red-winged black-bird, the meadow lark, the orchard 
and the Baltimore oriole, are the most beautiful and brilliant that 
inhabit this region. The blue- jay and the common crow comprise 
the species of the Crow family. 

Birds of Prey. — This order of birds comprises all those, with few 
exceptions, which pursue and capture birds and other animals for 
food. They are mostly of large size, the females are larger than the 
males, they live in pairs, and choose their mates for life. Most 
raptorial birds have disappeared. Among them are the golden 



342 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

eagle, which was always rare but now no longer seen here; the bald 
eagle, or properly the white-headed eagle, once quite common, now 
scarce. Some well-preserved specimens of this genus are in the 
county. This eagle enjoys the honor of standing as our national 
emblem. Benjamin Franklin lamented the selection of this bird 
as emblematical of the Union, for its great cowardice. It has the 
ability of ascending in circular sweeps without any apparent mo- 
tion of the wings or the tail, and it often rises in this manner until 
it disappears from view, when at an immense height, and as if ob- 
serving an object on the ground, it sometimes closes its wings and 
glides toward the earth with such velocity that the eye can scarcely 
follow it, causing aloud rustling sound like a violent gust of wind 
among the branches of the forest. The Hawk family has eight or 
nine species, some but seldom seen, others common. The turkey- 
buzzard has almost, if not quite, disappeared. It is still abundant 
further south. Of the Owl genera are several species, though all 
are but seldom seen because of their nocturnal habits. Among 
them are the barn owl, the screech owl, the long and the short eared 
owl, the barred owl. and the snowy owl, the latter being the rarest. 

Climbers. — But few of this order remain in the count}', the most 
common of which are the woodpeckers. Of the various kinds of 
these are the golden-winged, the pileated, the hairy, the downy, the 
yellow-bellied, red-bellied and the red-headed. The yellow billed 
cuckoo is occasionally seen; the black- billed cuckoo is rare. 

Scratches. — Thi6 order contains but few genera in this county. 
The wild turkey, the choicest of game, has almost entirely disap- 
peared, and was the onlj* one of its family that ever sojourned here. 
In an early day they were in abundance. The chiefest among the 
Grouse family is the prairie chicken, which, if not carefully 
protected, must ere long follow the wild turkey, never to return. 
The ruffled grouse, wrongfully called " pheasant," has of late made 
its appearance. When frightened it takes to flight with a smothered, 
drum-like noise. It is quite fond of cultivated fields, and, if 
properly protected and enc*ouraged until it becomes fairly settled, 
will make a fine addition to the game, and till the place of the 
prairie chicken. Partridge family. — The fate of that excellent bird, 
the quail, is only a question of a short time. The Dove family. — 
The wild pigeons continue to make their semi-annual visits, but 
not in such vast numbers as years ago. Acres of forest were so 
often tilled at night with these birds that the breaking of boughs 
and the flying of pigeons made a noise that could be heard for 
miles, and the shot of a sportsman's gun could not be heard at a 
distance often feet. Highly interesting is the description by Audu- 
bon of the enormous flights which he observed on the Ohio in the 
fall of 1813; they obscured the daylight and lasted three days with- 
out interruption. According to a very moderate estimate of his, 
each flight contained the stupendous number of one billion, one 
hundred and fifteen thousand million, one hundred and thirty-six 
thousand pigeons. These flights caused a general commotion 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 343. 

among the entire rural population. Desirous of booty, and anxious 
lest their crops should be spoiled, the tanners, arming themselves 
with rifles, clubs, poles, torches and iron pots filled with sulphur, 
proceed to the resting places of the birds. The work of slaughter 
being accomplished, everybody sat down among mountains of dead 
pigeons, plucking and salting the birds which they selected, aban- 
doning the rest to the foxes, wolves, raccoons, opossums and hogs, 
whole herds of which were driven to the battle-field. The plaintive 
notes of the Carolina dove, commonly known as the turtle-dove, are 
still heard. 

Swimmers. — This order of birds, which formerly frequented this 
county in large numbers, have almost disappeared. They are 
migratory, and in their usual season would appear coming from the 
north or south, as winter passes into summer or summer into winter. 
Of the Diver family, the great northern diver, or loon, sometimes 
visits this section, but inhabits the frigid zone. Of the Gull family 
are Wilson's tern and silvery gull. — The rougbed-billed pelican 
was the only genus of the Pelican family that ever stopped in this 
county, and it has now altogether ceased to make its visits here. 
Of the Cormorant family, the double-crested cormorant, or sea- 
raven, has been seen here. Duck family. — This family of migratory 
birds visited the ponds and streams of this county in large numbers 
before it became so thickly settled, both on their northern and 
southern passage, but now mostly confine themselves to the wilder 
places, where large numbers are found. This family furnishes most 
game for sportsmen and for the table. There are the wood-duck, 
the big black-headed duck, the ring-necked duck, the red-head, the 
canvas-back, the dipper, the shell-drake or goosander, the fish-duck, 
the red-breasted, and the hooded merganser, the mallard and the 
pintail, the greeu-winged and the blue-winged teal, the spoonbill 
and the gad wall, the baldpate, the American swan, the trumpeter 
swan and the white-fronted goose. 

Waders. — Probably less is known of this order of birds than of 
any other, because of their shyness and solitary habits. They fre- 
quented the marshes, but cultivation has drained their favorite 
haunts. Of the Crane family, the whooping crane, always rare, 
is now never seen. The sand-hill cranes stop on their journeys 
north and south. Of the Heron family, the great blue heron or 
crane, least bittern, the green heron, night heron and the American 
bittern visit this region. Of the Ibis family, the glossy ibis 
has been seen here. Of the Plover family, the golden plover, 
the kildeer and the king plover comprise this family known here. 
Of the Phalarope family, the Wilson's and the red phalarope have 
frequented the swamps of this county. Various birds of the Snipe 
family have been common in and around the swamps of this county. 
Among them were Wilson's snipe, grey or red-breasted snipe, the 
least and the semi-palmated sandpiper, the willet, the tell-tale, the 
yellow-leg, the solitary sandpiper, the spotted sandpiper, the field 
plover, long-billed curlew, the common rail, the clapper rail or mud 
hen, and the coot. 



344 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTV. 

Reptiles. — All of the species of this class that ever inhabited 
this region are still to be found here except most of the poisonous 
snakes. The rattlesnake is of a yellowish-brown color, and has a 
series of horny joints at the end of the tail, which make a rattling 
sound. These were the most venomous of all snakes found here, 
and were numerous in the early settlement. There are two kinds, 
the bandy, or striped, and the prairie rattlesnake, the latter being 
still occasionally found. The copperhead was always rare. Among 
the harmless snakes are the water-snake, the garter-snake, the 
bull-snake, the milk-snake, the black-snake, and the blue racer. 

Many reptiles found here are erroneously called lizards, but are 
salamanders and other like innocent creatures. Lizards are never 
found in this county. The so-called " water lizards " are newts, or 
Tritons. Among the tortoises or turtles are found the map turtle, 
the snapping and the soft-shelled turtle. Of the batrachian, or 
naked reptiles, there are a few, and, though loathsome to sight and 
touch, are harmless. The toad, the bull-frog, the leopard-frog, the 
tree-toad, with some tailed batrachia, comprise the most of this 
order. The bull-frog is often as large as a man's head, or larger, 
and his deep bellowing can be heard for a mile or more. 

Fishes. — Although fishes are the lowest class of vertebrates, their 
varied forms and colors, which often rival those of precious stones 
and burnished gold, the wonderful power and velocity of some, the 
wholesome food furnished by many, and the exciting sport of their 
capture, combine to render fishes subjects of great interest to the 
casual observer, as well as to the amateur and professional natural- 
ist. The number of known species of fishes is about ten thousand. 
The waters of this country are quite prolific of the finny tribe. The 
commerce in fish has become quite extensive along some of the 
and lakes. The Sickle-backed family furnishes the game fish, 
and are never caught larger than four pounds in weight. The 
various genera found here are the black bass, goggle-eye, the croppy, 
or big black sun-fish, and the two common sun-fish. There are but 
two species of the Pike family, — the pickerel, weighing from five 
to twenty-five pounds, and the gar pike. Of the Sucker family 
are the buffalo, red-horse, white sucker, two species of black- 
suckers and mullet ranick. Fish of this family are found in all 
the streams of the county. They abound wherever there is water. 
Of the Cat-fish family the channel cat-fish, the mud cat-fish and 
two species of the small cat-fish inhabit the waters of this county, 
and are caught ranging in weight from one to thirty pounds. The 
bull-head is yet abundant, and its flesh, as well as its general 
appearance, resembles that of the cat-fish. 

Besides these varieties there are the chub, silver-sides and fresh- 
water herring, and large numbers of other species denominated 
minnows, which are found in the smallest spring branches, as well 
as the larger streams. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 345 



BOTANY. 



This county is favorably situated tor the production of a great 
variety of interesting plants. Out of about 2,400 species of flower- 
ing plants in the l T nited States, about 1,600 can be found within 
the limits of this State, and about 1,000 within this county. In 
the following list we will enumerate only the most common and 
remarkable, growing spontaneously in this county; and we give 
the English names from Gray's Manual, fifth edition, being well 
aware that most localities have different names for many plants, 
and that even in the books some English names are given to two 
or more plants, as sycamore, button snakeroot, black snakeroot, 
goose-grass, hair-grass, loosestrife, etc. 

Crowfoots. -Common virgin's bower, a vine, is occasionally found: 
the leather-flower, a cultivated vine bearing large, blue flowers, is 
of the same genus. The Pennsylvanian, Virginian and wood anem- 
ones occur here and there. Liver-leaf (" liver-wort") is common 
on forest hillsides. Rue anemone, and the early, the purplish and 
the tall meadow-rues are common in the woods. The true butter- 
cups of the East are not found here, but the most common flower 
corresponding to them is the creeping crowfoot. The small- 
flowered, the hooked, the bristly and the early crowfoots also occur. 
Isopyrum grows in moist, shady places. Marsh marigold is com- 
mon in early spring, growing in mud supplied with fresh water: in 
the East they are called "cowslips" and sometimes used for greens. 
Water plantain spearwort, growing in mud, and yellow water crow- 
foot, growing in water and with the submersed leaves finely divided, 
are seen occasionally. Wild columbine, so easily recognized by its 
resemblance to the cultivated species, abounds in the margins of 
the woods ; so also two species of wild larkspur. Yellow puccoon 
is very scarce. White baneberry is occasionally seen in the deep 
woods. 

Custard- Apple Family. — The papaw is common. This is a 
fragile bush, with large leaves, bearing fruit about the size and 
appearance of short, thick, green cucumbers, which have a pulp 
like the banana. To "learn" to like them one must merely taste 
of them at times far apart. 

Moonseed. — Canadian moonseed is abundant in the woods. It 
is a smooth, twining vine like the morning-glory, with a beautiful, 
round, yellow root, which has a tonic-bitter taste, and is sometimes 
called sarsaparilla. The true wild sarsaparilla belongs to the Gin- 
seng family. 

Barberry Family. — May-apple, or mandrake, is abundant, and 
blue cohosh somewhat rare. 

Water Lilies. — The pond, or white water lily, is abundant in 
large, open ponds in the river bottoms, and the yellow water, or 
frog lily, growing in shallow, stagnant water, is common. The 
vellow nelumbo, a similar plant, is sometimes found. 



346 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Poppy Family. — The well-known blood-root is the only repre- 
sentative of this family growing wild in this county. 

Fumitory Family. — The celebrated Dutchman's breeches is 
common, and squirrel-corn is sometimes found. Bleeding heart is 
of the same genus. 

Mustards. — Marsh cress is common; lake cress, growing in 
water, is sometimes seen; and horse-radish flourishes beyond the 
bounds of cultivation. Pepper-root, an early-flowering plant, is 
common in the dense forest. Two varieties of spring cress are fre- 
quent. Two species of the delicate little rock cress and Arabis 
dentata are also frequent. Hedge mustard is the most common 
mustard-like weed that grows on cultivated and waste grounds. 
Tansy mustard is rare. Black mustard, the type of this family, 
flourishes on cultivated and waste grounds. White mustard is 
very rare at the present day. Shepherd's purse is abundant early 
in the season, — a weed everywhere: its seed-pod is triangular, 
somewhat inflated, and in shape resembles a shepherd's purse of 
the olden time. Wild peppergrass is common in late summer: 
seed-pods, wafer-form. Whitlow grass grows in sandy ground. To 
the Mustard family belong the radish, turnip and cabbage of our 
gardens. 

Caper Family. — Polanisia, a fetid pod-bearing plant, is common 
on sandy ground, and is extending along the railroads where sand 
and gravel are deposited. Cleome pungens, or spider-flower, is 
escaping from cultivation. 

Violets. — Common blue violet is abundant, the other kinds more 
rare, namely, hand-leaf, arrow-leaved, larkspur, bird-foot, downy 
yellow, etc. Iieart's-ease belongs to this order. 

Rock-Roses. — Frost-weed grows in sandy soil, and pin-weed on 
dry ground. Hudsonia, the smallest shrub in the country, grows 
on some of the sandy hills. 

Sundew*. — Round-leaved sundew is common in some places. 

St. John's-worts. — Several species are found in this county. 

Pinks. — Starry campion, sleepy catchfly, corn cockle, sandwort, 
long-leaved stitchwort and forked chickweed are found here and 
there. Common chickweed and three species of mouse-ear chick- 
weed and bouncing bet are more common. Carpet weed is common 
on the sand; it grows in the form of a bunchy lamp-mat. 

Purslanes. — Akin to the beautiful portulaca is our universal 
purslane, often called " pursley." Spring beauty belongs to this 
family. It is one of the earliest spring flowers, and may be distin- 
guished by the plant's having but two leaves, long and narrow and 
somewhat fleshy. The flower is a light rose color, with deeper veins. 

Mallows Family. — Common, or low mallows and velvet-leaf, or 
Indian mallows are very abundant, The latter is a tall, pestiferous 
weed about our fields, with seed-vessels resembling poppy-bolls. 
Sida and bladder ketinia, or flower of an hour, are common. To 
this order belong the hollyhock and okra, in cultivation. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 347 

Linden.— Bass-wood, known as lin among Southern people, is 
the only member of this family growing here. 

Geranium Family. — Wild crane's-bill is common in early spring, 
having a solitary, rose-colored flower on the summit. Carolina 
crane's-bill is rather rare. Spotted and pale touch-me-nots are com- 
mon in moist, shaded places, growing in dense patches. The bal- 
samine of cultivation is of the same genus. Yellow wood-sorrel is 
everywhere, and here and there the violet wood-sorrel prevails to 
some extent. This is erroneously called " sheep-sorrel." Sheep, or 
field-sorrel, grows on sandy or gravely ground, has lance-shaped and 
pointed leaves, obscure flowers, and seeds like pie-plant or yellow- 
dock, while wood-sorrel grows mostly in clay soil, has three leaflets 
like clover, showy flowers, and seeds in a pod. The two sorrels be- 
long to different orders, but have a similar taste. 

Bueworts. — The northern prickly ash, a common shrub in our 
woods, but growing scarcer, and the still rarer hop-tree, are the only 
members of this family in this county. Garden rue is of the 
same order, or family. 

Cashew Family. — In America this would seem to be rather the 
sumac family. The smooth sumac is common everywhere, fragrant 
sumac abundant in sandy ground, and poison ivy is common along 
fences — some places abundant. The latter is a coarse, woody vine 
with innumerable rootlets, and has three leaflets to each leaf, with 
these leaflets sometimes partly divided. When the plant is young 
it can be distinguished from box-elder by the latter having a white 
" bloom " on the stem, and at all times it can be distinguished from 
Virginia creeper (American ivy, an innocent plant) by the latter 
having five leaflets to each leaf, and the whole leaf in shape like 
that of buckeye. Poison, dwarf and stag-horn sumacs are common 
in some places. 

Vine Family, that is, the Grape-vine family. — Virginia creeper, 
just described, is as abundant as any weed. The winter, or frost- 
grape and the northern fox-grape are common, but the summer 
grape, a delicious fruit, is very scarce, if indeed it can be found at 
all in this county. It used to be abundant, but the vines have been 
destroyed by reckless grape gatherers. 

Buckthorn Family. — The noted red-root, or New Jersey tea, a 
shrub in the margin of prairies, and to some extent in all other sit- 
uations, is the only representative of this family here, and it is be- 
coming rarer by the encroachments of cultivation and pasturage. 
The leaves make very good tea. 

Staff-tree Family. — The climbing bittersweet and waahoo are all 
there are of this family in our limits. The former is a smooth, 
woody vine, common in the woods, climbing by simply twining, 
and bearing orange-colored berries in clusters, often called wax- 
work, and used in ornamentation. This vine is often called simply 
bittersweet, but the true medical bittersweet is a very different 
plant, scarcely a vine at all, and not growing wild in this county. 
The waahoo, or burning-bush, is a real bush of about the size and 

23 



348 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

proportions of a plum-tree; its twigs have four white lines, and its 
crimson fruit in autumn after the leaves have fallen is very showy. 
The flowers are dark purple. Strawberry-bush is rare. 

Soapberry Order includes the Maple, Bladdernut and Soapberry 
(proper) families. Of the maples the most common are the sugar, 
the red and the white. The latter are the soft maples. Box-eTder 
is sometimes called ash-leaved maple, and belongs to this family. 
The American bladdernut is a tree-like shrub about 10 feet high, 
producing large three-lobed, inflated seed pods. Two species of 
buck-eye are common in the river bottoms. 

Milkworts. — Seneca snakeroot and four other species of milkwort 
are found in this region. 

Pulse Family. — This large family is characterized by having 
seeds in pods like beans and peas, which are members of the family. 
The first in the list, according to the books, are the clovers — red 
and white. Two other species of this genus occur, indeed, but are 
too rare to enumerate here. Then the white sweet clover, more 
recently escaped from cultivation; then two species of prairie 
clover, almost extinct. Goat's rue, false indigo (Amorpha) and lead 
plant abound on dry, sandy loam in river bottoms. The common 
locust was introduced here, but this is too far north for it to be hardy 
enough to withstand our winds and the borer. A honey-locust 
occurs here and there. One milk vetch is frequent. Six species of 
tick trefoil abound and nine others occur. These are those plants 
in the woods bearing "pods" of triangular, flat burs. Five species 
of bush clover are found here. Three vetches (tares) and four marsh 
vetchlings, ground nut, kidney bean, false indigo (Baptisia) and 
wild senna are found here and there. Hog peanut, called wild pea 
or bean by some, abounds everywhere in the woods. Red-bud is 
an ugly little tree except in the spring before the leaves appear, 
when the whole top is of a beautiful purplish-red from the blos- 
soms. Partridge pea is abundant " in spots," grows like a weed in 
low places, 20 inches to two feet high, has leaves like a locust, and 
bears a very large, yellow flower. The sensitive plant may be found 
within the bounds of this county, but if so, it is very scarce. The 
Kentucky coffee-tree is rare. It is famous for its beautiful com- 
pound leaves and glossy beans. 

Rose Family. — Most of our edible fruits come from this family 
of trees and herbs, as the apple, peach, plum, cherry, strawberry, 
etc. The wild plum (yellow or red) is becoming very scarce; the 
wild red cherry is always rare; the wild black cherry is abundant; 
choke-cherry is a shrub occasionally found; dwarf cherry is com- 
mon on sandy ridges; nine-bark and goat's-beard are species of 
spiraea frequently found ; common meadow sweet r.nd Canadian 
burnet,. rare; agrimony is a coarse herb occasionally seen, having 
leaves resembling those of the strawberry, and bearing a kind of 
drooping bur, — a plant about two feet high. One species of avens 
is very common, and four other species are found. Common cinque- 
foil, or five-finger, resembles the strawberry very closely, and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 349 

abounds in dry soil; Norwegian cinquefoil has similar leaves, but 
the plant is coarse and grows three feet high, — not common; silvery 
and several other species of cinquefoil are also found. One species 
of wild strawberry abounds in retired situations; it was common 
over the original prairie. The high blackberry and the raspberry 
prevail here as elsewhere, but their sylvan territory is narrowed to 
close limits by the encroachments of man; the low blackberry, or 
dewberry, and the running swamp blackberry also occur; the dwarf 
raspberry grows only a foot or two high. Of the roses proper, the 
dwarf wild rose is the most common, but its territory has also 
become very limited; the " early wild " rose may be found. Three 
species of red haw (hawthorn) occur; the black, or pear, thorn is 
the most common, then the scarlet-fruited thorn, and lastly the 
cockspur thorn. The crab apple and choke berry are well known. 
Several varieties of Jnne berry are common. 

Saxifrages. — Two or three species of gooseberry are common; 
three species of currant grow here; and swamp saxifrage 'and two 
species of alum-root are sometimes met with. Mitre-wort, or 
bishop's cap, is common, flowering in early spring; this is an inter- 
esting little plant. 

Orpine Family. — ■ Ditch stone-crop is common during wet 
seasons; can occasionally be found in the ditches during dry sea- 
sons; mossy stone-crop has escaped from cultivation to gravelly 
roadsides, etc.; one other species of stone-crop occurs. 
Witch Hazel is abundant, flowering in late autumn. 
Water- Milfoil. — Two species. 

Even'aig Primroses. — Common evening primrose, enchanter's 
nightshade and two species of willow-herb are common. Seed- 
box, water-purslean and sun-drops are found here and there. 

Melastoma Family. — Deer-grass, or meadow-beauty is a modest 
little purple-flowered plant growing in sandy swamps. 

Loosestrife Family. — One species of Ammannia, oneof Lyth- 
rum, one of swamp loosestrife i^Nesaea) and clammy Cuphea are 
not infrequent. 

Cactus Family. — One species common on sandy ridges. 
Gourd Family. — "Wild balsam apple is a common vine, well 
known, and in heavily wooded river bottoms one-seeded encumber 
occurs. 

Parsley Family. — This family is characterized by having their 
seed-bearing tops like those of parsnips. Most of the poisonous 
plants growing in this country belong to this family. Two species 
of black snakeroot prevail in this county; water pennywort, poly- 
tfenia, cowbane, meadow parsnip, spotted cowbane (two species), 
rattlesnake master, water parsnip (two species), chervil and poison 
hemlock occur here and there, while smoother and hairy sweet 
cicely are abundant; even garden parsnip is becoming a common 
weed in open, protected places. Of the whole family the most 
poisonous are the spotted cowbane and poison hemlock. Cow pars- 
nip is the largest plant of this order, and grows in shaded bottom 
lands. 



350 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Ginseng Family. — Ginseug, on account of its popular medical 
qualities, has been pretty well thinned out; dwarf ginseng, or 
ground-nut, is a modest little plant flowering in April. The true 
wild sarsa pari 11a (a plant of the appearance of a large ginseng) is 
sometimes found, and spikenard is common in the forest ravines. 

Dogwoods. — The most common dogwood is the white-berried, or 
panicled cornel, next the rough-leaved, the alternate-leaved, the 
flowering, the silky, red-osier, dwarf and round-leaved. Pepperidge, 
a middle-sized tree, occurs here and there. 

Hon eg suckles. — Common elder and yellow honeysuckle are com- 
mon. Horse gentian, or fever-wort, is a forest weed bearing five 
to ten yellow berries in a circle around the stem at every place 
where the two opposite leaves are attached. The true black haw is 
scarce, but sheep-berry, which is generally called black haw, is 
common. Two species of arrow-wood and the cranberry tree 
occur here and there. 

Madder Family.— The small, bedstraw, two species of the rough 
and the northern bed-straw are Abundant, and the sweet-scented is 
common, while occasionally may be found cleavers, or goose-grass. 
Wild liquorice occurs rarely. These herbs are all of a flax-like 
appearance, having several beautiful little leaves in a whorl at each 
joint. Button bush is common in wet ground. Partridge-berry is 
common further north. 

Composites. — This order is by far the largest of all. Its flowers 
are compound, that is, there are several, sometimes many, small 
flowers crowded close together in a head, as sunflower, lettuce, 
dandelion, aster, chrysanthemum, May-weed, etc. Their time of 
flowering is generally late in the season. 

Iron-weed is common on flat ground; its summit in August is 
a beautiful royal purple. Four species of button snakeroot (one 
called also blazing star) are abundant on protected original prairie, 
and occur nowhere else. Five species of thoroughwort grow here, 
that called boneset being abundant. The species called trumpet, 
or Joe-Pye weed, is a tall, interesting weed, with 3 to 6 leaves in 
each whorl, that is, at each joint, Kuhnia is not rare; it resembles 
boueset. Mist-flower grows in our limits. Of the asters there are 
about 30 species growing within this county; about half of them 
are very common. The flowers have a starry appearance; hence 
the name. The most remarkable of them is the New England 
aster, a large purple flower along the roadsides in September. Five 
species of fleabane, similar to the asters in appearance, are common, 
namely: horseweed, which is abundant on waste and cultivated 
grounds, Robin's plantain, common fleabane, and two daisy flea- 
banes, one of them called also sweet scabious. About 20 species 
of golden-rod can be found in this county, only half of them com- 
mon, however. The most abundant is the Solidago Canadensis. 
From these much honey is made by bees in September. Four 
species of rosin-weed used to prevail on the original prairie, but 
their territory is very limited at the present day. The most noted 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 351 

of them has dvided leaves, and is also called compass plant, or 
polar plant, theleaves having once been thought to point north and 
south. They do indeed stand with their faces somewhat parallel, 
but they are just as apt to have their edges toward other points 
of the compass. One species of rosin-weed has undivided leaves, 
large and rough, and is called prairie dock. This and the compass 
plant flourish on flat prairie soil which is not pastured. The 
species called cup-plant grows along the banks of channeled sloughs. 
The leaves join together at the base so as to form a cup. It is a 
very large weed. Parthenium, a similar plant, is not rare. Rag- 
weed is the most common weed we have along the roadsides; called 
also hogweed, Roman wormwood, etc. Great ragweed is the largest 
weed that grows in this country: common along fences. Cockle- 
bur is on the increase. Ox-eye, Lepachys and six species of cone- 
flower are almost common. Six species of wild sunflower flourish 
along fences in unfrequented situations. They are tall weeds, but 
not troublesome. One kind has tuberous roots, and is really an 
artichoke. Three species of tickseed occur in this county. The 
true Spanish needle does not grow here, but three species of its 
genus abound here, especially during wet seasons, namely, common 
and swamp beggar ticks and the larger bur-marigold. The smaller 
bur-marigold is found in shallow running water. Fetid marigold 
is abundant in dry situations along the wagon roads. When struck, 
even lightly, it yields a rank, aromatic odor; called also false dog- 
fennel. Sneeze-weed, which looks somewhat like a Spanish needle, 
is abundant dnring wet seasons and exceedingly scarce at other 
times. May-weed, or dog fennel, every one is familiar with. So 
with yarrow. The ox-eye daisy or white- weed, a vexations weed in 
the East, is just beginning to creep in along the railroads. Biennial 
wormwood is a common but harmless weed in waste places. Com- 
mon and plantain-leaved everlasting are common. Fire- weed, 'abun- 
dant. Golden rag- wort, several species of hawkweed and Cynthia 
here and there. The famous Canada thistle is seldom seen; the 
common thistle abounds more and more. Two other species are 
common, growing very tall. Burdock and dandelion are abun- 
dant. Wild lettuce and false or blue lettuce are common milky 
weeds, growing very tall. Two species of sow thistle, compara- 
tively harmless, are modestly on the increase. 

Lobelias. — The celebrated medical lobelia, or Indian tobacco, 
flourishes along our garden fences. The great lobelia, or blue car- 
dinal flower, is abundant in moist ground. The cardinal flower 18 
the most showy, dazzling-red flower we have growing wild: found 
in wet ground and on the banks of sloughs. A small and slender 
species of lobelia is common in protected situations. 

Campanula or Bellflower Family. — The tall bellfiower is com- 
mon. Venus's looking-glass is found here and there. " Blue-bells " 
do not belong here; they are the smooth lungwort, belonging to the 
Borage family. 

Holly. — Mountain holly is common in places. 



352 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Heaths. — Large and small cranberry, black huckleberry, and 
dwarf, low and swamp blueberries are found here, the first three in 
6wainps. Creeping snowberry (in peat bogs), bearberry in sandy 
ground, creeping wintergreen, shin leaf, sheep laurel, Labrador 
tea, Indian pipe and pipsissewa are occasionally found. 

Plantain Family. — The common plantain of our door-yards. 
Two other species of this family may occur in this county, but 
they are exceedingly rare. 

Primrose. — Several species of loosestrife (Lysimachia), chickweed, 
wintergreen and one or two pimpernels occur. Moneywort is com- 
mon about some door-yards. 

Bladderworts. — Greater bladderwort, in ponds, is very common. 

Fig worts. — Mullein, toad-flax (" butter-and-eggs "), fig-wort, 
beard-tongue, two species of Gerardia, two species of louse-wort 
and cow-wheat are common, while monkey-flower, hedge hyssop, 
false pimpernel, purslane, Culver's root, water, marsh, purslane, 
common and corn speedwell and blue-hearts are sometimes seen. 
Toad-flax has persistent roots like witch-grass and threatens to 
become a pest. The snap-dragon of our gardens is a fig-wort. 

Vervains. — Verbenas belong to this order. The most abun- 
dant plant belonging to this family and growing wild is the hoary 
vervain; next are the bracted (prostrate), the white or nettle- 
leaved, and the blue. They all prefer dry, waste grounds, and are 
much inclined to hybridize. Fog-fruit is abundant in sandy 
ground along the rivers. Lopseed is common in woods. 

Mints. — Common are wood sage, or American germander, wild 
mint, bugle-weed, American pennyroyal, and hedge nettle (two 
species). Motherwort, catnip, heal-all, and wild mint are abundant. 
Here and there are water horehound, mountain mint, horse-mint, 
calaminth, Blephilia, (two species), giant hyssop (two species), false 
dragon head, or lion's heart, mad-dog skullcap and one other species 
of skullcap. Ground ivy, or gill-over-the-ground, is abundant 
about dwellings. What is generally called "horse-mint" in the 
West is " wild bergamot" according to the books. Wild mint 
is often taken for peppermint. True peppermint, spearmint, and 
horehound are scarce within our limits. Salvia, sag': and Mexican 
sage are cultivated plants belonging to this order. 

Borageworts. — Hairy and hoary puecoon, smooth lungwort, 
stick-seed, beggar's lice and common hound's-tongue are com- 
mon; all other species rare. Comfrey belongs to this family. 
Smooth lungwort is often called " blue-bells." It is common in 
early spring about door-yards and along fences near dwellings. 
Common hound's-tongue flourishes along the roads; flowers a dull 
purple, appearing in early summer. Beggar's lice is a species of 
hound's-tongue. 

Water-leaf Family. — Two or three species of water-leaf and Ellisia 
appear in cool, shady places. The latter resembles small tomatoes 
in leaf and fruit. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 353 

Polemoniums or Phloxes. — Greek valerian, paniculate, hairy 
and divaricate phlox are frequent. The true wild sweet- William is 
very rare. Moss pink is more common in cultivation. 

Convolvulus or Morning-glory Family. — The most common 
plant of this order growing spontaneously beyond the bounds of cul- 
tivation is hedge bindweed or Rutland beauty. Eight species of 
dodder ("love-vine") maj r be found, all rare but one which appears 
like orange- colored thread growing on the tops of weeds. Wild 
potato-vine is occasionally found on woody hillsides. 

Nightshade Family. — To this family belong Irish potatoes, 
tomatoes, egg-plant, bitter-sweet, matrimony vine, tobacco and 
Jerusalem cherry. The most common weeds of this family are 
jimson-weed, horse-nettle ("bull nettles "), common or black night- 
shade and two species of ground-cherry. The white-flowered jim- 
son-weed (Datura Stramonium) is called common Stramonium or 
thornapple by Dr. Gray, while the purple-flowered he calls purple 
thornapple. 

Gentians. — One beautiful species of American centaury, Ameri- 
can Columbo and five-flowered, fringed, smaller fringed, whitish, 
yellowish white, and closed gentian are found within our limits. 
''Horse gentian " belongs to the Honeysuckle family. Buck-bean 
is common in bogs. 

Dogbanes. — Spreading dogbane and Indian hemp, in the bor- 
ders of thickets, are common. 

Milkweeds. — Common milkweed, or silk weed, is common; has 
large, boat-shaped pods of glistening cotton. Swamp milkweed, 
butterfly weed, or pleurisy-root, whorled milkweed and two species 
of green milkweed are common in places. 

Olive Family. — It would seem more natural to us Westerners 
to call this the Ash family, as we have no members of this order 
about us except the five species of ash, — white, black, blue, red and 
green, the white being the most common. Some of these kinds 
are difficult for the beginner in botany to distinguish. 

Birthworts. — Wild ginger is common in deep, wooded ravines. 
The leaf is kidney-shaped, plant but few inches high, and the root 
tastes like ginger. 

Pokeweeas. — The common poke, with its purple-juiced clusters 
of berries, is well known. 

Qoosefoots. — Lainb's-quarters, or pigweed, a common weed in 
our gardens, is the type of this order. Beet and spinach are culti- 
vated plants of this order. Next in abundance to lamb's-quarters 
are maple-leaved goosefoot, Jerusalem oak and Mexican tea. 
Wormseed is a fetid plant, belonging to the genus goosefoot. Orache 
is becoming abundant in the towns and cities. Bug-seed grows on 
the borders of the lakes. 

Amaranths. — The cultivated coxcomb, globe amaranth and 
prince's feather (red, chaffy spikes) illustrate the characters of this 
family. Pigweed is one of the most common weeds in cultivated 



354 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

ground. The pigweed of the last paragraph should be called goose- 
foot only, or lamb's-quarters. White pigweed, generally known in 
the West as " tumble-weed," is abundant in some fields. Amaran- 
tus blitoides has recently become very abundant in our towns. At 
a little distance it resembles common purslane. Acnida tamaris- 
cina is common in sandy soil near the rivers and lakes. 

B-uckwh.e<.it Family or Knotweeds. — Goose-grass is the most 
ubiquitous member of this order, forming a carpet in every door- 
yard. A taller variety with wider leaves also abounds under the 
shade trees about the premises. Two species of smart- weed, mild 
water-pepper, water Persicaria and two other species of knotweed 
are all common. Out of 14 species of what appears to be smart- 
weed, only two are biting to the taste. Arrow-leaved tear-thumb, 
black bindweed and climbing false buckwheat are common vines. 
Pie-plant, "yellow dock " and sheep-sorrel represent another divis- 
ion of the knotweed family. The most common member of this 
division in this county is curled, or " yellow " dock; then follow 
sheep-sorrel (abounding in sandy soil), pale, water, swamp and 
bitter docks. 

Lav/rel Family. — Sassafras is common along the bluffs and bot- 
toms of the rivers. Spice bush is common. 

Mezereum Family. — Leather-wood, with its remarkably tough 
bark, is not abundant anywhere. 

Sandal-wood Family. — Bastard toad-flax is rather scarce. 

Lizards-tail Family. — Lizard's tail is common in swamps. 

Spurges. — Spotted spurge, an herb growing more prostrate than 
all others, on cultivated ground; milk}-; no visible flowers. Three 
other species of spurge are almost common. Three-seeded mercury, 
known in former years to inhabit only the dark forest, has followed 
to our city residences where it can find a similar situation. 

Nettle Order. — Of the Elm family are the white and the slippery 
elm and the hackberry, — the first mentioned abundant, the other 
two scarce. Of the Bread-fruit and Fig family is the red mulberry, 
which is scarce. Of the Nettle family proper are the true nettle 
(rare), wood nettle (common), richweed, pellitory, hemp and hop. 
BJchweed, or clearweed, like the mercury of the last paragraph, has 
followed man to his artificial groves and is very abundant on flat 
ground under heavy shade-trees, in some places. It is remarkable 
that botanists have placed in this order the osage orange tree of 
our hedges, the bread-fruit tree of the Pacific isles, the fig and the 
banyan, and the poison upas of the East Indies. 

Plane- Tree Family. — "Sycamore," or button-wood, or Ameri- 
can plane. The true sycamore of Europe is a different tree. 

Walnut Family. — Black and white walnut (butternut) are well 
known. Three species of shell-bark and two of smooth-bark, are 
common in this country. The list comprises the shag-bark, the 
Western shell-bark, the mockernut or white-heart, the pig-nut or 
broom, and the bitter-nut or swamp hickories. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 355 

Oak Family. — This family comprises not only the oaks but also 
the chestnut, beech, hazel-nut and iron-wood. Some of the oaks 
hybridize so much that it is difficult to keep track of the species 
and varieties. White oak, of course, takes the lead here as else- 
where, but the black jack is about as abundant. The latter is 
usually the "second growth," and is as good as hickory for fire- 
wood. Bur-oak, scarlet oak and black oak (yellow-barked, or 
quercitron) are, common. Laurel or shingle oak, yellow chestnut 
oak and red oak are occasionally met with. Laurel oak is so called 
on account of the shape of its leaves, and is also called shingle oak, 
on account of its being so good in pioneer times for clapboards. 
Two species of iron -wood nourish here. They belong to different 
genera, one having seeds in clusters of involucres resembling hops; 
hence it is called hop hornbeam. The other iron-wood or horn- 
beam is also called blue or water beech. 

Birch Family. — The red, or river birch is sometimes found along 
the rivers and creeks, the dwarf birch in swamps. Paper birch is 
rather common. 

Willows. — The most common willow, as well as the largest, is 
the black; then the prarie, glaucous, heart-leaved, shining and long- 
leaved. The black and the shining willows have tough twigs which 
are very brittle at the base. Several other species of willow occur, 
but are rare. The quaking asp, or American aspen, the cotton- 
wood, balm-of-Gilead, Lombardy poplar and silver-leaf, or white 
poplar, are well known. Glandular- leaved willow is common about 
the head of Lake Michigan. 

Pines. — The most common pines in this region are the white and 
northern scrub. Black and hemlock spruce and balsam fir raay be 
found. 

Aram, Family. — Indian turnip (Jack-in-the pulpit) abundant; 
skunk cabbage common in wet places supplied by spring-water; 
green dragon common; sweet flag rare. 

Duckweeds. — Two species common on the surface of ponds. They 
do not take root in the earth. 

Cat-tails. — Common cat-tail (a kind of flag) and a species of bur 
reed occur in wet places. 

Pondweeds. — Several species grow throughout this country. 
Their habitat is in or under water. 

Water- Plantain Family. — Arrowhead (two species, with several 
variations) is abundant. Has large, arrow-shaped leaves and white 
flowers in threes, and grows along the sloughs. Water plantain 
and arrow-grass are sometimes found, growing in same situation 
as last. 

Orchids. — Showy orchis, eight or ten species of Habenaria, 
rattlesnake plantain, ladies' tresses, Pogonia, crane-fly orchis, adder's 
mouth, coral-root and five species of lady's slipper are found in 
this county, and Calopogon is common. The lady's slippers are 



356 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

being thinned out rapidly by parties shipping them East, for a 
price. 

Amaryllis Family.— Star-grass is common in prairies. It is a 
modest little grass-like plant, putting forth its conspicious, yellow, 
three-petaled flowers in June. 

Iris Family. — The larger blue flag is becoming rare. Blue-eyed 
grass looks like the star-grass just mentioned, except that the 
flowers arc white or pale blue. Its habitat is the prairie. 

Yam Family. — Wild yam-root is a green vine sometimes seen 
in the woods. 

Smilax Family. — Common green-brier, smilax hispida and car- 
rion flower are all not very rare. 

Lily Family. — Purple trillium, or three-leaved nightshade, aud 
the large white trillium are abundant: flower in May. One or two 
other species of trillium sometimes occur. Bellwort is an early 
flower in the woods. Smaller Solomon's seal and false spikenard 
are common. Wild orange-red lily is common in the margins of 
prairies which are not pastured and have never been broken. 
White dog's-tooth violet, white hellebore and great Solomon's seal 
are reported here. Yellow dog's tooth violet is abundant; it is a 
prominent flower in April, in the woods. Squill (eastern quamash, 
or wild hyacinth) is also found in this county . Wild garlic, having 
tops like our garden top-onions, and wild leek are common in low 
places not pastured. 

Rushes. — The bog-rush is a very common, yellowish, grass like 
herb along roads and paths, especially those leading through the 
forest; but it is also found to some extent in all other situations. 
Common, or soft rush is common, and several other species are 
also common. 

Pickerel-ioeeds. — Water star-grass, growing under running water 
in the forest brooks, is common. Pickerel-weed is occasional. 

Spiderworts. — Common spiderwort is common. Day-flower is 
rare. 

Sedges. — There are three or four dozen species of sedge growing 
within the limits of any one county, but they are all unimportant 
plants. They have a grass-like appearance, but can readily be dis- 
tinguished from the grasses by their having triangular stems and 
bur-like tops (seed clusters), while the grasses have round or round- 
ish stems. What is generally called lake grass along the rivers is 
a true sedge, and its English name is great bulrush. It is by far 
the largest of the sedges. The river club-rush is next in size. 

Qriisses. — Blue grass takes the lead for prevalence and utility. 
Next, two species of fox-tail. Besides these the most common 
grasses are white grass, riee cut grass, Indian rice or water oats, 
timothy, rush grass (two species), bent grass, wood reed-grass, 
dropseed (two genera); reed bent-grass, blue joint grass, porcupine 
grass, fresh-water cord-grass, Koeleria, Eatonia (two species), melic 
grass, fowl meadow grass and its congener, Glyceria fluitans, low 
spear-grass, red top, Eragrostis (three species), fescue (two species), 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



357 



chess, Bromus ciliatus, reed (a tall, broom-corn-like grass growing 
in dense fields in the swamps of the river bottom), Hordeum pra- 
tense (a kind of wild barley), two species of lyme-grass or wild rye, 
bottle-brush grass, reed canary grass, Paspalum, wire grass, eight 
species of panic-grass, among them two kinds of tickle-grass, and 
one old-witch grass, crab-grass and barn-yard grass, sand-bur (in 
sand) and two species of beard-grass. About two dozen other 
kinds of grass can be found in the county, but they are all very 
rare. 

Horse-tails. — Scouring rush and common horse-tail (especially 
along railroads) are common: two other species scarce. 

Ferns. — Maiden-hair, brake, a spleenwort, a shield fern, a blad- 
der- fern, one species of flowering fern and the sensitive fern are 
commmon in the order here named, while two or three other ferns 
may be found. 

Club-Mosses. — Several species are found here, one being com- 
mon. 




CHAPTER III. 

ORGANIZATION OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY ACTS OF THE BOARD OF JUS- 
TICES FURTHER ACTS OF THE BOARD OF JUSTICES — ACTS OF THE 

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

By an act of the Legislature, approved Jan. 29, 1830, the 
county of St. Joseph was formed witii boundary lines determined 
as follows: ''Beginning at range No. 2 west from the second prin- 
cipal meridian of the State of Indiana, on the northern line of the 
State, thence running east to where range No. 3 east intersects the 
State line, thence south with the range line thirty miles, thence 
west to range 2 west, thence north to the place of beginning." Its 
organized existence was to take effect from and after April I, 1830, 
from which time it was to " enjoy all the rights, privileges and juris- 
diction which to separate and independent counties do and may 
properly belong and appertain." 

Thomas J. Evans and Gillis McBane, of Cass county; Daniel 
Worth, of Randolph county; John Berry, of Madison county, and 
John Ross, of Fayette county, were appointed Commissioners to 
locate the seat of justice of the county, and instructed to meet at 
the house of Alexander [Alexis] Coquillard on the fourth Monday 
of May, 1880, for that purpose. After the county seat was located 
the agent appointed for the sale of lots was required to reserve ten 
per cent, out of the proceeds of the sale, and pay the same over to 
such person as was appointed by law to receive the same, for the 
purpose of a county library. 

The qualified electors of the county were, at the time of electing 
a Recorder, Clerk and Associate Judges, to elect three Justices of 
the Reace who were to perform all the duties prescribed by law re- 
lating to the Board of Justices in the several counties. 

All the territory lying west of the boundary line of this county 
was attached to it for civil and criminal jurisdiction, the citizens re- 
siding within its territory being entitled to all the rights and priv- 
ileges, and subject to all taxes and assessments, as if a part of the 
county. 

Various changes were made from time to time in its boundary 
lines, territory being added to or taken from it at nearly every ses- 
sion of the Legislature. At the twenty-third session of the Gen- 
eral Assembly an act was passed and approved Feb. 16, 1S39, 
fixing the boundary lines as follows: "Commencing on the north 
boundary of this State at the intersection thereon of the section 
line running north and south through the center of range 4 east, 

(358 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 359 

thence south to the center of township 35 north, thence west to the 
second meridian line, being that line between ranges one east and 
one west, thence south to the township line between townships 34 
and 35 north, thence west to the section line running north and 
south through the center of range one west, thence north by said 
section line to the north boundary of this State, thence east to the 
place of beginning." This remained unchanged until 1850, when 
by an act approved January 14 of that year, the following territory 
was taken from the county and attached to La Porte county: " Be- 
ginning at the present county line, at the northwest corner of sec- 
tion 22, township 37 north of range 1 west, thence with the north 
line of said section, and that of section 23, to the northeast 
corner of said section 23, thence south with the section line until 
it shall strike the Great Kankakee river, thence with said river to 
the present county line." Since 1850 no further changes have 
been made. 

The first election held in the county was on the first Monday in 
August, 1830, at which time L. M. Taylor was elected Clerk and 
Recorder, and-Ad^mSmith, Lambert McComb and Levi F. Arnold 
were elected Justice3~of~The Peace. The name St. Joseph was given 
the county from the river which flows through its territory. 

On Friday, Aug. 27, 1830, having received their commissions 
from the Governor, the Board of Justices assembled at the house 
of Alexis Coquillard, L. M. Taylor, Clerk of the county, being 
present, and proceeded in the further act of organizing the county 
and the transaction of its business. The first entry upon the records 
of the Board is as follows: 

" In pursuance of an act of the General Assembly of the State 
of Indiana, entitled an act to provide for the carrying the laws into 
effect in new counties, approved January the 2d, 181S; and also the 
act entitled, An Act for the Formation of the Counties of St. Joseph 
and Elkhart, passed and approved Jan. 29, 1830, the Justices of 
the Peace met at the house of Alexis Coquillard, in St. Joseph 
county, on Friday, the 27th daj T of August in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and thirty. 

" Adam Smith now comes forth and produces his commission 
from His Excellency, James B. Ray, Governor of the State of In- 
diana, commissioning him, the said Adam Smith, Justice of the 
Peace in and for said county of St. Joseph tor and during the term 
of five years from the 11th day of August, 1830; and on the back 
of said commission is the following endorsement, to-wit: 

State of Indiana, { 
St. Joseph County. J ' 

Be it remembered, that on the 27th day of August, A. D. 1830, personally came 
Adam Smith, within commissioned, before me, L. M. Taylor, Clerk of the Circuit 
Court, and being duly sworn on his solemn oath, says that he will support the Con- 
stitution of the L'nited States and of the State of Indiana, and that be will to the 
best of his abilities and judgment discharge the duties of his office as Justice of 
the Peace in St. Joseph county faithfully, and that he has not since the first day 
of January, 1819, either directly or indirectly, knowingly given, accepted or carried 



360 HI8TOEY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

a challenge to any person in or out of this State to fight a single combat with any 
deadly weapon, and that he will not knowingly accept or carry a challenge to any 
person or persons to fight with any deadly weapon in single combat, either in or 
out of this State, during his continuance in office. Given under my hand and seal 
the day and date first above written. 

L. M. Taylor, Clerk, [Seal.] 

Lambert McComb and Levi F. Arnold also presented like creden- 
tials, and the Board of Justices was then organized by the election 
of Lambert McCorab as President. 

The first order made by the Board was in the following terms: 
" Ordered by the Board of Justices of St. Joseph county, that John 
D. Lasly be appointed Treasurer of St. Joseph county for the year 
of our Lord 1830, and he is required to give bond and security in 
the penal sum of $1,000." James Nixon was then appointed As- 
sessor; Daniel A. Fullerton, Collector; Benjamin Potter, Thomas 
Skiles and Jaco'i Keith, Constables; Jacob Cripe_and John Ileag, 
Overseers of the Poor. 

At this meeting of the Board, in addition to the appointment of 
the officers named, fence viewers were appointed, treasurer's bonds 
approved, and licenses granted to Samuel Hanna and the American 
Fur Company to sell " fouren [foreign] merchandize" one year for 
the sura of $10 each. 

The second meeting of the Board of Justices was held at the 
house of Alexis Coquillard on the first Monday in September, 1830. 
The first business transacted was the selection of Grand and Petit 
Jurors. Those drawn to serve on the Grand Jury were Samuel 
Cannon, Jacob White, John Clyburn, William E. Ahart, Adam 
Keith, John Banker, Samuel Leeper, Charles Lobby, Henry Cly- 
burn, Gamiel Drilinger, Zachariah Grant, Jacob Cripe, Benjamin 
Potter. James Nixon, Thomas Clyburn, Philip Fail, Louis Lan- 
comb and Joseph Adams. The Petit Jurors were Paul Egbert, John 
Drilinger, Daniel Eiler, C. B. Overrocker, John Whiticer, Benja- 
min Coquillard, Israel Rush, Barzillia Druliner, Jacob Harris, John 
Hague, Richard Harris, Nathaniel Steele, Samuel Johnstone, Jacob 
Egbert, John Ronleau, Jacob Ritter, Jacob Rhae, Alexis Coquillard, 
John Wills, John Skiles, Lewis Sherley, Joseph Rorer, Horace 
Marcum and Samuel Garwood. 

FURTHER ACTS OF THE BOAED OF JUSTICES. 

Sept. li, 1830, a called session of the Board was held, at which 
time Thomas J. Evans was allowed the sum of $51 for his services 
in locating the countv seat. John Berry was allowed the sura of 
$87; Daniel Worth, $108; Gillis McBean, $27, for the same pur- 
pose. William Brookfield was appointed agent of the county for 
the sale of lands, with bond fixed in the sura of $5,000. Alexis 
Coquillard and Lathrop M. Taylor were accepted as his bondsmen. 

The county seat was located upon the farm of William Brookfield, 
section 27, township 8 north, of range 2 east, and a beautiful vil- 
lage was laid out by Mr. Brookfield and given the name of St. 
Joseph. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 361 

At a special session, held on the 25th day of November, 1830, the 
Board ordered the agent of the county to proceed to make sale ot 
the lots of the town, either by "private or public sale to the best 
advantage and interests of the county." Lots were to be sold one- 
third cash, one-third in nine months, and the remainder in eighteen 
months, secured by forfeiture of the lots in case of non-pay- 
ment when due. A public sale was ordered to be held on the first 
day of January, 1831, and every three months thereafter, unless 
otherwise ordered by the Board. 

At this session of the Board the county was divided into four 
townships, as follows: All the district of country lying west of the 
range line dividing ranges two and three west of the second princi- 
pal meridian was to constitute a township, to be known as Michi- 
gan township; ranges one and two west of the second principal 
meridian, Deschemin township; from the second principal merid- 
ian of the State until the center of range two east, German town- 
ship; all the district of country lying and being from the center of 
range two east of the second principal meridian of the State, and 
thence running east to the eastern boundary of St. Joseph county, 
Portage township. Michigan township comprised all the territory 
west of the county line to the State line. 

Elections were ordered held on the 18th day of December, 1S30, 
for the election of one Justice of the Peace in each township, except 
Portage; in Michigan township, at the house of Louis Sherby; in 
German township, at the house of David Miller; in Deschemin 
township, at the house of John Druliner. Aa7 - on Stanton was 
appointed inspector of elections in Michigan township; John 
Egbert, in Deschemin township; and David Miller, in German 
township. Each of these inspectors was to hold his office for 
the year 1830. 

This was the last session of the Board of Justices. In pursuance 
of an act of the General Assembly of the State, approved January 
19, 1831, county governments were changed, and in place of a 
Board of Justices, the government of the county was placed in the 
hands of a Board of County Commissioners. 

ACTS OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

On the first Monday in September, 1831, the newly elected Board 
of Commissioners met at the house of Alexis Coquillard. Certifi- 
cates of election were produced and the oath of office duly taken 
by David Miller, Joseph Rorer, and later by Aaron Stanton. In 
addition to swearing to support the Constitution of the United 
States and of this State, the Commissioners were sworn not to 
receive, directly or indirectly, a county order for a less sum than 
its face. This was doubtless to prevent their speculation in the 
orders. 

The Board at this session adopted a seal with the insignia of an 
eagle and the words "St. Joseph County. Indiana," around the mar- 
gin. 



362 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

N. B. Griffith was licensed to keep a ferry across the St. Joseph 
river at the east end of Water street, and the rates of ferriage were 
fixed as follows: For each person, 6J cents; for a man and horse, 
12^ cents; one horse and wagon or carriage, 25 cents; two horses 
and wagons, 31J cents; each additional horse with a wagon, 6J 
cents; for oxen in wagons, the same as for horses; loose cattle, 3 
cents a head; hogs and sheep, 2 cents a head. 

License for taverns, or for the purpose of retailing spirituous 
or strong liquors, was fixed at $5 each; for peddling wooden clocks, 
$S was required. 

The Commissioners appointed to re-locate the county seat, made 
the following report: 

The undersigned, Commissioners appointed by an act of the Legislature oi 
the State of Indiana at their session in the year A. D. 1831, entitled "An act to 
re-locate the county seat of St. Joseph county," met at the house of William Brook- 
field in the said county of St. Joseph, on the second Monday of May, A. D. 1831; 
and after being duly sworn as the law directs, proceeded immediately to examine 
the present seat of justice for said county of St. Joseph, and are of opinion that 
public interest requires a removal of said seat of justice, and immediately pro- 
ceeded to select a suitable site for the county seat of said county of St. Joseph, 
and after making all the examinations required by law, have selected the town 
of Sou h Bend as laid out and recorded on the records of said county, and have 
hereby established the same, and have received from the persons hereinafter men- 
tioned the following donations in lands, lots and obligations for the payment of 
the sums of money stipulated in the following bonds, to-wit: The bonds of 
Latbrop M. Taylor and Alexis Coquillard, guaranteed by Samuel Hanna, Joseph 
Rorer, Samuel Studebaker and D. H. Coldrick, for the conveyance to the use of 
the county, the following distinguished lots in the town of South Bend; Lots 
No-.. 274, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 400, 401, 40-', 206, 299, 302, 344, 323 and 257. And 
also the lots specified in said bond to religious societies, school purposes, and 
four acres of land described in said bond for a public graveyard. In addition to 
the lots and grounds set apart and marked on the plat of said town for a public 
square, religious and school purposes, and also the joint bond and obligation of 
the above mentioned Latbrop 51. Taylor, Alexis Coquillard, Joseph Rorer, Samuel 
Studebaker, Samuel Hanna and David Coldrick, for the payment of $3,000 to the 
Commissioners of said county, payable in the annual installments of $1,000 each, 
which said several bonds and ol ligations are hereby particularly referred to and 
made a part of this report; all of which bears date herewith. In witness whereof 
we have hereunto set our hands, this twelfth day of May, A. D. 1831. 

Absalom Holcomb, 
William N. Wood, 
Chester Sage, 
John* Jackson, 

Commissioners. 

The honds and obligations referred to are given below: 

Know all men by these presents: — That we, Lathrop M. Taylor, Alexis Coquil- 
lard, Joseph Rorer, Samuel Studebaker, Samuel Hanna and David II. Coldrick, 
do hereby bind and obligate ourselves and our heirs and representatives to well 
and truly pay, or cause to be paid unto the Commissioners of the county of St. 
Joseph, in the State of Indiana, or their successors in office, in the full and just 
sum of three thousand dollars, to be paid as follows: One thousand in one year 
from the signing and ensealing this b"nd, and one thousand in two years; and the 
residuary one thousand in three years; in consideration that the county seat of 
St. Joseph county in the State aforesaid, shall be permanently located at South 
Bend, in said county. In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 363 

seals on this, the twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-one. 

Lathrop M. Taylor, [Seal/ 
Alexis Coquillard, [Seal. 
Joseph Rorer, [Seal. 

Samuel Stcdebaker, [Seal. 
Samuel Hanna, [Seal. 

D. H. Coldrick, [Seal.' 

Attest : 
Horace Wood, 
Hiram Datton. 

Know all men by these presents:— That we, Lathrop M. Taylor and Alexis Co- 
quillard, do by these presents obligate ourselves and representatives to well and 
truly convey and donate by an indisputable title to the county whom the Com- 
missioners shall appoint Agent of the county of St. Joseph, in the State of Indi- 
ana, for the use of said county, fifteen in lots, situated in the town of South Bend, 
and designated on the plat of said town by being numbered 274, 275, 276, 277,278, 
279, 400, 401, 402,296, 299, 302, 344, 323 and 257, and to give and donate and con- 
vey in lot number 341, in said town plat, to and for the use of a religious denomi- 
nation of people, called the United Brethren, to build thereon a church for 
worship ; also in lot No. 403, in said town plat, for the same purpose for the Grer. 
man Baptist congregation ; also in lot number 234, in said town plat, for a church 
for the denomination commonly called the Presbyterians; also to give and to 
donate to and for the use and convenience of said town, four acres on the east half 
of the southwest quarter of section No. 12, in township No. 37, of range No. 2 
east, to be dedicated and used for a public grave yard; all of which said several 
donations are to be legally conveyed in a reasonable time after the patents shall 
have been issued to the said Coquillard and Taylor, in consideration that the 
county seat shall be permanently located at South Bend, in said county. Witness 
our hands and seals on this twelfth day of May, 1831. 

Lathrop M. Taylor, [Seal.] 
Alexis Coquillard, [Seal.] 
Attest : 
Horace Wood, 
Hiram Dayton. 

Know all men by these presents: — That we, Samuel Hanna, Joseph Rorer, Sam- 
uel Studebaker and David Coldrick, do bind and obligate ourselves and our 
representatives, under a penalty of two thousand dollars, to secure and guarantee 
the stipulations and obligations of the said Coquillard and Taylor, in the above 
bond, according to the true spirit and equitable meaning thereof, waiving all legal 
technicalities or inaccuracies, if any there be. Witness our hands and seals this 
12th day of May, 1831. 

Samuel Hanna, [Seal.' 

Joseph Rorer, [Seal. 

Samuel Studebaker, [Seal 
D. H. Coldrick, [Seal. 

Attest: 
Horace Wood, 
Hiram Dayton. 

John Egbert was appointed county agent to carry out the pro- 
visions of the bonds and obligations given. He gave bond under 
the penal sum of six thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of 
his duties, with William McCartney and Jacob Egbert as bondsmen. 

The Board of Commissioners at this session repealed the order 
of the Board of Justices in regard to the political divisions of the 
county, and fixed the boundary lines and named the several town- 
ships as follows: Ranges two and three east of the second principal 
meridian, or so much of it as lay in this county, was to be known as 
Portage township. This township was to form the first County 

24 



364 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Commissioners' district, flanges No. 1 east and No. 1 west of the 
second principal meridian was to be known as Centre township, and 
the second Commissioners' district; all the territory lying west 
of the range line dividing ranges No. 1 and No. 2, west of the sec- 
ond principal meridian, Highland township, and the third Com- 
missioners' district. The Sheriff was ordered to notify the electors 
of the several townships as organized to meet and elect officers on 
the fourth Saturday in September. 

The next meeting of the Board was held at the house of Alexis 
Coquillard, on the 31st day of October, 1831. A jail was ordered 
built, and William Clark was appointed County Surveyor, which 
was about the only business transacted. 

At the .November (1S31) term of the Board of Commissioners, 
Calvin Lilly, Joseph Cissna, Barzilla Druliner, and John Garrard 
were appointed Constables. At this time Benjamin McCarty was 
Sheriff, and was allowed forty dollars for assessing the unassessed 
property in the county, a service which the owners would just 
as soon he had neglected altogether. William Clark was appointed 
County Surveyor, and was ordered to procure certified copies from 
the flegisters of different land offices where land had been sold; 
field notes of townships, ranges, sections, fractional sections, as 
originally surveyed, and deposit them in the Recorder's office of 
St. Joseph county, according to law. With reference to a county 
jail, which had previously been determined upon, the following 
order was made: 

" Ordered by the Board of County Commissioners, that the 
County Agent be required to sell out to the lowest bidder on the 
eighth of this month, at the hour of one o'clock on said day, the 
building of a county jail of the following dimensions, to-wit: The 
gaol to be 30 feet long and 16 feet wide, with a partition wall 
through the center of the building; all the timber of the walls to 
be good white-oak timber, and to be hewed at least one foot square, 
as also both the under and upper floor to be of like timber of one 
foot square; the foundation of the building to be laid one foot and 
a half below the surface of the ground, and to be raised six inches 
above the ground ; the sills to be fifteen inches wide, and the logs 
for the floor to be let in onto the sills six inches, and the logs to be 
rabbeted out that goes on the top floor, and letdown over so as to 
completely cover the ends of the logs and prevent the floor from 
being raised; the building to be raised with a half dovetailed notch 
in each of the corners as well as the partition wall; the story to be 
eight feet between the under and upper floors; the upper floor to 
be the ends of the logs cut off about six inches at each end, and 
the under side of the ends to be cut out or blocked oft' about four 
inches, and let down on the logs so as to prevent them from slip- 
ping out; the plates to be rabbeted out and let down over the ends 
of the floor logs, and onto them, the roof to be put on with good 
white-oak rafters covered with good sheeting, and good joint pine 
shingles; the gable ends to be done up with good poplar weather 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. .i65 

boarding; the corners of the building to be raised up plumb, and 
the corners to be sawed down smooth; the outside door to be cut 
one toot from the partition wall, and to be two feet wide and four 
feet high in the clear when finished. There shall be an iron rod 
run up through the ends of the logs on the side of the door oppo- 
site the partition-wall of one inch bolt and to extend six inches into 
the log below those cut out and six inches up into the log above 
those cnt out, and running through the same. The door shall be 
made of white oak plank of two inches thick, and to be made double 
with said planks; the door shall be hung on the strap-hinges, the 
straps to be three inches broad and a half inch thick, and the door 
shall also be lined with iron straps to be put on within four 
inches of each other, and on each side of the door, and all straps 
as well as the hinges shall be riveted through the door within 
four inches of each other; the straps other than the hinges shall 
be at least one-eighth of an inch thick ; the door to be hung on 
hooks to be in proportional size to the straps, and two of the 
hooks to be set upward, and one turned downward; the lock of 
the door to be set on the inside by the contractor, the lock to be 
furnished by the Agent. The hooks on which the door is to be 
hung is to be entered into the timber well, and the cheeks of said 
door shall be lined with good white oak plank one and a half inches 
thick, to be well spiked on. There shall also be another door made 
in the center of the partition wall to be two feet wide and four feet 
high in the clear of said door, after being finished ; the cheeks of 
said door shall be faced with good oak planks one and a half inches 
thick and well pinned on; the door shall be made of two-inch white- 
oak plank; the door shall be hung on two strap hinges to extend 
across the door and hung on two sufficient hooks drove into the 
wall; the whole of the door to be drove with spikes within four 
inches of each other; the contractor shall put the lock on furnished 
by the Agent. There shall be a window cut out in each end of the 
house two feet wide and one foot high, and there shall be bars ol 
iron put in each of said windows of one and a quarter inches square, 
and shall be placed up and down in the windows within two inches 
of each other, and the ends of such bars shall be sunk in the lower 
and upper logs at least three inches. And the jail shall be put in 
the southwest corner of the public square in the town of South 
Bend, and shall be set lengthways north and south on the line of 
said lot, and the door shall be on the east side of said house. The 
undertaker shall be required to give bond and security, to be 
approved of by the Agent, in the penal sum of one thousand 
dollars, the contract to be completed by the last Monday in 
April next ensuing the date hereof. The contractor shall be 
entitled to receive a county order on the county treasury as soon 
as the contract is completed for the building of said gaol. All the 
work to be done in a good workmanlike and substantial manner." 
The contract was awarded to Andrew Woods and Dennis Mc- 
Cormick. It was completed and accepted by the Board on the 



366 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

28th day of April, 1832, Messrs. Woods and McCormick each 
receiving an order for the sum of two hundred and six dollars 
and ninety cents. 

In January, 1835, the County Agent was instructed to receive 
proposals for building an additional story to the jail. 

At a meeting of the Board of County Commissioners held Jan- 
uary, 1832, it was resolved to build a court-house, and the County 
Airt'nt was instructed to advertise in the Northwestern Pioneer for 
sealed proposals for building the same." On the 6th day of Feb- 
ruary, 1832, the Board again met to receive the proposals, but 
declined to accept any that were made. On the next day, however, 
thev met, received and acted favorably upon the proposals of Peter 
Johnson, letting the contract to him for building a court-house 
according to the following agreement. 

Know all men by these presents: That we, Peter Johnson, Alexis Coquillard, L. 
M Taylor, Pleasant Harris and Samuel Martin, all of the county of St. Joseph, in 
the Mate of Indiana, are held and firmly bound unto Aaron Stanton, David Mil- 
ler ami Joseph Rorer, a Board doing county business in and for the county of St. 
Joseph, and their successors in office, in the penal sum of $6,000 lawful money of 
th ■■ United States, for the payment whereof well and truly to be made, we hereby 
bind ourselves and our representatives firmly by these presents sealed with our 
seals and dated this 7th clay of February, A. D. 1832. The condition of the 
above obligation is such that if the said Peter Johnson, the above bounden, shall 
well and truly build a court-house in and for the said county of St. Joseph, of the 
following description, to-wit: The building to be 40 feet square and made of good 
merchantable brick. The foundation shall be made of good durable arch brick and 
sunk one foot below the surface of the ground, and the said wall shall be raised three 
feet high above said foundation, and the wall that high shall be 22 inches thick, 
and there shall also be a foundation wall run through said house north and south 
in I he center of said building and raised so high that when a sill of 18 inches 
square, with the joists raised in said wall, shall raise the floor of the first-story 
only three feet from the foundation. The walls of the first-story of the budding 
shall be raised so high as to leave 12 feet between the first floor and the ceiling. 
The walls of the first-story shall bo 18 inches thick. The walls of the second-st"iy 
shall be raised ten feet above the second floor, and be made 13 inches thick. 
Then shall be a plate of yellow poplar timber of 13 inches square placed on the 
top of the wall all around said building. There shall be four stacks of chimneys 
carr ed up in said building, one in eacli corner of the house, and there shall be a 
fire-place made in each of said chimneys in the lower story, of three and a, 
hall feet wide in the back and five feet in the flare or front of the jambs 
except the southeast, which may only be three feet in the back of the fire-place 
and fourgfeet in the front; and there shall be also a fire-place made in each of 
said chimneys in the second story of said building, except the southeast, of three 
feel wide in the back and four in the flare or front of the fire-places. The east 
half of the under room shall be filled up with earth nearly to the top of the afore- 
mentioned sill, and then well laid over with good hard brick. There shall be good 
substantial iron bars placed under the arch of each of said fire-places. And in 
llie north end of said under room there shall be joists placed east and west across 
in said sill and wall, and within two feet of each other, of good white-oak timber 
of 11 inches wide and three inches thick, and placed so that when the floor is laid 
On that the floor shall be only three feet from the foundation. The floor of said 
end shall be laid of good white-oak boards of one and a quarter inches thick and 
six inches wide on an average, There shall be four air holes left in the west side 
of said building of nine inches deep and four inches wide to let the air in under 
the floor. There shall be two columns set up on said sill, running through the 
cnt rof said building, one twelve feet from the north side of said building, and 
the other twelve feet from the south side of said building. The columns shall be 
tiirni-d by a beliction with a handsome mold on each end of the same, and there 
shall be a hole bored through the center of each of said columns with a common 



HISTORF OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 367 

pump augur. There shall be a poplar girder of 14 inches square, running across 
said building north and south, placed on said columns. And the joists for the 
second floor shall be laid into said girder on the walls east and west. The said 
joists shall be three inches thick anil 14 inches wide, and placed within two feet of 
each other; and the second floor shall be made or laid on said joists of poplar 
boards one and a quarter inches thick, and to average six inches wide. There 
shall be a door made on the east side of said house, and in the center, and in the 
lower story, of at least four feet wide, and shall be prepared for a transom light 
sash above the door, and made so high as to correspond with the height of the 
windows; and also another door of the same description to be placed in the cen- 
ter of the north side of the building, in the lower story. The door shall be made 
with eight panels and lined and braced on the inside of the door; said doors shall be 
three iuches thick and hung on three good strong butts, and have each a good 
wrought thumb latch with a 13-inch stock lock placed thereon. There shall be three 
24-lights windows of glass, 10 by 12 inches square, placed in on the west side of said 
building, and placed so in the walls :is to have the columns even on each side; 
and also two windows of like description on the north side of said building, and 
the door, and also two windows on the east side of said building of the aforesaid 
description to be piaced half way between the corners of the building and the 
door; and also two windows on the south side of said building of the aforesaid 
description, to be placed in the wall a proper distance apart so the columns on each 
side shall be even of a width; and in the second story there shall be three 
windows, of the aforesaid description, put in on the north side of said building to 
be placed parallel over the door and windows in the lower story; and on the west 
side two windows placed over the two windows in the lower story nearest to the 
corners; and on the south side of the building two windows to be placed parallel 
over those in the lower story; and on the east side of the building three windows 
to be placed parallel over the windows and door in the lower story, all of the afore- 
said description. There is no glass nor sash to be put in said windows or any of 
them, but only the window frames to be made and put in ready to receive the 
sash; but there shall be Venetian shutters made and hung to each of the afore- 
said. There shall be Venetian shutter-blinds fastened into the stiles and hung with 
good strap hinges, put on with screws; and there shall be shutter-holders put into 
the wall to hold the shutters open, and have bolts put on for fastening said shutters. 
And said shutters shall be painted green. In the third story there shall be two 
poplar or oak girders running across north and south through said building, of 
ten by twelve inches square, and placed in the center of the building and 13 feet 
from each other to start the cupola on, and all further necessary work for the 
foundation of the cupola. The building shall be covered with a hip roof drawn 
from each corner, and covered with good joint pine shingles. There shall be a 
cornice put on each side of said building of 18 inches wide, with a bed mold 
thereon. The tubes shall be fixed in said cornices to receive the conductors. The 
cornice is to be put up with good screw bolts of three-quarter inches square, and 
five feet to each cornice. There shall be a temporary rough piir of stairs run 
from the. lower story up into the second. The cornice to be painted with three 
good coats of white lead and oil. The door frames shall be made the width of 
the walls, and the door frames as well as the window frames shall be painted with 
two coats of white lead and oil. The doors shall be painted with a mahogany 
color. There shall bepiecesoftimberoffourincb.es square and four feet longframed 
on the ends of the principal girders and joists for the better support of the walls, at 
suitable distance from the comers. All of the aforesaid materials for the afore- 
said building to be of the best and most durable kind that the country affords; 
and all and every part thereof of said building to be done off and finished in good 
workmanlike order, according to the particulars aforesaid. And the said courts 
house shall be set and placed on the northeast corner of the public square in the 
town of South Bend, and county and State aforesaid; and all of said work to be 
done for the consideration that the aforesaid boundens, or Commissioners, shall 
pay unto the said bounden on the 15th day of May, 1832, the sum of $400; on the 
1st of December, 1832, the sum of $400; on the 15th of Mav, 1833, the sum of 
$900; and on the 15th day of May, 1834, the sum of $1,300. Now, therefore, 
should the said Peter Johnson, the above bounden, have the aforesaid court-house 
fully completed and finished ofl" according to the true spirit and equitable mean- 
ing of the aforesaid particulars, on or before the 1st of December next ensuing 
the date hereof, then the aforesaid obligation of the said Peter Johnson, Alexis 



368 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Coquillard, L. M. Taylor, Pleasant Harris and Samuel Maitin to be null and void ; 
else to be and remain in full force and virtue in law and equity. 

Peter Johnson, 



Signed and sealed in the presence of 
John Egbert. 



Alexis Coquillard, 
L. M. Taylor, 
Pleasant Harris, 
Samuel Martin, 



Seal.' 
Seal.' 
Seal.' 
Seal. 
Seal. 



Mr. Johnson, on the second day of September, 1S33, reported to 
the Board the fulfillment of his contract. After inspection the 
work was received. Although in an unfinished condition, the house 
was used for some years. In May, 1837, Lathrop M. Taylor was 
appointed to superintend the work of completing the building, 
and in September, 1837, a contract was made with William Keeley 
and Samuel C. Russ to build a Clerk and Recorder's office -10x20 
feet "one story, of sufficient height." Lot Day was appointed to 
superintend the work. 

At the same session in which it was determined to build the 
court-house, the Board established the following rate of taxation: 

Horses, mules or asses, over three years old 37 1 .,' cents. 

Each work ox 18% " 

Brass clocks, each 50 " 

Gold watches, each 50 ■' 

Silver and composition watches 25 " 

Pleasure carriages, four wheels 50 " 

Pleasure carriages, two wheels 25 " 

Each poll 50 

Those interested may note the comparison at the present day. 

Among the dealers in South Bend, John McClellan was licensed 
to retail foreign and domestic groceries. The number of stores 
and taverns at that time it would seem was amply sufficient to meet 
all demands. 

At this session, the Clerk was required to publish a statement of 
county expenses, which was published and placed on file, and it 
only needs comparison with the present county expenses to show 
the jzrowth of the county in wealth and material prosperity. 

Calls were ordered for the election of School Commissioners for 
the county, and three School Trustees, and the county was divided 
into two school districts, numbered one and two. 

At the March term the Board appointed Aaron Miller Count}' 
Treasurer, and laid off Pen n township, naming the house of Joseph 
Pemberton as the place of holding the elections; also laid off Olive 
township, and appointed the place of holding the elections at the 
house of Jacob Egbert. They also divided the county into four 
road districts. At this time Benjamin McCarty was Sheriff, and 
R. West Scott Deputy Sheriff. * The State road, as surveyed by 
George Crawford from Fort Wayne to South Bend, with field notes, 
was ordered recorded May 15, 1832. 

At the September term Anthony Defrees was appointed County 
Agent, giving bonds in the sum of six thousand dollars. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 369 

At the November term Horatio Chapin was appointed School 
Commissioner, in place of William McCartney, resigned. 

N. B. Griffith was ordered to furnish a " flat " forty-five feet long 
and twelve feet wide for the use of the ferry at South Bend. 

Complaint having been made to the Board of Commissioners, it 
was ordered at the March term, 1833, that N. B. Griffith's ferry 
license be discontinued. At the same session Samuel L. Cottrell 
was allowed a license to sell " strong liquors and groceries" in South 
Bend. 

In the May term, 1S33, John Rush was appointed Trustee of the 
St. Joseph County Library, in place of Joseph White, resigned. 

The field notes of tlie State road from the Yellow river to the 
mouth of Trail creek, surveyed by A. Burnside, were placed on 
record at this session. 

At the November term, Benjamin Hardman, David Miller and 
Jesse Frame were appointed to lay out three county roads. The 
Commissioners of the Vistula road were paid off, and other unimporr 
tant business transacted. 

On the sixth day of January, 1834, German township was set 
off, and the place of election was designated at Lot Day's house. 
At the March term, the election for Penn township was ordered t 
be held at " St. Joseph Iron Works," which place (now Mishawaka 
was rapidly becoming quite a town. Joseph Nichols was licensed 
to retail spirituous liquors, and Orlando Hurd to keep tavern at the 
same place. 

The township of Plymouth was laid off at this session, and the 
place of election designated at Grove Pomeroy's house. 

At the September term, the " St. Joseph Iron Works," through 
their officials, made application for incorporation, and John Brown- 
field was licensed to vend foreign merchandise. 

At the November term, the field notes of the State road, from 
South Bend through Sumption's prairie, down the Kankakee river 
to the western boundary of the State, were ordered recorded. Hiram 
Dayton was the Commissioner appointed to locate the road. 

At the May term, 1835, it was ordered by the Board that public 
notice be given that the citizens of the county assemble at South 
Bend on the last Saturday of that month to organize a County 
Agricultural Society agreeable to the statute made and provided. 
It was also ordered that notice be given the citizens of German 
township for the purpose of organizing a Tow r nship Agricultural 
Society. 

At the September term, a petition was presented for an order 
incorporating the town of South Bend. The Sheriff was ordered to 
call an election for officers under the act of incorporation. 

Harris township was organized by the Board at their January 
term, 1836. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PIONEER LIFE. 

One of the most interesting phases of national or local history is 
that of the settlement of a new country. What was the orio-inal 
state in which the pioneer found this country ? and How was it made 
to blossom as the rose? are questions propounded by almost every 
individual of the country in which he makes his home, or sojourns 
in for a time. Pioneer life in St. Joseph county finds its parallel 
in almost every county in the State, and throughout the entire 
West. In addition to what is given in the State history, in this 
volume, we add the following items. 

When Pierre Navarre, Alexis Coquillard, L. M. Taylor and 
others of that noble band of pioneers settled here, they found an 
unbroken wilderness. Wild beasts, and but little less wild savages, 
roamed at will over the prairies, through the forests, and along the 
waters of the Kankakee or the beautiful " River St. Joseph of the 
Lakes." Forests were to be felled, cabins erected, mills built and 
the rivers and creeks made to labor for the benefit of mankind; the 
beautiful prairies were to be robbed of their natural ornaments, and 
the hand of art was to assist in their decoration. Who was to 
undertake this work? Are they qualified for the task? What will 
be the effect of their labors upon future generations? 

The St. Joseph county pioneers had many difficulties to contend 
with, not the least of which was the journey from civilization to 
their forest homes. The route lay for the most part through a rough 
country; swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertion and 
fatigue; rivers were forded with difficulty and danger; nights were 
passed on open prairies, with the sod for a couch and the heavens 
for a shelter; long, weary days and weeks of travel were endured, 
but finally " the promised land " was reached. 

For several years the early settlers of the St. Joseph valley were 
compelled to go to Logansport or Fort Wayne for their flour or 
meal, requiring almost a week's time to make the journey. 

The fever and ague, or " chills and fever,'' was a disease of which 
every pioneer was required to have a taste. For a racy description 
of this miserable malady see pages 159 and 1(30. 

The first thing upon arrival was to set about building the cabin. 
While this was being done the family slept in their wagons or upon 
the grass; while the horses or mules hobbled to prevent escape, 
grazed the prairie around them. Trees of a suitable and uniform 
size were selected, felled and prepared for their places. The day 
for the raising is announced, and from far and near come other 

(370) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 371 

pioneers to assist in this labor. The structure goes up, a log at a 
time, those engaged stopping now and then to " wet their whistles," 
and soon it is ready for the clapboard roof, which was held on by 
huge weight poles. A door and a window is cut where the " good 
wife " directs, a chimney built and the building is ready for the 
occupants. It is not a model home, but it is the beginning of a 
great prosperity, and as such is worthy of preservation in history, 
on account of its obscnrity and its severe economy. The window 
was very small, sometimes glass being inserted, but often covered 
with greased paper. The door was made of spliced clapboards and 
hung with wooden hinges. It was opened by pulling a leather 
latch-string which raised a wooden latch inside the door. For 
security at night this latch-string was pulled in, but for friends and 
neighbors, and even strangers, it always hung out as a sign of wel- 
come. 

These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted 
people. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler 
seeking lodgings for the night, or desirous of spending a few days 
in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always 
welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader 
may not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was made to 
serve the purpose of kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room and parlor, 
and many families consisted of six or eight members. 

Next came the work of preparing the soil for agricultural pur- 
poses. Spring comes and the ground is prepared for the seed. 
The father takes his post at the plow, and the daughter takes pos- 
session of the reins. This is a grand scene — one full of grace and 
beauty. The pioneer girl thinks but little of fine dress; knows less 
of the fashions; has probably heard of the opera, but does not 
understand its meaning; has been told of the piano, but has never 
seen one; wears a dress " buttoned up behind;" has on leather boots, 
and " drives plow " for father. 

The character of the pioneers of St. Joseph county falls properly 
within the range of the historian. They lived in a region of exuber- 
ant fertility, where nature had scattered her blessings with a liberal 
hand. The beautiful St. Joseph river winding its serpentine way 
to the lake, the inexhaustible forest supply, the fertile prairie, and 
the many improvements constantly going forward, and the bright 
prospect for a glorious future in everything that renders life pleasant, 
combined to deeply impress their character, to give them a spirit of 
enterprise, an independence of feeling, and a joyousness of hope. They 
were a thorough admixture of many nations, characters, languages, 
conditions and opinions. There was scarcely a State in the Union 
that was not represented among the early settlers. All the various 
religious sects had their advocates. All now form one society. Says 
an early writer: li Men must cleave to their kind, and must be 
dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the 
natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to 
rub off mutual prejudices; one takes a step, and then the other; 



372 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

they meet halfway and embrace; and the society thus newly organ- 
ized and constituted is more liberal, enlarged, unprejudiced, and 
of course more affectionate, than a society of people of like birth 
and character, who bring all their early prejudices as a common 
stock, to be transmitted as an inheritance to posterity." 

The wedding was an attractive feature of pioneer life. There 
was no distinction of life and very little of fortune. On these 
accounts, the first impressions of love generally resulted in mar- 
riage. The family establishment cost but little labor — nothing 
more. The marriage was always celebrated at the house of the bride, 
and she was generally left to choose the officiating clergyman. A 
wedding, however, engaged the attention of the whole neighbor- 
hood. It was anticipated by both old and young with eager 
expectation. In the morning of the wedding day the groom and 
his intimate friends assembled at the house of his father, and after 
due preparation, departed, en masse, for the " mansion " of his bride. 
The journey was sometimes made on horseback, sometimes on foot, 
and sometimes in farm wagons and carts. It was always a merry 
journey; and, to insure merriment, the bottle was taken along. On 
reaching the house of the bride, the marriage ceremony took place, 
and then dinner or supper was served. After the meal the 
dancing commenced, and generally lasted until the followingmorn- 
ing. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or 
square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square 
four, which was followed by what pioneers called '"jigging;" that 
is, two of the four would single out for a jig, and were followed by 
the remaining couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what 
was called " cutting out," that is, when either of the parties became 
tired of the dance, on intimation, the place was supplied by some 
one of the company, without interruption of the dance. In this 
way the reel was often continued until the musician was exhausted. 
About nine or ten o'clock in the evening a deputation of young 
ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing this, they 
had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the upper floor, which 
was composed of loose boards. Here, in this pioneer bridal chamber, 
the young, simple-hearted girl was put to bed by her enthusiastic 
friends. This done, a deputation of young men escorted the groom 
to the same department, and placed him snugly by the side of his 
bride. The dance still continued, and if seats were scarce, which 
was generally the case, says a local writer, every young man when 
not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for 
one of the girls; and the oft'er was sure to be accepted. During 
the night's festivities spirits were freely used, but seldom to great 
excess. The infair was held on the following evening, when the 
same order of exercises was observed. 

Election days were observed as holidays. The men went to town, 
voted, drank whisky, smoked, swore, wrestled and fought, all for a 
little fun. 



HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 6 i 6 

The " little brown jug " was often brought into requisition as 
affording a means of enjoyment that nothing else could supply. 
No caller was permitted to leave the house without an invitation to 
partake of its contents; not to so invite was a breach of hospitality 
not to be thought of for a moment. It was brought out upon all 
conceivable occasions, and freely dispensed to old and young alike 
with no thought of danger. It was a thing of prime importance in 
all the assemblages of men — at log-rollings, house-raisings, huskings 
and elections. It was essential at all births, and even at funerals. 




CHAPTER V. 

CIRCUIT COURT — COMMON PLEAS COURT- PROBATE COURT — THE BAR — 
ST. JOSEPH BAR ASSOCIATION TnE BAR IN A NEW ROLE. 

CIRCUIT COURT. 

On its organization, St. Joseph county was made part of the first 
Judicial District. In 1833 there was a re-organization of districts 
and it then formed part of the eighth, and remained in this connec- 
tion until the spring of 1837, when it was attached to the Ninth 
Judicial Circuit. No further change was made until 1873, when 
the Common Pleas Court was abolished and the Judicial Districts 
of the State were made smaller and largely increased in number. 
By this change St. Joseph county was united with La Porte county, 
the two forming the Thirty-second Judicial District. 

The first session of the Circuit Court was held on the 22d day of 
October, 1832, at the tavern of Calvin Lilley, in the village of South 
Bend, Hon. John R. Porter, of the first Judicial District, presid- 
ing. The Grand Jurors were Lowdy Stevenson, Eli Roe, Pleasant 
Harris, Nathan Green, Robert Redding, Peter Johnson, George 
Wilkinson, Anthony Defrees, John Smith, Sr., Stanton Porter, 
John Massey, William P. Howe, JVrederick BeTTter, William Runn- 
ion, Peter Russell, Jacob Harris, George Holloway and Jacob 
Bowman. The court appointed George Holloway as foreman of 
the jury. 

The first case called for trial was that of Matthias Redding and 
Hannah Redding. This was an action for divorce. The case was 
continued to the June term, 1833, when it was heard and the 
divorce granted. The second case was one of chancery, the third 
libel, and fourth slander. The two last were dismissed at cost of 
plaintiffs. Sarah McLelland was indicted by the Grand Jur3' for 
selling liquor to Indians, and was tried at this term of court, and 
a fine of five dollars and cost of suit was assessed against her. She 
was committed to jail, by order of the court, until the fine was 
paid. There were in all nine cases on the docket, — one divorce, 
one libel, one slander, one selling liquor unlawfully, and five chan- 
cery. 

The second term of court was held in June, 1833, Hon. Gusta- 
vus A. Everts, Presiding Judge of the Eighth Judicial District in 
attendance. The first case docketed this term was for divorce, Wil- 
liam Antrim vs. Elizabeth Antrim. The knot that tied the two 
was cut by the accommodating judge, and each was permitted to 
pursue his or her way without hindrance from the other. 

(374) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 375 

Since the organization of the county nine judges have presided 
over the Judicial Districts, of which St. Joseph county has formed 
a part, the first of whom was John II. Porter, who presided, as has 
already been stated, at the first term of the court held in this 
county. Judge Porter was a good judge, one who was prompt and 
decided in his actions upon the Bench. 

Gustavus A. Everts was born in Virginia in 1792. Came to 
Indiana at a very early day and read law in Union county. He 
was a tall, slim and fine-looking man, of liberal education, and one 
of the wittiest men that ever practiced before an Indiana court. 
He has been known to hold the judge, jury and audience for three 
hours, keeping all in continual laughter at his excessive wit. He 
was a good advocate, and one of the best criminal lawyers in North- 
ern Indiana. On the Bench he was an entirely different man from 
what he was before a jury, being calm and dignified, quick to decide 
a point of law, and impartial in all his rulings. He emigrated to 
Texas some years since and is still living, though past his four-score 
years. 

Samuel C. Sample was born in Maryland. He emigrated with 
his father's family to Connersville, in this State, as early as 1823 or 
1824. He, too, studied law with Hon.O. H. Smith. After being pre- 
pared for practice he settled in South Bend, in 1833. He was soon 
after elected prosecuting attorney for the circuit, then embracing 
Logansport and Fort Wayne, and all the territory in the State north. 
It took him three months to go around his circuit and attend to its 
criminal business. He was painstaking and careful, and therefore 
successful. He became the president judge of his circuit in 1835 
and continued on the Bench until 1843, when he was, very much 
against his own wishes, elected to Congress. 

As a lawyer, he was able, judicious and reliable; as a judge, cor- 
rect, upright and impartial; as a member of Congress, unswerv- 
ingly faithful to the interests of his constituents; and in all his 
business transactions, whether in public or private capacity, he has 
ever exhibited the most sterling integrity, totally uninfluenced by 
the least unworthy or selfish motives. As a citizen, he has been 
enterprising and valuable; as a friend and neighbor, open-hearted, 
sociable, generous and accommodating; as a husband, a father and 
a Christian, he was all that is worthy of emulation. After a life 
without reproach, passed in the most valuable services in public 
and in private, Judge Sample passed to his reward in the better 
land, leaving his memory to be regarded with love and veneration, 
not only by relatives and personal friends, but by all who have 
known and can appreciate one of the noblest works of God. Judge 
Sample died at South Bend, Dec. 2, 1855. 

Ebenezer 31. Chamberlain was born in Maine, and came to 
Indiana about 1832, and settled at Goshen, Elkhart county. Read 
law at Connersville with Samuel Parker. He was the fourth judge 
elected upon this circuit. He was a man possessed of an abundance 
of good common sense and sterling integrity; firm and decided 



37b' HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

character. In personal appearance he was tall and slim, with a 
very solemn cast of countenance. On the Bench he was quite dig- 
nified and rendered his decisions very deliberately. After his 
retirement from the Bench he was elected to Congress from the 
Elkhart district and served one term. Judge Chamberlain died at 
Goshen, in 1859. 

Thomas S. Stan field, who succeeded Judge Chamberlain, was 
born in Logan county, Ohio, in 1S14, and with his parents emi- 
grated to Indiana in the fall of 1S30, and settled in South Bend in 
the spring of 1831. Here he attended school taught by Elisha 
Egbert, the first practicing attorney in St. Joseph county, and like- 
wise the first school-teacher. Young Stanfield entered the law office 
of John D. Defrees at an early day, reading law for some time, 
after which he attended a law school in Cincinnati, at which he 
graduated in 1840. Opening an office in South Bend, he engaged 
in general practice until 1S52, when he was elected Circuit Judge, 
and served five and a half years, when he resigned his office and 
resumed the practice of law. In 1870 he was again elected to the 
Bench, serving the full term of six years. When Judge Stanfield 
was elected the first time his circuit was composed of fourteen 
counties, but was reduced to nine before the expiration of his term. 
In 1845 Judge Stanfield was elected to the lower house of the Leg- 
islature. He was placed on the Committee of Ways and Means, 
which committee founded all the present asylums of the State — 
that of the insane, blind and deaf and dumb. In 1846 Mr. Stan- 
field was again elected, and during this session served as chairman 
of the Judiciary Committee. In 1849 he was a candidate for Lieu- 
tenant Governor, on the Whig ticket, but failed of election. In 
1851 he was again nominated by his party for the House of Repre- 
sentatives and elected. Was placed at this session with Judges 
Stewart, Gookins and Holman and Mr. Gibson on the Committee 
on the Revision of the State Laws. Again, in 1855, Judge Stan- 
field was nominated and elected a member of the Legislature, serv- 
ing two terms, and being upon the Judiciary and Committee on 
the Organization of the Courts. Politically, Judge Stanfield was 
first a Whig, during the existence of that party, and is now a 
Republican. Eor a number of years he was a director in the Mich- 
igan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad, and also the Grand 
Trunk Railway. At present he occupies the position of attorney 
for both roads. 

Albert O. Deavitt, of South Bend, was appointed to fill vacancy 
on the Bench caused by the resignation of Judge Stanfield. Im- 
mediately after his appointment he was taken sick and was removed 
to the house of his brother in the State of Vermont, where he died 
in 1858. 

John B. Niles, of La Porte, one of the ablest lawyers in the State 
of Indiana, was the next incumbent of the Bench. Mr. Niles was 
born in Vermont in 1808, came to Indiana in 1832 and settled at 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 377 

La Porte, where he died in June. 1879. As an advocate and coun- 
selor he had no superior in this section of the State. He was quite 
slender in person, and was in feeble health for a number of years 
prior to his death. He was for a time member of the State Senate, 
and was also a member of the Convention which framed the 
present Constitution of the State. 

Andrew L. Osborne succeeded Judge Niles. Mr. Osborne was 
born in Connecticut in 1814, and came to Indiana in 1S36, settling 
in Michigan City, from which place he moved to La Porte on his ele- 
vation to the Bench. Judge Osborne read law with J. Y. Scammon, 
of Chicago. He is a diligent student, a man of remarkable memory, 
quick in his perceptions of a case, and was an excellent and popular 
judge. He was elected in 1858 and served twelve years, being suc- 
ceeded by Judge Stanfield. 

Daniel Noyes. — On the expiration of Judge Stanfield's second 
term, Daniel Noyes, of La Porte, was elected, and is the present 
incumbent. Daniel Noyes was born in Vermont and came to 
Indiana in 1851, making his home at La Porte. He is a good 
lawyer, a man of sterling worth, and makes a popular judge. 

Associated Judges. — From the organization of the county up to 
1S52, the Circuit Court was composed of a president judge and 
two associate judges. The following named have occupied the 
honorable position of associate judges from this county: John 
Banker, Chapel W. Brown, William McCartney, John Ireland, 
Reynolds Dunn, Powers Green, Peter Johnson and John D. Rob- 
ertson. 

COMMON PLEAS COURT. 

In 1852 the Legislature of the State passed an act creating the 
Court of Common Pleas, with original and conclusive jurisdiction 
in all matters relating to the probate of last wills and testaments, 
granting of letters testamentary, of administration and guardian- 
ship, and all other matters heretofore pertaining to the Probate 
Court, which court by this act was abolished. It also had concur- 
rent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court in all cases of criminal 
nature where the penalty affixed was less than the penitentiary. 

Elisha Egbert was elected judge of this court in 1S53 and served 
until his death. (See sketch elsewhere in this work.) Judge Eg- 
bert was succeeded by Edward J. Wood, of Elkhart county, who was 
elected in 186S. Judge Wood was a bright, quick-witted and clear- 
headed judge and served acceptably upon the Bench. During the 
war he served his country as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty- 
eighth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. Judge Wood died in 1872. 
He was succeeded by Daniel Noyes, who seVved only a short time, 
being legislated out of office, the Common Pleas Court being 
abolished. 



378 HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

PROBATE COURT. 

By the Constitution of 1816 Probate Courts were established. 
The first commissioned in this county was James P. Antrim, who 
held the office until 1834, when Elisha Egbert was commissioned 
and served until 1838, being succeeded by John J. Deming, who 
continued in office eight years, his successor being Edward E. Dib- 
ble, who served two years, when Elisha Egbert was again elected. 
Judge Egbert served until the office was abolished in 1852 by the 
organization of the Common Pleas Court. A term of the Probate 
Court was held in Jannary, 1832, lasting one day, and was presided 
over by E. W. Brown and John Banker, associate judges of the 
Circuit Court. The first term of the court held by Judge Antrim 
was in February, 1833. 

THE BAR. 

The Bar of St. Joseph county has been represented by some tal- 
ented men, some of whom have gained a State and national reputa- 
tion. Elisha Egbert was the first representative. (See sketch under 
head of "Some of the Illustrious Dead.") 

Jonathan A. Llston came next; he settled here in 1832. He was 
born in Delaware, and emigrated with his father's family to Indiana 
when in his teens: he studied law with the late Hon. Oliver H. 
Smith at Connersville; his preceptor was a United States Senator 
from this State and one of her ablest lawyers. Mr. Liston was a 
man of talent and full of zeal and energy in his profession; never 
knew any body in his case but his client; everybody else differing 
in opinion was wrong and must yield if the heavens fell; such per- 
sistence and energy coupled with an agreeable presence and popular 
manners, soon made him one of the leading lawyers of the northern 
part of the State, with a large and profitable practice. He was 
elected to the House of Representatives from this county in 1835, 
and to the Senate in 1836. He served as oneof the three Commis- 
sioners in 1S52 who prepared the new code of legal proceedings 
adopted in this State, in conformity with the requirements of the 
new constitution. He is still living, in Marion county, enjoying 
a quiet old age. 

Thos. D. Baircl came next; he was born in Kentucky. After 
becoming of age he came to Crawfordsville, in this State, and com- 
menced the practice of law there; got married and moved to this 
county and settled on Portage Prairie as a farmer. He came in the 
year 1832. He occasionally attended the courts and tried causes, 
but did not enter into general practice until 1837, when he went 
into partnership with John D. Defrees, who commenced practicing 
law here that year. Mr. Baird gave more attention to his farm 
than to his profession and was not therefore a very profound lawyer, 
but he was an attractive speaker and a popular man. He was 
elected a Representative from this county in 1836, and Senator in 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 379 

1837, which office he held until he died in 1812. If he had lived 
longer he would probably have been in Congress from this district. 
He had, as he deserved, the respect and confidence of the people. 

The fourth lawyer in St. Joseph county was Samuel C. Sample, 
who afterward became judge of the Circuit Court, member of 
Congress, and whose sketch is found elsewhere in this work. 

John D. Defrees was born in Tennessee. He left there when 
young and settled in Ohio. He became a citizen of South Bend 
in the summer of 1831, as editor of the N orthtoestern Pioneer, the 
first newspaper published north of the Wabash. He conducted 
this paper and its successor, the St. Joseph county Beacon, for sev- 
eral years, and finally moved to Goshen and engaged in a different 
pursuit. He had been reading law as he could find opportunity, 
when, in 1837, feeling that he had gained a competent knowledge 
of the law, he returned to South Bend, and went into partnership 
with Thos. D. Baird. After practicing law with him for some 
time, he entered into partnership with Joseph L. Jernegan, and they 
practiced law together for several years. Mr. Defrees was a natural 
born politician, a fluent and sharp political writer, well' posted on 
all political questions, and the history and peculiarities of all the 
public men of that day, and on intimate and confidential relations 
with the great leaders of the "Whig party. He had the capacity for 
a good lawyer, but his time was too much taken with politics to 
become a profound lawyer. He was elected to the House of Rep- 
resentatives in 1810, and the Senate in 1812, to fill vacancy, and 
in 1843 again elected for the full term. At the expiration of this 
term he moved to Indianapolis, and became the editor of the 
Indianapolis Journal. After conducting this paper with great 
ability for some years, he was elected Government printer, which 
office he yet holds. His political experience and careful observa- 
tion gives him a high standing among his political friends at 
Washington. 

Joseph L. Jernegan was born in Massachusetts, educated at 
Brown University, married when he was about 20, and settled in 
Goshen about the year 1S32. He practiced law there until 1S37, 
when he moved to South Bend. He succeeded S. C. Sample as 
Prosecuting Attorney for the circuit. He soon became one of the 
ablest lawyers in the northern part of the State. He had a won- 
derful memory, capable of calling up and readily and accurately 
stating all the essential facts of a long case, and in addition to this 
he could state points coucisely and clearly that everybody who 
heard it would at once comprehend it and wonder why there should 
be any doubt about it. The only way to defeat his argument was 
to knock out his premises. He had a successful practice until 
1850, when he went into a commission bank at Michigan City. In 
1855 he moved to New York city, and again commenced the prac- 
tice of law. Subsequently he went to Italy, and is now living in 
Naples. 

25 



380 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Elwin B. Crocker was born in New York, and educated at an 
academy in Troy. He came to South Bend in 1841, and there en- 
tered Mr. Jernegan's office as a student. He afterward became his 
partner, and they continued in business together while Mr. Jerne- 
gan remained here. Mr. Crocker was a fat, jolly ,good-hearted man, 
with considerable intellectual ability and a wonderful working 
capacity. In 1852 he went to California and commenced practic- 
ing law in Sacramento. In a few years he became one of the 
judges of the Supreme Court of that State. After he left the 
Bench, he and his brother Charles, who had also been a resident of 
this county, several years as a laborer in a Mishawaka furnace, 
together, with Gov. Stanford Hopkins and one or two others, under- 
took to build the first section of twenty miles of the Central Pacific 
railroad, and who afterward built the whole road and became its 
owners. About the time the road was completed to Ogden, Mr. 
Crocker was stricken down with paratysis. He partially recovered, 
but had another attack, which so utterly destroyed his mind that he 
could not recognize his family. After lingering in that condition 
for some time he died, leaving a fortune of $10,000,000. 

Reuben L. Fumswortli was born in Ohio, and came here in 1S39 to 
study law with Judge Sample. He was an industrious and dili- 
gent student. After he got through with his preparatory studies 
he went into partnership with Mr. Liston. Subsequently he and 
Thos. S. Stanfield were in partnership a short time. Mr. Farns- 
worth might have been an able and successful lawyer, but his con- 
science troubled him, not that he thought it was wrong to practice 
law, but he thought he was called to preach the gospel, and he ought 
not to stand out against that conviction. He tried it in several 
denominations with undoubted sincerity and determination to obey 
the call. After awhile he would begin to think somebody else 
was called and he made a mistake when he answered. Then he 
would quit preaching and go to practicing law again. At one of 
those intervals he was Prosecuting Attorney for this circuit and 
made a good and efficient one. Finally he settled down in the 
Swedenborgian faith, and has since been a confirmed and undoubt- 
ing believer in that doctrine. He has written and published several 
books to illustrate and prove the truth of that faith. He is now 
living a retired life in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Norman Eddy was another member of the early Bar of this 
county. (See sketch.) 

THE PRESENT BAR. 

The present Bar of St. Joseph county is composed of men who 
are the peer of any in the State — men of sound judgment in law, 
eloquent pleaders and honorable attorneys. The following named 
comprise those who at present are members, and who appear in the 
courts of this county at almost every session: Thomas S. Stanfield, 
James Davis, Alvin S. Dunbar, George W. Matthews, Frank R. 
Tutt, Timothy G. Turner, "William G. George, Joseph Henderson, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 381 

John F. Kirby, O. S. Witherill, Andrew Anderson, H. E. Hurlbut, 
Joseph B. Arnold, Jr., George Ffleger, Lucius Hubbard, "Willis A. 
Bugbee, John B. Foster, Geo. H. Alward, John_L^_Fisher, George 
Ford, John Hagerty, Jonathan F. Cree6*7"John Brownfield, Jr., 
Lucius G. Tong, John Dixon, E. G. McCollum, James H. Ells- 
worth, E. Volney Bingham, John W. Harbou, "W. H. Dawley, B. 
H. Beall, A. N". Thomas, Sam D. Graham, Win. A. Dai ley, L. F. 
Copeland, James D;i Shane. 

ST. JOSEPH BAB ASSOCIATION. 

In the fall of 1873 an Association was formed in the city of South 
Bend under the name and style of the St. Joseph Bar Association. 
At a meeting Oct. 8, 1873, held at the court room, it was found 
that 17 shares had been subscribed of $25 each, for the purpose of 
procuring a library and meeting the expenses of the Association. 
Twelve of the shareholders being present, they proceeded to 
organize. Alvin S. Dunbar was chosen President, and Lucius 
Hubbard, Secretary. A. S. Dunbar, Andrew Anderson, "Wm. G. 
George, H. E. Hurlbut, Joseph Henderson, Jos. B. Arnold, Jr., 
and Lucius Hubbard, Directors. 

On motion, it was agreed that any member of the Bar of St. 
Joseph county might become a member of the Association by sub- 
scribing for and paying one share of stock, and such annual dues as 
thereafter should be fixed by the Board of Directors. 

On motion, it was resolved that the Board of Directors be author- 
ized and empowered to make any arrangement that they may deem 
proper and expedient for the loan and control of libraries and 
books, and to pledge the Association for their proper care and 
return. 

At a Directors' meeting held the same day, Andrew Anderson 
was appointed President of the Board, and L. Hubbard, Secretary 
and Treasurer. A. Anderson, "Wm. G. George and L. Hubbard 
were appointed a committee to draft and report by-laws to be con- 
sidered at a future meeting. Joseph B. Arnold, Jr., A. G. Dunbar 
and H. E. Hurlbut were appointed a committee to make such 
arrangements for a room and shelving as they should find neces- 
sary, and for that purpose to wait on the Board of Commissioners. 

At a meeting of the Directors held Dec. 23, 1S73, the following 
by-laws were read and adopted: 

1. All members of this Association holding one share of stock, who shall 
promptly pay their quarterly dues, shall be entitled to use the library. Also 
such non-resident attorneys as on invitation of members. No member in arrears 
shall be entitle 1 to use the books or room. 

2. Annual dues shall be twenty dollars per annum, payable quarterly of $5 
each, the first installment to be payable April 1, 1874. 

3. Receipts shall be given for all books deposited, and no book shall be taken 
out of the court-house, except by the owner thereof, and^receipts shall be taken 
for all books taken out. 

4. No person shall become a member of this Association except on application 
in writing and on recommendation of the Directors at some regular meeting. 



382 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 

5. There shall be a meeting of Directors on the first Monday of every month, 
at the rooms of the Association, at "14 o'clock p. m. 

6. The President and Secretary and one of the Directors of the Association 
shall constitute an Executive Committee, and shall determine as to purchase and 
expenses of the Association. 

7. The Treasurer shall pay out money only on order of the President. 

8. All stock shall be at once paid up." 

At the first annual meeting held Jan. 1, 1874, A. Anderson was 
elected President and Lucius Hubbard, Secretary. At the third 
regular meeting Thomas S. Stanfield was elected President, and 
has been re-elected each year. Mr. Hubbard has been the only 
Secretary. At the annual meeting iu 1875, the following resolu- 
tions were adopted as an amendment to the constitution and 
by-laws : 

Art- 1. All quarterly dues heretofore or hereafter to be paid shall be held and 
considered to be and shall be additional subscriptions for stock, and each member 
of this Society who has or shall have paid quarterly dues to the amount of $125 
shall be entitled to and shali have and hold oue share of stock therefor, and shall 
have from time to time an additional share of stock whenever his additional quar- 
terly payments shall have amounted to the additional sum of .$25, and the Secre- 
tary and" President are authorized from time to time to issue stock certificates 
therefor. 

Art. 2. Members of this Association residing outside the corporate limits of 
the city of South Bend shall be required to pay only one-half of the amount of 
quarterly dues which other members are required to pay. 

Andrew Anderson, at this meeting, made a proposition that if a 
glass case was furnished by the Association he would fill the same 
with books in the coming year. His proposition was accepted and 
the Directors authorized to procure a suitable case. 

In 1877 the dues were fixed at $10 per year, at which amount it 
now remains. At the annual meeting this year Hons. Daniel Noyes, 
William S. Hayraond, William H. Calkins, Joseph E. McDonald, 
Schuyler Colfax, O. P. Morton and D. D. Pratt were elected hon- 
orary members of the Association. 

The Association has at the present time under its control $4,500 
worth of books, $1,315 of which it has expended from its own re- 
sources, the balance being the amount that has been loaned to the 
Association for its use by individual members, and for which it be- 
comes responsible. Several law periodicals are taken, and the Gov- 
ernment supplies it with all patent office reports issued. 

Feb. 22, 1875, the Association held its first annual banquet at the 
Dwight House, then under control of Mills & Knight. A splendid 
supper had been provided and about forty persons sat down to par- 
take. The discussion of the meal occupied about an hour, after 
which came the toasts and speeches of the evening. 

The first toast was " Washington," which was responded to by 
Major Calkins, of La Porte. The Major, always interesting, was 
doubly so on this occasion. He deviated from the ordinary treat- 
ment of the subject by a witty style altogether different from the 
usual somewhat stereotyped oration. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COTJKTT. 383 

C. H. Reves, of Plymouth, was called upon to respond to the 
toast "The Legal Profession," which he did in a manner eliciting 
the applause of his hearers. 

" English Common Law " was the third toast, and C. M. Alward, 
of Niles, did the honors on that topic. 

The next toast given was " The Judiciary," to which Judge Stan- 
field responded. lie alluded to the prime factors" in the Govern- 
ment of the country — the Legislative, the Executive and the Judi- 
ciary. The Judiciary, which by virtue of the Constitution, had 
one- third the power of the Government, had, in reality, much more. 
We did not feel the power of the National or State Executive in the 
every day business of life; were never reminded of it, in fact, except 
when armies were required to be raised, or something out of the 
ordinary course of events in that department transpired; but the 
power of the Judiciary was felt everywhere. Not a day passed but 
we were cognizant through the daily press of its operations. The 
importance of an honest, inflexible and fearless Judiciary, before 
whom must recur questions for adjudication involving interests of 
the deepest moment, was duly set forth. 

Professor L. G. Tong, of the University of Notre Dame, was 
next introduced and read the following poem, which was received 
with cheers by those present: 

In the earliest days of each people and nation, 
All mankind was honest in dealing and station ; 
But lawyers were born with the first extra ration, 
Then meum and tuum brought forth litigation. 
Old Horace informs us that hickory clubs 
Were the courts of first instance, when acorns and grubs 
Were the highest-prized objects of human ambition, 
Ere the jurist came forth to mend our condition. 

O, talkative laudatores temporis acti, 

Ye show your strange ignorantia facti, 

When ye strive to show cause why the old is the best ; 

Henceforth, ye wild dreamers, do give us a rest. 

An acorn is good to a man if he's starving, 

But what is an acorn when capons are carving? 

Let strict truth prevail, — those times are top-sawyers 

Which can boast of the busiest number of lawyers. 

For what is enlightenment but common law, 

Just leaving the sword and then taking to jaw? 

Say, look at those barbarous nations of moke, 

As black as a coal, though quite ignorant of Coke, 

They haven't got stocks, and they haven't got shares ; 

Their bulls are quadrupled and so are their bears ; 

Their law is like Jack's with a very fat porpoise ; 

Harpoon him, then issue a habeas corpus. 

Make the right of appeal the point of a spear, 

Have justice veer round through a smile or a tear, 

Deciding all things in a terrible passion, 

And seeking indictments that headsmen may quash 'em. 

As money goes down, or is in the ascendant, 

Interpreting law pro or contra defendant, 

When the only idea of the law of appeals 

Is to drop your just cause and then take to your heels. 



384 history of st. joseph county. 

How different we in this fair land of freedom, 
Where statutes are shaped as the citizens need 'ein, 
Where causes are crystal, and pure jurists plead 'em, 
Where clients are sought to defend, not to bleed 'em! 
Let blockheads indulge in their hints and their sneers 
About setting society, sir, by the ears; 
Let them mutter the tale of the shell and the oyster, 
And growl about pettifog, humbug and shyster. 
Know they not, poor, pitiful, pragmatic daws, 
That rogues are inclined to hate lawyers and laws? 
While honest}' praises the good that it sees, 
Though once in awhile it may sutler a squeeze, 
Knowing well, if you give but a moment's reflection, 
That lawyers and law lay no claim to perfection. 
Who otherwise argues is naught but a Hindoo, 
And fit for a writ de lunatico inquirendo. 

Who shall sneer at the law when a Stanfielil is there, 

Of the old Spartan days both tlie model and peer; 

Who carefully ■weighs in the scales his decision 

Shows each year his pure ermine more white to the vision, 

And proves that, no matter how much he's commended, 

He merits the praise, for, in him things are blended. 

So noble and useful inheatt and in head, 

His deserving is always beyond the word said; 

The title he'seaixed, since the world began, 

Is the noblest of all titles" a true, honest man." 

Next, Davis stands forth, of the silvery lo k, 
In defense of the right, just as firm as a rock; 
A terror to villains, to honest men nope, 
To these giving justice, to those a tight rope. 
Straightforward and true, his " exceptions " are clean, 
For he always excepts to what's tricky and mean. 

Then Alvin Duubur , who has long done bar, 
Where his honor has never received the least scar; 
Time watches his chance, sir, but all the world knows it; 
His mortgage is safe until Death shall forelose it. 

And there is grave Tutt, who, on forum or farm, 
Succeeds in all things, as you know, to a charm. 
Agriculture and law he knows bow to adorn, 
Forcing judges in both to " acknowledge the corn." 

The nrniirn of George is a name, sir, to brag on, 

Since the da}'S of St. George ami the venomous dragon ! 

We, too, had a George, all worthy of glory, 

Who whipped a red dragon — you all know the story — 

And the man who would doubt, of our George, of South Bend, 

Would merit a " special plea " at a rope's end. 

Then Anderson's name must give satisfaction, 

A practical mind, though given to "Abstraction." 

Treat him well, or you'll smart for your blind lack of l.ounty, 

For he knows all the deeds of the city and couuty. 

To all men's esteem Arnold has many "Titles," 
He can diagnose skillfully Property's vital*; 
And, more for the service than for the base pelf, 
Dresses titles as well as he dresses himself. 



UISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 385 

Here comes the most genial of jurists, G. Pfleger, 
Who's ready to plead tor aking or a beggar; 
Who lightens the visage oi law with a smile, 
And, while others are pulling on boots, walks a mile. 

When Hubbard is mentioned, let critics grow dumb, 

A stern foe of whisky in his character does run. ; 

Let us hope that the law of" natural selection " 

Shall wrest from the bottle the power of " election." 

For, truly 'tis strange that chronic law-breakers 

Should hold in their hands the fate of law-makers. 

Then Bugbee, and Foster, and Alwaid, and Fisher, 

In every citizen have a well-wisher. 

Their Protean genius is known afar 

In deeds and inbanks, in a writ or cigar. 

Perhaps, now and then, one or other's ironic, 

But doctors say iron is an excellent tonic. 

So let us be glad for the gifts the gods send us — 

If we're not, all I say, sir, is this: Devil mend us! 

And here let the bard pause to speak a kind word 
Of our absent sick friend, the excellent Ford. 
Let our judge issue forth a writ fieri facias 
To the doctor, that all may say Deo Gratias. 

Next, Hagerty enters this owertrue ditty, 

The choice of good men as the judge of the city ; 

I think, if the subject we carefully scan, 

We'll agree that they've honored themselves and the man. 

In goodness and judgment our county is first; 
We are free from an ill with which others are curst. 
Unanimous in our own thinking and deed, 
We're attached, every man of us, sir, to our Creed. 

Davis, Brownfield, Witherill, Turner and others, 
Are the acme of lawyers and well-esteemed brothers; 
Well read in the pages of forensic lore, 
In the temple of Fame may they yet make their score. 

Here Matthews comes last, but by no means the least, 

To grace with his presence our grave Attic feast; 

A character kindly ; a name without flaw, 

Law honors him less than he honors the law. 

He has never been soiled by the stain of court dust; 

He has never betrayed a friend or a trust ; 

And I think the best toast a true man could give 

Is: " Here to Geo. Matthews" and " long may he live." 

Thus ends my long rhyme, and do not abuse 

The eulogies sung by my diffident muse ; 

I do not believe that the best paragraph 

Should be kept till it's writ for a man's epitaph. 

" De mortuis nil nisi bonum" is said. 

But why not some " bonum" before a man's dead? 

And with this short critique, which all must call fair, 

I salute you, Messieurs, and shall here take the chair. 

A. S. Dunbar was importuned for some remarks, responding in 
a neat, crisp and appropriate speech, concluding by calling up 
Judge Turner. 



386 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The Judge was quite happy in his remarks. He said while on 
the way to the hotel, a lady ( he knew she was a lady, or, being a 
stranger, she would not have been attracted by his noble form and 
handsome features) stopped him, and learning that he was going to 
the banquet at the Dwight House, placed in his hands a paper which 
she desired him to read before the guests. A local critic says: 
"Of course every one will guess that this was only an innocent 
device of the Judge's born of extreme modesty, to avoid being 
thought the author." The paper lost nothing by the reading. It 
was as follows: 

The Mills of the gods they say ever grind slow, 

But exceedingly fine. Well, now, don't you know 

There's truth in that saying ? For here, now, to Knight, 

We've seen the thing tried, and you know it is right. 

If the Mills were nol pros' d and the Knight turned to day. 

We'd have nothing to eat, — perhaps nothing to pay. 

But Mills is still grinding, and Knight is well spent. 

And both are quite anxious we all should keep lent, 

But we cannot keep "lent," we all have to borrow 

The cash to pa}- bills which will come in to-morrow. 

To-morrow's the day we all have to fix up 

The " how-come-you-so v" for this little "sup." 

Yet Mills are worth something, though grinding so slow. 

And Knights are the better the larger they grow. 

The Mills of the Dwight House, grind he ever so fine, 

Can never beat Jerry, '.he Kuight of the Rhine (rind). 

Then three cheers for Mills, and three more for Knight, 

And let us go home before it gets light. 

L. Hubbard was next called and responded in a speech showing 
a thorough knowledge of legal histoiy. He also paid a compliment 
to the members of the legal profession in always being true to 
their clients, and concluded by saying: "If ever the liberties of 
onr Republic are undermined, are lost by neglect or corruption, 
it will be, in a great measure, the fault of the legal profession." 

The next banquet of the Association was held at the Grand Cen- 
tral, Feb. 22,1877. The following were present: Judge Stanfield, 
A. Anderson, L. Hubbard, George W. Matthews, Judge Pfieger, 
Prosecuting Attorney Ford, Judge Alwanl, L. G. Tong, Judge 
Hagerty, City Attorney Brownfield, J. E. Fisher, W. E. Bug- 
bee, J. R. Foster, O. G. Witberill, J. H. Ellsworth, H. E. 
Hurlbut, John Dixon, Charles Evans, Captain Nicar, J. W. Harbou, 
and representatives of the press. 

After doing full justice to the generous bill of fare, a resolution 
was passed unanimously thanking Mr. Knill for the splendid man- 
ner in which they were entertained. 

THR BAR IN A NEW ROLE. 

The Bar of 1879 was composed of staid men , yet they would relax 
their dignity enough, occasionally, to have a little sport. On the 
evening of November 21, they presented the play of Bardell vs. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



387 



Pickwick. There are tew reading people who have not read the 
" Pickwick Papers " and laughed themselves to tears over the 
characters that live and move in its pages. Many of these charac- 
ters are such gross exaggerations that they might almost be called 
caricatures; but so many foibles of this day as well as that in which 
they were written are touched up, so many keen thrusts and de- 
served ones, too, are made at certain professions and callings, that 
the reader is prone to overlook the exaggerations in his endorse- 
ment of the other. The ''Pickwick Papers" were written in 1836 
by Charles Dickens, who was then a poor young man of 25, eking 
out a precarious living as a newspaper reporter, so poorly paid that 
he was forced to spend' all his leisure time writing stories and 
sketches. He conceived the idea of the Pickwick club as a pro- 
duction into which he could utilize much of his experience with 
persons and things as a newspaper reporter. The Pickwick club 
was organized with the venerable Samuel Pickwick as president, 
and shortly thereafter he, with three of its members, started on a 
tour of scientific investigation which soon merged into one of social 
experience so varied and amusing that the book recording them is 
to-day the most popular of any of Dickens' works, although his 
earlier and almost first effort. 

When Mr. Pickwick started on his travels he found it necessary 
to have a man-servant, and he engaged Sam Weller. He commu- 
nicated his intention to his landlady, Mrs. Bardell, and did it in 
such an awkward yet delicate manner, that that lady took it for a 
proposal of marriage, and in her ecstacy of delight fell fainting into 
his arms, where she was seen by some of his brother members who 
accidentally called. Out of this episode grew the celebrated Bar- 
dell vs. Pickwick breach of promise case, which was presented to 
a South Bend audience last night, at Price's theatre by the St. 
Joseph County Bar, for the benefit of our city's poor. The attorneys 
were ably assisted by several ladies and by Mr. C. B. Tan Pelt and 
Master Willie Elliott. The cast of characters was as follows: 



Mr. Pickwick Tkos. S. Slanfield 

Mrs. Bardell Mrs. J. L. Taylor 

Old Mr. Weller T. G. Turner 

Sam Weller C. B. Van Pelt 

Judge Stareleigh L. G. Tong 

Sergeant Buzfuz A. Anderson 

Sergeant Snubbin W. G. George 

Mr. Skiuipin L. Hubbard 

Mr. Pbunkey J. P. Creed 

Mr. Perker G. W. Matthews 

Mr. Dodson James DuShane 

Mr. Fogg J. H. Ellsworth 

Mr. Dickens confessed that he introduced the Bardell vs. Pick- 
wick case to show the license unprincipled lawyers (could there 
be such a thing?) take, and the degree to which witnesses and 
jurors can be ingeniously hoodwinked. It also gave him an oppor- 
tunity to place the practice of the English courts in a ridiculous 



Betsey Cluppins. . . Mrs. C. N. Fassett 

Susannah Sanders Mrs. M. A.Jones 

Nathaniel Winkle ,,J.E . Fisher 

Tracy Tupman (J iA Fui'd- 

Augustus Snodgrass W. A. Bugbee 

Sheriff Geo. H. Alward 

Clerk J. W. Harbou 

Thomas Groffin John Jilagerty 

„ ...a. ( John Browntield, Jr. 

Balhffs j O.S. Witherill 

Master Bardell Willie Elliott 



3S8 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



light, and enabled him to have some revenge by taking off the 
quirks of attorneys' clerks. The manner in which the piece was 
put upon the stage by stage manager Hubbard, and the spirit with 
which all the performers entered into the play showed that they 
had a perfect appreciation of the author's intentions. It is rarely, 
indeed, that any of our amateurs have had so crowded a house as 
greeted this performance, and that may have been a great incentive 
to the actors. Whether it was or not they all acquitted themselves 
in a manner so creditable that there was a unanimous vote to have 
the performance repeated to-night. The speeches of Messrs. Hub- 
bard, Anderson and George were masterpieces of irony and satire, 
and nothing could be more perfect in its way than the examination 
of witnesses by Messers. George and Anderson, unless it was 
Mayor Tong's judge's charge, which, like Messrs. Anderson and 
George's speeches, " brought down the house." There was more 
• perfect acting in the witnesses — Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Fassett, and 
Messrs. VanPelt, Bugbee, Ford and Fisher, than is generally found 
among veteran actors. Mr. Ford~raade~ much out of an unimpor- 
tant part, while Messrs. VanPelt and Bugbee, whose parts were 
important, set the house in roars of laughter. Willie Elliott also 
made much of a minor part. Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Taylor, and 
Messrs. Stanfield, Turner, Creed, Matthews, Witherill, Brownh'eld, 
Du Shane, Alward, Harbou, Hagerty and Ellsworth, by dress and 
acting, added much to the interest of the play, which was more 
laughable than a farce all the time. Of the jury, we can only say 
that it was above the average. 




CHAPTER VI. 

NORTHERN INDIANA MEDICAL SOCIETY. — ST. JOSEPH COUNTY MEDICAL 
SOCIETY. — ST. JOSEPH VALLEY MEDICAL SOCIETY. — DISEASES OF THE 
ST. JOSEPH VALLEY. 

NORTHERN INDIANA MEDICAL SOCIETY. 

The first organized effort made by the physicians of St. Joseph 
valley was in 1839. In May of that year a number of the medi- 
cal fraternity met at the American Hotel in South Bend, and 
adopted a constitution taking the name of the Medical Society of 
Northern Indiana. Asa Egbert was elected President; George 
Rex, Vice President: Daniel Dayton, Recording Secretary; F. W. 
Hunt, Corresponding Secretary; A. B. Merritt, Treasurer; L. B. 
Rush, Griffin Smith, Lyman Griffin, J. Chapman and R. L. Groton, 
Censors. The society adopted as its seal a serpent winding in a 
spiral form around a knotty club, the whole being surrounded with 
the words, "Medical Society of Northern Indiana." The com- 
mittee reporting the seal gave the following explanation of it: "The 
serpent represents ^Escnlapius, the god of physic, as depicted by 
the ancients and worshiped at Epidaurus, his native place. The 
spiral form in which he is winding around the knotty club denotes 
that protection from disease which the world receives from the 
medical profession. The club represents the art of medicine, which 
is used in beating back those diseases which otherwise would destroy 
life. The knots on the club show the perplexing difficulties and 
knotty cpiestions which arise in the study of medicine. ^Escu la- 
pins was the son of Apollo, and was educated in the art of curing 
diseases by Chiron, the Centaur, who by living in the woods had 
discovered the medical virtues of so many plants that he became 
the founder of a new art. ^Esculapius soon excelled his preceptor, 
and learn so much that he restored those whose situations' were 
considered desperate, and it was even thought he had power of 
recalling the dead to life. His divinity being established, and his 
power over disease unprecedented, he was sent for to Rome to 
deliver the city from a pestilence. When the Romans came to 
Epidaurus to transport the god to Rome, a great serpent came into 
their ship which they bslieved to ba the god in the form of a ser- 
pent, and returned with him to Rome. Others say that when the 
Romans arrived at Epidaurus they were kindly received by the cit- 
izens, and when they came to the temple of zEsculapins, the serpent, 
in whose form the god was worshiped, went voluntarily into the 

(380) 



390 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

ship of the Romans, was carried to Rome, and after delivering the 
city from the pestilence, was worshiped in the form of a great 
serpent in a temple erected for him on an isle in the Tiber. JSscu- 
lapins having restored so many to life that the infernal regions 
were in danger of becoming depopulated, Pluto complained that 
his revenues and the number of the dead were very much diminished, 
and persuaded Jupiter to employ the thunder in destroying the 
inventor and god of the healing art. Thus was fulfilled the 
prophecy uttered at his birth. 

Thy art shall animate the sleeping dead, 
And draw the thunder on thy guilty head. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 

Pursuant to a notice in the St. Joseph Valley Register, a num- 
ber of the physicians of St. Joseph county met at the Odd Fellows 
hall, in South Bend, June 11, 1S55, for the purpose of forming a 
County Medical Society. Dr. R. Pierce was called to the chair, 
and D. B. Van Tuyl appointed Secretary. 

The object of the meeting having been stated, a committee, con- 
sisting of Drs. Humphreys, Hardman and Buchtel, was appointed 
to draft a constitution and by-laws and report to the meeting, 
which they accordingly did, their report being received and con- 
stitution and by-laws adopted. 

On the 2d day of July following another meeting was held and 
the constitution was signed by the following named physicians: 
Daniel Dayton, L. Humphreys, Jacob Hardman, David B. Van 
Tuyl, J. B. Buchtel, John H. Rerick, A. H. Johnson and J. R. 
Brown. The officers were then elected, as follows: L. Humphreys, 
President; R. Pierce, Vice-President; J. H. Rerick, Secretary; 
Jacob Hardman, Treasurer; J. B. Buchtel, D. B. Van Tuyl, J. R. 
Brown, Committee on Admission. 

In pursuance of the objects of their organization, a committee 
was appointed on "epidemics and epidemic diseases," consisting 
of Drs. D. B. Van Tuyl, J. R. Brown, J. B. Buchtel, and Reuben 
Pierce. A committee, consisting of Drs. Dayton, D. B. Van Tuyl, 
and J. R. Brown, was appointed on "ethics." 

At the October meeting, in 1856, considerable discussion ensued 
in relation to consulting with irregulars, and the practice was gen- 
erally condemned. Dr. Van Tuyl introduced a resolution allowing 
members to judge for themselves as to the propriety of such con- 
sultation, without throwing any responsibility on the society. The 
resolution was not acted on at this meeting, and at a subsequent 
meeting held in January, 1S57, it was withdrawn. 

At the first regular meeting the following preamble and Consti- 
tution was adopted: 

At a meeting of the physicians of St. Joseph county, Indiana, held pursuant 
to notice, in South Bend, June 11, 1855, it was 

Resolved, That it is expedient to organize a County M'edical Society, believ- 
ing that the popular standard of the medical profession is now too low, and, as a 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 391 

consequence, that many are to be found in its ranks who are not qualified for its 
high and responsible duties, and that such an organization as is now proposed to 
be made by this convention, when duly perfected, may be made to embody in its 
transactions the united views and purposes of the medical profession of this 
county, hereby rendering more efficient and available the means of promoting 
true medical science, and enlightening a distorted public sentiment in reference 
to the healing art. And, further, that it is necessary for emulation and concert of 
action in the profession, and for securing brotherly and friendly intercourse 
between all who are the commissioned agents of its responsibilities. Therefore, 
be it 

Resolved, That this convention organize a medical society by volunteer asso- 
ciation, and adopt the following 

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 

Section 1. This organization shall be called the " St. Joseph County Medical 
Society." 

Sec. 2. The regular meetings of the society shall be held quarterly in South 
Bend at such times as the society shall specify. 

Sec 3. This society shall be governed by the system of medical ethics adopted 
by the American Medical Association. 

Sec. 4. A candidate to be eligible to membership must be of good moral char- 
acter, and be a graduate of a regular medical school, or a practicing physician 
eligible to graduate in such school by attending one course of lectures. In which 
case, if recommended by the Committee on Admissions, and voted for by two 
thirds of the members present, he may become a member by signing the constitu- 
tion and by-laws, and paying an initiation fee of one dollar. 

Sec. 5. Reputable physicians and surgeons, possessed of the necessary qualifi- 
cations as set forth in the preceding section, who are present at the adoption of 
this constitution and by-laws of this society by signing the same and paying the 
initiation fee, shall be considered members. 

Sec. 6. Honorary members shall only be admitted by a vote of two-thirds of the 
members present at any regular meeting, having first been recommended by the 
Committee on Admissions. 

Sec. 7. A vote of two-thirds of the members present shall be requisite to the 
expulsion of a member; which vote shall be had in consequence of a report of 
the Committee on Ethics, and at the next regular meeting subsequent to such 
report. 

Sec. 8. The officers of this society shall be a President, Vice President, Secre- 
tary, Treasurer, and a Committee on Admissions consisting of three, all of whom 
shall be elected annually by ballot, on the first Monday in January. 

Sec. 9. The President shall preside at all meetings, preserve order, promote the 
progress of business, appoint committees not otherwise provided for, give the 
casting vote, perform such other duties as pertain to his office by usage or custom, 
and deliver a written essay before the society at the close of his term. 

Sec 10. The Vice-President shall assist the President in the discharge of his 
duties, and preside in his absence. 

Sec 11. The Secretary shall keep a fair record of the proceedings of each 
meeting, and perform all other duties usually connected with his office. 

Sec 12. The Treasurer shall hold the funds of the society subject to its order, 
and shall annually exhibit in writing the state of the treasury. 

Sec 13. The Committee on Admissions shall ascertain the eligibility of all 
applicants for membership, and report thereon to the society. 

Sec 14. The following standing committees shall be annualby appointed by 
the President: A committee on medical ethics, a commiltee of five mem Ijers who 
shall make annually a report to this society upon the endemic and epidemic dis- 
eases which have prevailed during the year in the county, giving in full their 
pathology and treatment. 

Sec 15. The President may call a meeting at any time when in his judgment 
the good of the society may require it, or upon petition of a quorum. 

Sec 16. A quorum shall consist of five members for the transaction of business. 

Sec 17. The regular stated meetings of this society shall be held on the first 
Monday in January, April, July and October, commencing at one o'clock p. M. 

Sec 18. Standing committees shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, 
and furnish a copy thereof to the Secretary. 



392 HISTORY OB' ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Sec. 19. Any member vacating his membership shall thereby be divested of 
any right to the funds or property of the society. 

Sec. 20. The Committee on Ethics shall hear all complaints of breach of eti- 
quette or violation of medical ethics, and shall decide all questions of ethics sub- 
mitted to it, taking the American Code for their guide. If any member shall be 
charged in writing with any violation of the provisions of the constitution, or 
with unprofessional conduct, a cop}' of such charge shall be furnished to him, 
himself and accuser cited to appear, when the committee shall proceed to hear the 
case, reserving its decision to "be reported to the society, when its action may be 
affirmed by a majority of the members present. 

^Et . 21. No member of this society shall engage in making or using any secret 
nostrum in his practice, or circulate publicly or privately any hand-bills or cards, 
claiming to treat general or specific diseases by a method unknown to the profes- 
sion at large, thereby inducing public, patronage on the assumption that he is in 
possession of a secret or specific remedy, or a secret mode of treating general or 
specific diseases; and it shall be deemed by this society as unprofessional in any 
of its members to solicit public patronage by proposing to receive no compensa- 
tion when no cure follows the treatment in any case of disease. 

Sec. 22. It shall be the duty of every member of this society, in attendance at 
any regular meeting, to report at least one case that has occurred in his practice 
during" the year, embracing its history, treatment and pathology. 

Sec" 23. This society shall appoint one or more delegates to the State Medical 
Society and to the American Medical Association. 

Sec" 24. This society shall, as early as practicable, adopt measures for keeping 
a meteorological register, noting the temperature and density of the atmosphere, 
fogs, dews, dew point, rain, hail, hoar-frost, clouds, winds, electrical phenomena, 
and other conditions thai may be supposed to shed light upon the etiology of our 
diseases. 

Sec 25. This constitution may be amended at an}' regular meeting of the 
society, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present, provided the amendment 
has been proposed in writing at a previous meeting. 

In addition to the names already given as forming the society 
the Constitution was signed by R. Pierce, Andrew Foster, W. W. 
Butterworth, Ross W. Pierce, F. T. Brysou, G. F. Myers, J. M. 
Stover, S. Eisenbise, S. Higenbotham and S. Laning. 

Meetings were held with more or less regularity until 1859, when 
they ceased altogether. No successful effort was made to revive 
them for several" years. On the 12th day of May, 1S65, a number 
of the physicians of the county assembled at South Bend, re-organ- 
ized and adopted a new constitution. For about two years the 
meetings of the society were continued, and again it suspended. 

In response to a call' issued by Dr. W.W. Butterworth, the mem- 
bers of the society assembled at the office of Drs. Hamond McAl- 
lister March 16, 1S75, and again re-organized, adopting for their 
guidance the following : 

CONSTITUTION. 

Article 1. The name and title of this society shall be " The St. Joseph County 
Medical Society," and shall be auxiliary to and under the control of the Indiana 
State Medical Society. 

Art. 2. The objects of this society shall be the advancement of medical knowl- 
edge, the elevation of professional character, the protection of the interests of its 
members, the extension of the bounds of medical science, the promotion of all 
measures adapted to the relief of the suffering, and to improve the health and pro- 
tect the lives of the community. 

Art. 3. — Sec. 1. Any graduate in medicine of a respectable medical school or 
licentiate of any regularly organized medical society, who is in good moral and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 393 

professional standing, upon signing the constitution and paying three dollars 
($3.00) to the Treasurer, shall be entitled to full membership by a vote of the 
society. 

Sec. 2. In the absence of the credentials mentioned in the first section of this 
article, the candidate for membership, by presenting a certificate of qualification 
to practice medicine and surgery, from the Board of Censors, may, upon signing 
the constitution and paying rive dollars ($5.00) to the Treasurer, be admitted to 
full membership by a vote of the society. 

Art. 4. — Sec. 1. The officers of this society shall be a President, two Vice- 
Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, and three Censors. 

Sec. 2. Each officer shall be elected by a vote of all the members present, and 
serve one year or until a successor is elected. 

Art. 5. — Sec. 1. The President shall preside over the meetings, preserve order, 
and perform such other duties as custom and parliamentary usage may require. 
He may call meetings whenever in his judgment the interests of the society may 
demand them, or upon the written request of three members of the society. He 
shall sign certificates of membership and those of discharge; also, the written 
warrants authorized to be drawn upon the Treasurer, and all the official instru- 
ments and proceedings of the society. He shall deliver an address before the 
society at the close of his official term. 

Sec. 2. In the absence of the President his duties shall be performed by one of 
the Vice-Presidents. 

Sec. 3. The Secretary shall keep a fair, legible and correct record of the pro- 
ceedings of the society, and when approved, transcribe them in a book kept for 
that purpose. He shall record a list of the members' names with specifications of 
such as fail to pay their dues, taxes or fir^es. He shall have charge of all papers 
belonging to the society, excepting such as may properly belong to the Treasurer. 
He shall give notice of the meetings of the society. He shall collect the dues of 
the members to the State Society and forward them with such papers and docu- 
ments as may be directed to the Secretary of the State Society, on or before the 
first day ot each annual meeting of said State Society. 
■ Sec. 4. The Treasurer shall collect all dues payable to this society and pay, 
upon presentation, the orders regularly drawn upon him by the Secretary and 
signed by the President. He shall keep a full account of all moneys received and 
disbursed, and make satisfactory reports thereof at least annually, and oftener, if 
required by the society. Upon the expiration of his term of office, he shall ex- 
hibit to the parties appointed to receive them, an account current of the receipts 
and disbursements of his term, accompanied with vouchers, and hand over to his 
successor in office all moneys, books, papers, or other property held and received 
by virtue of his office. 

Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the Censors to examiue candidates for member- 
ship who have not the credentials prescribed by section first of article third, and 
when the applicant gives satisfactory evidence of qualifications in the various 
branches of medical science, give him a certificate of the fact, if in the interim 
of the meetings, or during a session, report the same directly to the society. 

Art. 6. — Sec. 1. Two-thirds of the members shall constitute a quorum, com - 
petent to alter or amend this constitution. 

Sec. 2. _ Five members shall constitute a quorum to do any business, except as 
provided in section first of this article, or levy fines, make assessments, or appropri- 
ate moneys belonging to the society. 

Art. 7. — Sec. 1. The society shall have full power to adopt such measures as 
may be deemed most efficient for mutual improvement, for exciting a spirit of 
emulation, for dissemination of useful knowledge, for promoting friendly profes- 
sional intercourse among its members, and for the advancement of medical sci 
ence. 

Sec. 2. It shall have power to censure or expel any who, after due notice of 
charges preferred, may be convicted of violating its provisions, or of conduct 
derogatory to the honor of the medical profession, and enforce the observance 
by its members of the Code of Ethics adopted by the society. 

Sec. 3. It shall have the power to compel the attendance of its members upon 
its meetings and their service upon committees by the imposition of fines, which 
shall not in any case exceed three dollars: Provided, however, that when satisfac- 
tory excuse is rendered for delinquency, the society may refuse to assess any fine. 



394 HIST0BY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Sec. 4. It shall have power to raise money of its members for the purpose of 
securing its objects, by a tax which shall not exceed five dollars annually on each 
member, and the dues annually assessed by the State Society. 

Sec. 5. It shall have a right to fix a fee bill for regulating the charges of its 
members for their professional services. 

Sec. 6. It shal lhave power to adopt a seal for the use of the society. 

Sec. 7. It shall hold at least two meetings annually, and as many more as may 
be deemed necessary for the promotion of its objects. 

Sec. 8. The place of each succeeding meeting shall be determined by a vote 
of the society. 

Art. 8. — Sec. 1. Any member who shall remove from the location he may 
occupy at the time of his admission into the society, so as to change his postoffice 
address, shall be considered without the bounds of the society, and shall thereby 
forfeit his right of membership until he shall have notified the Secretary of the post- 
office to which his notice of the meetings may properly be directed. 

Sec. 2. Such forfeiture of membership shall not exonerate the member from 
payment of any dues to the society which may at the time be standing against 
him. 

Akt. 9. Any member upon signifying his intention or wish to withdraw from 
the society, and producing a certificate from the Secretary that he is not in arrears 
to the Treasurer, may be permitted to make such withdrawal: Provided, there are 
no charges against him of violating the provisions of the society, or of conduct 
derogatory to the honor of the medical profession, in which case the member 
shalf be required to answer to such charge before permitted to withdraw. 

Art. 10. Any member who may be expelled shall be debarred from the right 
of consultation or any of the privileges of professional intercourse with any mem. 
ber of the society, and shall forfeit all interest in its funds and property, but shall 
be held to the payment of all dues he may owe the society at the time of his expul- 
sion. 

Art. 11. This society may admit honorary members, upon compliance of the 
applicant with the same forms as prescribed for the admission of bona fide mem- 
bers, except that no initiatory fee shall be required. They shall not be permitted • 
to vote, nor shall they participate in any of the proceedings, except by the express 
permission of the society. 

Art. 12. The funds of this society shall be devoted exclusively to the promo- 
tion of its objects as set forth in article second of this constitution. 

Art. 13. This society adopts as a part of its regulations the Code of Ethics of 
the American Medical Association. 

Art. 14. Every proposal to alter or amend this constitution shall be in writing, 
and if such proposed alteration or amendment receive the unanimous vote of the 
meeting — if there be a competent quorum present — it shall be adopted, but if ob- 
jection'be made, it shall lie over until the next regular meeting, when if it receive 
two-thirds of a quorum competent to amend the constitution, it shall be adopted. 

Art. 15. This society may enact by-laws for its government not inconsistent 
with this constitution. 

Art. 16. This society adopts as its seal a circular disc, upon the face of which 
are the words, " St. Joseph County Medical Society, Indiana, Phynohxjica Medi- 
cina Gautionis et Oura Morborum Vera Scientia est," with the figures "1855," 
giving date of its organization. 

Art. 17. In order more effectually to secure the objects of this society, we 
hereunto subscribe our names, do agree with, and to each other, that we will faith- 
fully observe all the requirements of the constitution, Code of Ethics, and all other 
regulations adopted for the government of the society, and all requirements of the 
State Medical Society of Indiana, to which this is auxiliary; and that we will in 
no case whatever, knowingly consult with, or extend the courtesies of the profes- 
sion to any one who is not a graduate of some respectable medical college, licen- 
tiate of this or some other regularly organized medical society, or in any other 
way countenance or encourage quackery in any of its forms or pretensions; for 
the" faithful performance of which we do hereby individually pledge our truth, our 
honor and professional standing. 

This Constitution was signed by the following named physi- 
cians: Levi J. Ham, South Bend (expelled); Louis Humphreys, 
South Bend; John Cassidy, South Bend; James B. Green, Misha- 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 395 

waka (withdrawn); G. Y. Voorhees, South Bend; Joshua A. 
Kettring, South Bend; J. R. Brown, Sumption Prairie; S. Lan- 
uing, North Liberty; B. R. O'Conner, Mishawaka; C. A. Fletcher, 
South Bend (removed); W. W. Butterworth, Mishawaka; E. W. 
McAllister, South Bend; J. C. Sack, South Bend; O. P. Barbour, 
South Bend; D. Dayton, South Bend. 

ST. JOSEPH VALLEY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 

This society was organized July 10, 1874, at South Bend, and is 
composed of physicians of St. Joseph, Elkhart and La Porte 
counties, Indiana, and Cass and Berrien counties, Michigan. Louis 
Humphreys, of South Bend, was elected President, and E. ~W. 
McAllister, Secretary. Thirty-eight physicians from the counties 
named signed the constitution adopted at the meeting. Semi-annual 
meetings of the society were decided upon. 

The second meeting was held at South Bend, Jan. 12, 1875. 

The third meeting was held at La Porte, June 8, 1875, at which 
time R. J. Hagerty, of Elkhart county, was elected President, and 
C. S. Pixley, of the same county, Secretary. 

The fourth meeting was held at Elkhart, Jan. 11, 1876. 

Niles, Michigan, was the next place of meeting, which was held 
June 13, 1876. Landon 0. Pose, of La Porte count}-, was elected 
President, and C. S. Pixley of Elkhart, Secretary. 

On the 9th of January, 1877, at South Bend, the third semi-an- 
nual meeting was held. 

The third annual meeting was held at the same place, June 12, 
1877. At this meeting L. C. Rose, of La Porte, was elected Pres- 
ident and G. V. Voorhees, of South Bend, Secretary. 

The semi-annual meeting was held Jan. 18, 1878, at South Bend. 

The fourth annual meeting was held at South Bend, June 11, 
1878; the officers were re-elected. 

At the semi-annual meeting L. H. Dunning was elected Secre- 
tary to fill the .vacancy occasioned by the resignation of G. V. 
Voorhees. This meeting was held on the 17th of January, 1879. 

On the 10th of June, 1879, the fifth annual meeting was held at 
South Bend. Dr. W. W. Butterworth, of Mishawaka, was elected 
President, and L. H. Dunning, of South Bend, Secretary. 

The semi-annual meeting was held at South Bend, Jan. 13, 1880. 

The sixth annual meeting of the St. Joseph Valley District Med- 
ical Society was held at the Grand Central Hotel, South Bend, June 
10, 1880, and was the most animated and enthusiastic in the his- 
tory of the society. Among those present were Drs. Butterworth, 
of Mishawaka; Dodge, of Bristol; Reeves, of Niles; Frink, of Elk- 
hart; Greener, of Middlebury; Put, of Millersburg; Montgomery, 
of "Wakarusa; Harrington and Neal, of Elkhart; Morse, of Dowa- 
giac; Thompkins, of Cassopolis; Hani, of Middlebury: O'Conner, 
of Mishawaka; Work, of Elkhart; Dunning, Kilmer and Stockwell, 

26 



396 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

of South Bend, and a number of visitors. Dr. Butterworth, the 
President, occupied the chair. 

The names of Drs. Milton White, of Cass county, and J. C. 
Wallace, of South Bend, were proposed for membership and ad- 
mitted. 

Members in arrears were ordered to be admitted by paying 
their dues. 

Mrs. Dr. Stockwell read a paper on the differential diagnoses of 
cholera infantum. The paper was freely discussed. 

Dr. Ham was extended the courtesies of the Society and asked to 
participate in the discussions. 

Dr. Dunning read a paper on the treatment of cholera infantum. 
The paper was discussed at considerable length, Dr. Ham taking 
part. 

The Chair, on motion of Dr. Neal, appointed the following Com- 
mittee on Necrolog} 7 — Drs. Neal, Dodge and Wallace. 

The society then proceeded to the election of officers for the en- 
suing year with the following result: Dr. Thompkins, President; 
Drs. Hani, Morse, O'Conner, liose and Belknap, Vice-Presidents; 
Dr. Dunning, Secretary; Dr. Frink, Treasurer. 

A resolution was offered by Dr. Frink and adopted," that, in 
the opinion of this society any physician becoming a member obli- 
gates himself morally to comply with its requirements, and that 
failing to comply with them or giving a reasonable excuse for not 
doing so renders himself liable to a vote of censure." 

The Committee on Necrology was directed to report at the next 
meeting. The society then adjourned to meet at the dinner table. 

The annual banquet was served in the dining room of the Grand 
Central Hotel, and was a collation worthy of the house and the oc- 
casion, for doctors, like other mortals, enjoy the good things of 
life. The tables, two in number, were arranged to seat thirty, and 
were well filled. The bill of fare included a long list of substan- 
tiate, supplemented by all the delicacies of the season served in the 
most approved style. 

At the conclusion of the banquet Dr. L. H. Dunning, the toast- 
master, arose, and after a few introductory remarks in an exceed- 
ingly happy vein, proceeded to read the toasts and introduce the 
respondents, as follows: 

"The St. Joseph Valley District Medical Society;" response by 
Dr. W. W. Butterworth, of Mishawaka. 

"The Medical Profession;" response by Dr. J. S. Dodge, of 
Bristol. 

"The Patriarchs of the Profession;" Dr. S. L. Kilmer, of South 
Bend. 

"The Press;" response by Dr. L. J. Ham, of South Bend. 

" Science, Art and Literature, the Hand Maidens of the Profes- 
sion ;" response by Dr. C. S. Frink, of Elkhart. 

The respondents without exception did honor to the occasion by 
their happy, instructive and highly entertaining addresses. It is 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 397 

worthy of special mention, however, that Dr. Ham paid a slowing 
tribute to the memory of the lamented Dr. Louis Humphreys ft 
was a grand effort, and heartily indorsed bv all who listened to it 
Subjects of papers for the next meeting were assigned and the 
society adjourned. & 

DISEASES OF ST. JOSEPH VALLEY.* 

On the first settlement of the St. Joseph valley and its sur- 
roundings, no part ot the West rivaled it in beauty and loveliness 
Previous to 1835 it possessed an almost fabulous ^reputation 
throughout the Eastern and Middle States for its exemption from 
disease of every kind The early inhabitants of the valley, when 
writing to "the tnends they left behind them," grew enthusiastic 
oyer the attractions of their new homes, possessed Tofa cZa e 
mild and genial except in winter), a soil of unrivaled fertility' 
equaling in productions the far-famed valley of the Nile in 
Egypts palmiest days-landscapes of pleasing variety, in prairies 
streams and lakes, while the openings excelfed the parksVf he 
nobles of the old world. To crown all, the inhabitants were in a 
and where they could say, "We know no sickness," and it seemed 
the long-sought-tor ideal, earthly paradise of some of the early 
explorers of the Western world had been realized 7 

At Lie period of which we are speaking, the country was thinly 
populated; and but here and there the'deep, rich mold of The 
praines had been disturbed. About the year 1835 large accessions 
to the population were received, attracted by the fame of the 
country tor fertility and beauty, and the speculative epidemic in 
J: 8 th , at lT ad r d tbe , We8t The h - osts of e^graLn movS 

Poln» f J V i 7' lke i P1 i §nm deTOtees t0 some modern Mecca. 
Columns of smoke trom the domiciles of the new settlers were soon 

to be counted by hundreds upon the plains and prairies. In even 

direction the eye was greeted by lines of zigzag fences, peculiar to 

new countries; and thousands of long, dark furrows meVdie vSon 

hid tj * T' *%**?* th , at the br ° ad ' S reen bosom of the earth 
had been torn by the plow of the hardy pioneer. 

Ihe effects ot that mysterious agent, to which medical writers 
h«e given various names, but generally known by that of malaria 
began to manifest its presence here and there, and victims to £ 
na MvJ , T"f r K ° f th f f6elingS of ttoBewho had left their "dea? 
Teen 1 H ° ^T ^ ^^ ° f froDtier life were occasionally 

Wl S J pal ? and sallow countenances of those upon whom the 
ofll r J' &nemy t0 human % tad been laid*. The victims 
neilwsWi;n er,mttentS received at the ^nds of their well 
neighbors but little commiseration or anxious care, for their sickness 

fTr/iS f^ °# th KV gUe " and ° f sU Z ht consequence only 
from loss of time and inability to work. As a general thing, those 

delWeredm SStS^SSS Sf ^ S *' J ° SePh ^^ Med ' Ca] S ° Cie * 



398 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

having attacks of ague resorted to but little medication, most of 
them "wearing out their relation to the disease," many of whom 
were left with sadly impaired constitutions, and a few sank from 
organic diseases resulting from repeated attacks. There were but 
few physicians in the country at that time, and remedial agents 
were scarce and difficult to obtain. The county continued to pros- 
per, increasing in population and wealth, witli perhaps no increase 
of sickness above the ratio of increase in inhabitants, up to the 
year 1838. This is a memorable year in the annals of the entire 
West. No portion of the Mississippi valley, north of the Ohio 
river, could, with justice, set up any claims of salubrity of climate, 
or healthfulness of locality over another, and the Western citizens 
of that year find but few pleasing associations connected with it. 

Before any attempt is made at a delineation of the sickness of 
1838, it will be proper to refer briefly to the combination of causes 
that existed to produce such deplorable results. The months of 
March, April, May, June and the first ten or twelve days of July, 
of that year, were remarkable for the quantities of rain that fell 
during that period. During the previous winter the water in the 
lakes, ponds and marshes had been unprecedentedly low. Add to 
continuity of rain of these months, as yet, the unaccounted-for 
periodic ''rises'' of all western Waters, and we find sufficient cause 
for an extensive and unusual submergence of the low lands of the 
country. The air was necessarily loaded with moisture; for 
humidity it could only be paralleled, perhaps, in the low countries 
of Holland. So marked was this state of the atmosphere that 
articles of furniture, books and wearing apparel were frequently 
found to be mildewed in the houses of the inhabitants. Many of 
the dwellings of the settlers were illy calculated to resist the effects 
of the existing dampness of the climate. A large majority of the 
residences were of wood, having foundations and cellars walled 
with the same material, subject to rapid decay underground, 
furnishing an abundant source for unhealthy emanations. Many 
of the inhabitants used, for drinking and culinary purposes, sur- 
face water, while nearly all the wells constructed at that day were 
curbed or lined with wood, which, from its rapid decomposition, 
impregnated the water with a deposit disagreeable to the taste, 
and presumed to be anything but healthy in its character. 

Large numbers of the settlers, from necessity, were compelled to 
expose their persons to the exceedingly damp air of morning and 
evening. Their mental and physical capacities were often, also, 
taxed beyond a healthy point by over-work. Add to this a diet of 
the plainest kind, which was devoured with voracious appetites, by 
which derangement of the stomach and biliary organs were almost 
necessarily induced; nearly all were deprived of the articles of 
diet requisite to the preservation of good health, especially, 
the various kinds of fruits; in addition to all this, the turning 
over by the plow of thousands of acres of turf, and we find a 
combination of circumstances, with the peculiarities of the summer 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 399 

and fall seasons of that memorable year, which in the absence 
of a more scientific explanation of causes, seem to be well calcu- 
lated to produce the results that followed. 

The spring season and early part of the summer of 183S were 
noted for the rapid and luxurious growth of all kinds of vegetation 
and the development of organic germs of cryptogamous growth. 
About the 12th of July the rains ceased, and, with the exception of 
two or three light showers, remained suspended until about the 15th 
of the ensuing October. The cessation of rain was followed by an 
unusually (for this latitude) high temperature. The thousands of 
acres ot land covered by superficial ponds were rapidly uncovered 
by evaporation, leaving a deposit of decayed vegetable matter 
exposed to the action of the intense heat of the sun, generating as 
is generally believed, although not susceptible of scientific demon- 
stration, a malarial influence by the evolution of miasma. So 
rapidly was the superficial water exhaled from the surface of the 
ground that fissures of several inches in depth and an indefinite width 
and length, were not unfrequently seen. There is no record of 
observation upon the dew point at that time. During the months of 
August and September no moisture from dew was visible for weeks 
in succession. The sky each morning presented a lurid, brassy 
appearance, and the strata of atmosphere upon the earth's surface 
presented the tremulous, vibratory phenomenon, before the rising 
of the sun, caused by radiation of heat from the surface of the 
ground. The ground at the same time was covered by the debris 
of dead vegetation. 

During the latter part of the month of July a few cases of 
bilious remittent and intermittent fever manifested themselves, 
and, soon after, a general and wide-spread epidemic of those types 
of disease prevailed from which but few escaped. Persons of robnst 
constitution, and whose habits of life were nearly in accordance 
with the laws of health, constituted no exception. Unhappily, but 
few were situated so as to be able to observe the rules requisite to 
the preservation of health. A very large majority of the residents 
of the entire valley of St. Joseph were sick at one time from the 
prevailing epidemic. Not unfrequently whole families were pros- 
trated on sick beds, no one of their numbers possessing the ability 
to procure even cold water sufficient to allay the thirst of their 
suffering associates. An incalculable amount of suffering, and in 
some instances death, resulted from want of proper care and nurs- 
ing. Perhaps no one attendant circumstance of the great epidemic 
of that memorable year served to dishearten and paralyze the 
energies of the new settlers, while they lay languishing on their 
beds, haunted by fitful, feverish imaginings of the profusion of 
comforts they had left in their native lands, as the deprivation of 
the services of kind and sympathizing friends. 

There were occasional instances of almost entire exemption from 
the prevailing disease. Those persons escaping were mostly women 
who, true to their natural promptings, were almost nightly and 



400 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTV. 

daily at the bedsides of the sick and suffering. The number of 
medical men at that time was very inadequate to the wants of the 
people, and many of them mere pretenders in the profession. There 
were some (notwithstanding uncharitable strictures upon them, 
that we sometimes hear from our self-sufficient brethren of the 
present day) who were then, as they would be now, if living, orna- 
ments, doing honor to the profession and the age in which they lived. 
Not a few of the physicians in the St. Joseph valley fell victims 
that year to the prevailing epidemic; but like true sentinels at their 
post, emphatically, the}' died with the professional harness on. A 
very large portion of the corps of medical men were sick and 
disabled from excessive fatigue and exposure, and the fatality of a 
large number of cases was, no doubt, attributable to a want of 
proper and timely medical aid. Perhaps a majority of the cases 
were simply agues, of the " everyday or every-other-day " type, 
attended with regular rigors during the cold stage, succeeded by 
the hot and sweating stages. This form of the disease was attended 
by no immediate danger, but the sequel was often ruinous beyond 
reparation in producing obstructions and disorganization of the 
lungs and other vital organs. The type of disease in many others 
was that of bilious remittent or intermittent fever proper, attended 
with more danger to the lives of those thus attacked, but which 
seldom or never ran into proper typhoid form. This latter form of 
fever was but rarely seen in the valley prior to the year 1847. As 
was stated in the earlier history of the diseases of this valley so 
was it in 1838. The remedial agents most needed in the treatment 
of that year could not be obtained, owing to the scarcity of the 
supply, and the want of facilities to bring them here (there were no 
railroads in those days, and but few steamers upon the upper lakes). 
That most reliable of all the preparations of Peruvian bark as a 
tonic and anti-periodic agent, quinine, was not to be had. The 
various substitutes sought out and devised by physicians and people 
were sadly deficient in meeting the indications. It would be safe 
to state that a very large portion of the fatal cases (the percentage 
of which was exceedingly small in proportion to the number of 
sick) proved fatal for want of that agent; against which, -it is to be 
regretted, even at the present day, there exists much popular 
prejudice, caused mainly by unprincipled mountebanks, who crowd 
the profession, altogether unjustifiable in its nature. It is but just 
to say that the effects of Peruvian bark and its preparations were 
not then understood by the profession as at present, and the dis- 
coveries in its uses within the last ten or twelve years are 
invaluable and constitute one of the proudest monuments in the 
progress of our profession. The principal treatment of the epidemic 
by intelligent physicians consisted in the use of cathartics, altera- 
tives, anodynes, and such febrifuge agents as could be procured at 
the time. The lancet then, as now, was seldom resorted to. 

This great epidemic of the West gradually subsided with the 
approach of white frosts and rain storms of autumn. A few cases, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 401 

occurring late in the fall, exhibited an approximation to typhoid 
features, but none were sufficiently marked to entitle them to the 
name of typhoid proper. As has been stated, there were compara- 
tively few cases to the number sick, which terminated in death, and 
many of the fatal cases occurred from the causes already set forth. 
The inhabitants of the St. Joseph valley in the fall of 1S3S were 
emphatically a, pile-faced race, resembling more nearly a community 
of stalking ghosts than living, active specimens of humanity. 
Many bereft of all energy or inclination to mental or physical 
efforts became impersonations of despair, while not a few, as soon 
as they were sufficiently restored to health, set out for their native 
hills and valleys, thoroughly disgusted with the West. 

Since that memorable year of suffering, time has worn on, but 
the country has never been visited, and there is no probability that 
it ever will be again, by so widely diffused and general an epidemic, 
for there never can exist again such a combination of causes, as 
did then, to produce disease. Although nearly twenty years have 
elapsed since that year of suffering, yet the " West" lias scarcely 
recovered from the reputation it acquired at that time, in the 
Eastern and Middle States, for its supposed unhealthy climate; 
while the facts are, in relation to health and general prosperity, 
the citizens of the valley of St. Joseph may safely challenge a com- 
parison with any portion of the American continent, possessing a 
soil of equal fertility.* From the first settlement of the St. Joseph 
valley and the West, generally, to the present day, the intermittent 
and remittent types have constituted a distinguishing feature in 
nearly all prevalent diseases. Prior to the last ten years they 
were generally "pure and simple," or without complications, when 
the practice of the merest tyro in the profession would be 
attended with some degree of success. Subsequent to the period 
mentioned, complications with almost every form of acute disease 
became prevalent, almost always disguised or masked behind func- 
tional derangement of some vital organ or organs. Indeed, this 
feature of the disease of our country, at the present day, may be 
said to be protean in form. 

The intermittent and remittent complications of the most fre- 
quent occurrence are neuralgia, pneumonia (popularly termed lung 
fever), rheumatism, dysentery, diarrhoea and erysipelas, besides 
numerous other phases, all requiring in a greater or less degree the 
anti-periodic and supporting plan of treatment, demanding the 
exercise of a sound judgment and careful discrimination on the 
part of the practitioner, to determine when to exhibit and when to 
withhold that class of remedies, without which the greatest errors 
will assuredly be committed. In addition to the everchanging 
forms of intermittent and remittent diseases we have had, for the 
last ten years, more or less typhoid fever. Since the appearance of 
this fever there has been less of the former types in simple forms. 

* It is a well established fact that all countries having a fertile soil^are more or 
loss subject to malarial diseases. 



402 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The annual period of sickness, since the appearance of typhoid, has 
in a great measure changed from the summer and early fall seasons 
to the late fall and winter seasons. Physicians in active practice 
for the last ten or twelve years often encounter difficulty with the 
typhoid patients and their friends (who resided in the West previous 
to that time), in making them understand the radical difference 
between that form of fever and the intermittent and remittent 
forms in point of duration. Especially has this been the case since 
the latter types of fever have become so amenable to an improved 
method of medication, by which most cases are cut short in a few 
days from inception. In typhoid fever the attending physician is 
often importuned by non-professional persons for reasons "why the 
fever is not broken up," they failing to see essential differences in 
types of disease. The marked disturbance of the brain and nervous 
system, and especially the characteristic local disease of the lining 
membrane and small glands of the intestinal canal, bearing a 
striking analogy to skin diseases, 6uch as small-pox, scarlet fever, 
and other diseases of the skin and underlying tissues, the depraved 
condition of the blood and humors of the system generally can 
only be understood by the close observing professional man. It is 
therefore not strange that they escape the observation of persons 
outside of the profession, and hence the difficulties physicians 
encounter in explaining why they can no more hope to cure or 
shorten the duration of typhoid fever, as a general thing, than they 
can hope to arrest small-pox or other eruptive fevers. There are 
many cases, however, in which the duration is materially shortened 
by appropriate treatment, but they constitute the exception to the 
general rule. The physician's duty consists in sustaining the 
enfeebled powers of the system, and meeting, by timely remedial 
aid, if possible, the unfavorable symptoms as they arise in these 
cases. Typhoid, as are other types of fever, is often complicated in 
a variety of ways. The more serious the complication, of course, 
the greater will be the danger. This form of fever, though serious, 
is not often fatal. It is, however, one of these ailments which put 
on very different degrees of violence under different circumstances. 
On some occasions it is exceedingly fatal — more so in hospitals 
than in private practice. There are few diseases that exhibit more 
happily the good results of judicious medical treatment than 
this. It is true that the disease cannot be suddenly interrupted, as 
has been intimated, but often materially shortened, and still more 
frequently conducted to a favorable issue, when, if left to nature 
and without treatment, it would inevitably end in death. It is 
generally admitted not to occur twice in the same person; it very 
often prevails epidemically. Not unfrequently the most healthy 
localities in this country are visited by it in this form. This dis- 
ease is often supposed to be contagious. Typhoid patients some- 
times suffer for want of proper care and nursing through fear of 
contracting the disease on the part of those who, under other 
circumstances, would respond promptly to the calls of suffering 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 403 

humanity. Nothing can be more erroneous, and it is the duty of 
every physician to disabuse the public mind upon this subject. 
There is almost always an epidemic influence abroad when typhoid 
fever prevails. At such times persons predisposed to disease, if 
sick at all, will be very likely to have a typhoid type of sickness. 
Fatigue, exposure to vicissitudes of weather, and mental disturb- 
ances sometimes act as exciting causes of the disease in those 
already predisposed; hence it is not unfrequently the case that 
persons engaged in nursing typhoid patients days and nights and 
weeks, continuously deprived of their accustomed sleep, and suffer- 
ing from mental anxiety at the same time, take the disease. Far- 
ther than this I am constrained to believe there is no inherent 
principle of contagion about typhoid fever, although many eminent 
men and scientific observers have arrived at different conclusions. 

Amongst- the various diseases in which the people of the valley 
of St. Joseph, as elsewhere, are deeply interested, none enlists more 
solicitude than that of pulmonary consumption. This disease, 
aside from collateral causes, may be said to be produced only in 
those predisposed to it, or hereditarily, or about whom a combina- 
tion of causes has been operating a sufficient length of time to 
develop & consumptive diathesis. From the remarkably damp and 
cold character of the spring seasons in this latitude a superficial 
observer would be led to suppose that, consumption was quite a 
common disease in this country, although nearly all cases which 
do occur of this disease are developed by the variable weather of 
our "open winter" and spring seasons in those predisposed, or 
who wantonly or indifferently expose themselves. Yet it is not in. 
the West, as a general thing, the great scourge of the human race, as, 
in the Atlantic States, where it is estimated that one- seventh of all 
the deaths north of the tropics occur from consumption. I believe 
it is the received opinion of physicians that there are fewer cases 
of consumption at this time in the St. Joseph valley, in proportion 
to the number of inhabitants, than there were afewj'ears ago, when 
congestive forms of chills were more frequent, inducing disease of 
the lungs by some sanguineous engorgement, which takes place 
more or less extensively during the cold stage of that formidable 
type of intermittents. Some persons have come into this climate 
with marked symptons of pulmonary consumption, and after a few 
years residence have appeared comparatively restored to health. 
Many solutions of this problem in physiology have been offered, 
but none as yet have appeared sufficiently demonstrative to be in- 
corporated with the truths of science. Among other sugges- 
tions, we may ask if it may not be accounted for on the principle 
that the shock sustained by the nervous system during intermit- 
tent attacks diverts diseased action from the lungs, and by revulsion 
diffuses it through the system at large, from the effect of which its 
recuperative energies rescues it from that which would destroy 
life if concentrated upon a given organ or set of organs. As 
before stated, the variable effect of open winters and damp, cold 



404 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

spring seasons are productive of most cases of this disease, the 
evil effects of which can be guarded against by proper precaution- 
ary measures, such as the use of warm clothing and careful 
protection of the feet and lower extremities from the effects of 
humidity and cold. 

While on this part of my subject I would make an appeal to 
parents and guardians in behalf of little girls and misses. Almost 
one-half of this part of our population are suffering from enlarged 
tonsils (better known as quinsy), the result of which in most cases 
is cough from irritation of the throat, imperfect respiration, diffi- 
culty in swallowing, an impaired voice, and almost entire destruc- 
tion of the vocal powers, as exhibited in that most useful and 
charming of all acquirements in young ladies, — the ability to sing 
well and effectively. The disease is but rarely seen in men and 
boys, compared with the number suffering of the opposite sex. 
The cause can be no other than low-necked, short-sleeved dresses 
and thin shoes. The preventives are within the reach of all. 

There is, perhaps, no class ot diseases like those of the lungs that 
affords so wide a field for the operation of charlatans and mounte- 
banks in the profession of medicine. It is too often the case that 
some traveling lecturer and vender of specifics for consumption, 
after heralding his advent into our towns and villages by flaming 
posters, equaled only by circus and Ethiopian minstrel announce- 
ments, promising to work miracles upon diseased humanity, and 
from his itinerant character, perfectly irresponsible, reaps a golden 
harvest from those who are not able to be "fleeced" by exorbitant 
charges, such as would utterly destroy the reputation and business 
of any permanent^ located physician. And it is often the case, 
those who are thus deceived and cajoled by hopes raised only to be 
blasted, return to their family physician, soliciting aid and comfort, 
in a worse condition than before they turned their backs upon 
professional friends who have a permanent abiding place and a 
character to sustain, to run after professional new lights. 

Nine times out of ten remedies taken by inhalation are a positive 
injury to the consumptive, from irritation produced by direct con- 
tact with the delicate and sensitive linings of the air passages of 
the lungs, though some agents, properly and judiciously used in 
this manner, may be beneficial. 

Much of the scrofulous and consumptive diathesis in our native 
population is the result of our habits in diet, dress, want of hygienic 
cleanliness, and the construction of our houses, in relation to the 
laws of respiration. There is, perhaps, no article of diet so uni- 
versal in nse that contributes so much to produce and develop 
scrofulous diseases in its protean forms as pork. So common is it 
found constituting one of the staples of the American table, among 
all classes, that pork-eating may be said to constitute a national 
trait of character. That swine are afflicted with scrofula and 
tubercles has been demonstrated time and time again, and much 
of the scrofula witnessed by physicians is attributable to this 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 405 

universal pork-eating. The indigestibility of swine flesh is a well 
established fact, and the hog should be raised in a great measure 
for the fat and oil furnished by him. Beef, mutton and poultry of 
a njood quality are much superiorto pork as articles of diet, and if 
more generally used would add greatly to the health of the masses. 
It is unquestionably the duty of every physician to discourage so 
general a use of pork among those to whom he sustains the relation 
of medical adviser. Our native German and English citizens are 
striking illustrations of the truth of this position, with reference to 
the effects of large indulgence in swine's flesh. They use but 
little pork diet compared with the quantity used by Americans. 
Consumption is rarely seen in either of the two classes named, 
and this is no doubt attributable to their comparative abstinence 
from pork. This, conjoined to the national trait of character in 
the German, giving vigorous exercise to the lungs and auxiliary 
organs in vocal music, in which the English indulge to a certain 
extent; also, add to this the universal habit of the two classes men- 
tioned of warm and substantial clothing, especially for the feet 
and lower extremities, and we are again more than fortified in our 
position. 

A large majority of cases of pulmonary consumption are first 
developed by indigestion (dyspepsia), induced by repeated violation 
of the physiological laws of digestion. The use of large quanti- 
ties of stimulating food of any kind will produce derangement of 
the functions of digestion. Perhaps no one popular custom con- 
tributes so much to produce indigestion and its sequel, disease of 
the lungs, as that of meeting together socially, in crowded apart- 
ments, and at very late hours of the night, indulging freely in eating 
nearly every kind of indigestible food, most generally accompanied 
by large draughts of strong hot coffee and tea, and, immediately 
after, dispersing to their homes to spend the remainder of the night 
in fruitless efforts to sleep, and to leave their beds the ensuing 
morning with aching heads, flushed countenances, nausea of the 
stomach, and almost entire loathing of nutritious food. This 
absurd practice should receive the unqualified condemnation of 
every right-thinking man and woman. 

The pleasures of the appetite are legitimate pleasures, but our 
Creator did not implant the sense of taste in mankind to ruin the 
beautiful structure of the body, or impair the noble faculties of the 
soul. Like all other appetites, that for food may be abused. If 
its proper condition be violated, loss of power, premature decay 
and untimely deatli are inevitable. The life of the offender is 
deprived of its own enjoyment and of its power of being useful to 
others. 

Another habit of our people which contributes largely to develop 
disease of the lungs, is the small and almost air-tight sleeping 
apartments so generally used, the temperature of which, during 
hours of sleep, in cold weather, is often raised to summer heat by 
means of air-tight stoves. The deleterious effect of all this upon 



406 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

the lungs and general system must be obvious to every thinking 
mind. A full supply of oxygen from the air we breathe is neces- 
sary to sustain life, which after being inhaled by the lungs, is con- 
verted into carbonic acid, one of the most destructive agents to 
animal life. To effect this change the oxygen must unite with cer- 
tain portions of the blood, thus producing a species of combustion. 
The blood contains two combustible materials, carbon and hydrogen. 
By the union of these with oxygen a great amount of heat will be 
evolved, while the product of this combustion will be Carbonic acid 
and water, the same that results from the combustion of wood in 
your grate, or a candle on your table. Life is really a process of 
combustion, and the smoke evolved, or in other words, the carbonic 
acid and water, are continually passing off through the lungs and 
skin. Thus, we see that the human machine is furnished with 
facilities for preserving a comfortable temperature, in a great meas- 
ure, independent of artificial heat; but, in order to do this, it must 
have an abundant supply of oxygen, the agent of combustion. In 
small, titjlit sleeping apartments, how is it possible the requisite 
supplv of oxygen can be obtained, when there is not sufficient to 
keep up a healthy action of the lungs of the sleeping inmates for 
a few hours, much less a whole night? Disease of the lungs must 
be induced, to a greater or less extent, when there is nothing for 
their sustentation but an atmosphere almost deprived of the life- 
giving principle of oxygen, and loaded with poisonous carbonic 
acid and unhealthy exhalations from the bodies of the sleeping 
occupants. 

Every sleeping apartment should be large, or at least well ven- 
tilated and supplied with fresh air, and no artificial heat, especially 
by means of stoves, as the body, for reasons already set forth, will 
generate its own warmth if supplied with a sufficiency of material 
for combustion to the lungs, through a healthy animation and a 
free supply of the agent essential to the process. Another duty 
that should be enjoined by physicians upon those who are accus- 
tomed to look to them for advice respecting health, especialty the 
preservation of a healthy condition of the lungs, is the use of cold- 
water bathing not the "plunge" bath, the "sitz" bath, the 
" shower " bath, or the " wet-sheet" pack, but the simple applica- 
tion of water to the entire surfaceof the bod}' by means of a sponge 
or towel, followed by brisk friction for the purpose of cleaning and 
preserving a healthy action of the skin. Every person should 
know the close alliance that exists between the functions of the 
skin and air passages of the lungs, that a healthy performance of 
one aids materially the healthy performance of the other. Bathing 
6hould be resorted to in the manner indicated two or three times a 
week in cold weather, [and much oftener in warm or temperate 
weather. The best time to bathe is in the morning. Under no 
circumstances should the water be applied so freely, or so cold, as 
to produce a disagreeable shock to the system, by which the equi- 
librium of the circulation may be disturbed, and thereby induce 



HISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 407 

diseased action, but always at such a temperature as to be followed 
by pleasurable sensations of warmth. Bathing should never be 
resorted to until sufficient vital heat is supplied by fire or exercise 
to resist and overcome the slight shock resulting from the applica- 
tion of water. We should begin the sponge bath in a guarded 
manner. Persons of delicate constitutions should use water of the 
temperature of the.body only, and in a warm apartment. Let there 
be sufficient exercise before and after the bath to maintain the general 

flow. In this way bathing may be enjoyed, not as a physiological 
uty, but as a refreshing luxury. By pursuing this course we can 
gradually lower the temperature of the water to any degree desired. 
When we have thus far succeeded, we have overcome our morbid 
sensibility, increased our vital forces, and given such a tone to the 
constitution as will protect us from colds and other agencies so pro- 
lific of lung diseases. The bath, thus used, I believe entitled to 
much consideration, not as a curative agent, but as a preventive of 
disease, especially diseases of the lungs. 

To conclude, the valley of the St. Joseph, as also the West 
generally, from the observations of medical men and others, is, 
beyond doubt becoming from year to year more healthy. The 
exemption of our entire population from diseases of all kinds the 
past two or three years has been most remarkable. The universal 
good health which prevailed during the year 1S56 is mainly attrib- 
utable to the uniform dryness of the seasons of that year. The 
health enjoyed through the year 1857 being fully equal to the pre- 
ceding year, is the result of the opposite, — uniformity in the 
periods of rain. Whether the position that an excited state of the 
public mind (politically or from other causes) conduces to health, 
as has been stated, is correct or not, can only be determined by 
statistics of the past and careful observations of the future. The 
year 1857 being almost entirely free from any general public excite- 
ment, and the year 1832, the great cholera year, and noted in the 
annals of our country for the tempest of political excitement that 
swept over the whole Union, would seem to controvert the truth of 
that position. 

Whenever our State Legislature can be induced to pass such 
registration laws and other enactments necessary, by which a fair 
and just comparison can be instituted between the West and the 
Atlantic States in respect to health, the preponderance will be 
found to be largely in favor of the former as the most healthy 
locality, especially that portion embraced within our beautiful val- 
ley and its surroundings. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN THE WAR.— RESPONSE TO THE CALL. — REMEMBER 
BUENA VISTA. — NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. — FIFTEENTH. — TWENTY- 
NINTH. — FORTY- EIGHTH. SEVENTY-THIRD. — EIGHTY-SEVENTH.— ONE 

HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTH. — 

TWELFTH CAVALRY. TWENTY-FIRST BATTERY. — ROLL OF HONOR. — 

DECORATION DAY. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN THE WAR. 

In 1860, when some of the Southern leaders threatened a disso- 
lution of the Union in the event of the election of Abraham Lin- 
coln to the Presidency, there were very few men in the North who 
believed they were in earnest. In consequence of the division in 
the Democratic party, the election of Lincoln was an easy matter. 
In pursuance of their threat, one after another of the Southern 
States to the number of twelve passed acts of secession, and organ- 
ized an independent government under the name of the " Confed- 
erate States ot America." 

Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as President of the 
United States on the 4th of March, 1861, and immediately took 
steps to strengthen the Government. Already the rebels were 
making preparations for the capture of Fort Sumter, then occupied 
by the gallant Major Anderson and a handful of men. On the 12th 
day of April, after first demanding its surrender, the rebels opened 
fire upon the fort. The first shot sent an electric thrill through 
every loyal heart in the North, and immediately the cry went up 
for vengeance. The news of the fall of Sumter was received on 
Sunday morning, April 14. On that day the loyal people of the 
United States abandoned the field of argument and ceased to dis- 
cuss measures and plans for the peaceable restoration of the national 
authority in the revolted States, and with singular unanimity and 
determination accepted the issue of war as the only means left to 
save and perpetuate the National existence and the priceless liber- 
ties so long enjoyed. 

On the morning of the 15th the telegraph bore the following 
message from Governor Morton to President Lincoln at Wash- 
ington : 

Executive Department of Indiana, 
Indianapolis, April 15, 1861. 
To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States: 

On behalf of the State of Indiana I tender to you, for the defense of the Na- 
tion, and to uphold the authority of the Government, ten thousand men. 

(408) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 409 

The same day the President issued his proclamation calling for 
the militia of the several States of the Union, to the number of 
seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress the Rebellion and cause 
the laws to be duly executed. The quota of Indiana was subse- 
quently fixed by the Secretary of War at six regiments of infantry, 
or riflemen, comprising, in officers and men, 4,683, to serve for a 
period of three months unless sooner discharged. Instructions 
were issued in general orders by the Adjutant-General of the State, 
for the formation of companies; the several military departments 
were speedily organized tor business, and all available measures 
taken to fill the quota with the least possible delay. In the mean- 
time, every class of the community manifested the wildest enthu- 
siasm and most intense excitement. Public meetings to facilitate 
the formation of companies, and to give expression to the senti- 
ments of the people touching their duty in the pending crisis, were 
held in every city, town and neighborhood, and an ardent and un- 
quenchable military spirit was at once aroused that bid fair to 
embrace in its sweep every able-bodied man in the State. The day 
after the call was made Ave hundred men were in camp, and the 
Governor, apprehensive (as was the whole country at the time) that 
an effort would be made by the rebels to take possession of the Fed- 
eral capital, proposed to send forward half a regiment if required, 
although unable to furnish the necessary arms and equipments. 
Receiving no reply to this offer from the War Department, it was 
renewed the day following, and the number increased to one thou- 
sand men. By the 19th — three days after the call — there were 2,400 
men in camp, and arrivals continued by every train. So rapidly 
did volunteering proceed, in less than seven days more than 12,000 
men, or nearly three times the quota required, had been tendered. 
Contests to secure the acceptance of companies were earnest and 
frequent. The question was not "Who will go?" but, " Who will 
be allowed to go?" In many cases companies came forward with- 
out orders, or rather in defiance of orders, in the hope that they 
could be received, or that a second call would at once be made, and 
frequently their enlistment rolls contained twice, and even thrice, 
the number of names required. Hundreds who were unable to get 
into companies at home, came singly and in squads to the general 
rendezvous on their own responsibility, and, by combining with 
others in like condition, and with fragments of companies having a 
surplus, formed new companies and joined in the clamor for 
acceptance. The response was as gratifying as it was universal, 
and left no doubt as to the entire and lasting devotion of Indiana 
to the fortunes of the Union. Like the sun-light the " war fever " 
permeated every locality. The "Old Flag" at once became sacred 
and was proudly displayed in every breeze from the highest peaks 
of churches, 6chool-houses and private dwellings. The presenta- 
tion of a stand of National colors by patriotic ladies to each com- 
pany was rarely omitted, and, wherever practicable, brass bands 
were provided to escort them to the general camp. 



410 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The excitement in South Bend, Mishavvaka, and, in fact, all parts 
of the county was intense. Says a local writer: "South Carolina 
has courted the glory of lighting the torch of civil war. Forbear- 
ance on the part of the Government almost to the extreme of hu- 
miliation, has been met with arrogance and insult; until, unable to 
force the United States into any act of bloodshed and violence 
which they could make a pretext for their act, they have most 
wickedly precipitated the Republic into war. They have opened 
the fire of their murderous batteries upon the flag which Washing- 
ton loved, and which Jackson, Scott and Taylor illuminated with 
60 many glorious triumphs — a parricidal act as infamous as the 
ruffian who aims a death-blow at the mother who has borne and 
nurtured him. They have trampled the Constitution and the 
laws which they have sworn to support, under their feet, and they 
avow their purpose to overthrow the Government which they can no 
longer rule, by the force and power of arms. But the awakened 
and bounding patriotism of the American people proves that they 
have reckoned without their host. Henceforth it is evident that all 
party divisions are to be forgotten. The question whether our Gov- 
ernment has a right to exist towers above all others. The only 
issue is to be between patriots and traitors; and all men must range 
themselves under the reptile flag of disunion, or the resplendent 
stars and stripes, every thread of which has been consecrated by the 
blood of heroes who lived and died under its folds. There can be 
no neutrals in this struggle. He who is not for the American 
Union, American Constitution and the American Flag, against 
treason and rebellion, against perfidy and revolution, against the 
architects of ruin and the inaugurators of civil war, are in sym- 
pathy with the traitors, and will be known as the Cow-Boys of 1861, 
who, like the Cow-Boys of the Revolution, will be regarded in his- 
tory as lower than the enemies whom they aided and abetted. 
While, with all loyal men, the motto, ' God and our country,' will 
unite them as with one heart and soul, for the stern duties of the 
impending contest." 

On Monday night, April 15, 1861, on a few hours' notice, the 
court house at South Bend was crowded with a mass of voters, 
irrespective of party, who hailed this opportunity of showing their 
determination to stand by the Government, the Union and the Con- 
stitution. John A. Henricks, president, A. E. Drapier, editor of the 
Forum, and Judge Robertson, were made vice-presidents; E. E. 
Ames, E. R. Farnum and W. H. Drapier, secretaries. Boyne's 
Cornet Band played the soul-stirring National airs which our 
fathers loved so well. Speeches were made eliciting the heartiest 
applause, by Messrs. Henricks, Colfax, Drapier, Miller, George, 
Anderson, Lynch and Revs. Reed and Moore. A Volunteer Aid 
Association was organized to equip the company, to be formed at 
once, and to assist in the support of their families while they were 
absent, and a committee to solicit subscriptions. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 411 

At Mishawaka, the same night, a large and enthusiastic meeting 
was held, presided over by George Milburn. Patriotic speeches 
were made by Milburn, Niles, Merrifield, Cowles, Hurlbut, But- 
terworth, Thomas, Fuller, Judson and Minzie. 

A second meeting was held at South Bend on Friday evening, 
April 19, at which the following committees were appointed to solicit 
and collect subscriptions to aid in forming and equipping volunteer 
companies, and to provide for the families of such volunteers as 
may need assistance: 

Green Township. — Jackson Green, Daniel Green, Thomas L. 
Holloway. 

Clay.—T. P. Bulla, G. E. Benton, Jacob Eaton. 

German. — J. F. Ullery, Reuben Dunn, A. J. Hatfield. 

Olive. — J. II. Service, T. J. Garoutte, John Reynolds. 

Warren. — J. E. Mikesell, Goble Brown, William Crann. 

Liberty. — G. H. Loring, C. W. M. Stevens, Samuel Loring. 

Union. — John Jackson, John Moon, C. J. Turner. 

Centre. — Edwin Pickett, D. R. Leeper, John Rush. 

The foregoing committees were instructed to report their pro- 
ceedings to the Disbursing Committee of Portage township, con- 
sisting of the following named persons: Isaac Ford, E.Y.Clark, 
Joseph H. Massey, S. L. Cottrell, J. T. Lindsey, J. W. Chess and 
Caspar Rochstroch. 

On Monday, April 23, a meeting was held at the court- house, 
presided over by Norman Eddy, which resolved to forthwith form 
a military organization composed of citizens over the age of forty- 
five years, to arm themselves, and be drilled and held in readiness 
for duty. In a few minutes upward of SO names were obtained to 
the pledge. The company at once elected their officers, as follows: 
S. L. Cottrell, Captain; Jacob Hardman, First Lieutenant; E. C. 
Johnson, Second Lieutenant; A. A. Webster, Third Lieutenant. 
The subordinate officers were then appointed. In the afternoon the 
company paraded for drill, and marched to the depot, where they 
saluted the Elkhart Volunteers, who were on the train bound to 
Indianapolis. This movement was headed by the best men in South 
Bend, and such was the ardor and enthusiasm manifested, that a 
number of the most venerable citizens, those who served in the war 
of 1812 and the various Indian wars, pressed forward with eager- 
ness to join the ranks and tender their services again to their 
country. 

The first company was soon raised in response to the call of the 
President and Governor, and left South Bend for the rendezvous at 
Indianapolis on Friday, April 19, 1861, being the first volunteer 
company from Northern Indiana to take up its line of march. An 
immense crowd assembled at the depot, and eloquent and patriotic 
speeches were made by Rev. J. C. Reed and Schuyler Colfax. Many 
were the tears shed by fond mothers and loving wives as they bid 
farewell to the loved ones whom they might never press to their 

27 



412 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

hearts again. But there was not one of all that number who would 
have had any one of the departing boys turn back. 

For four long years the organization of new companies and 
enlistment of men for old companies, whose ranks had been deci- 
mated by disease and rebel bullets, was carried on. Gray-headed 
men who had almost reached three-score years and ten, and boys 
not yet out of their teens, went to the camp, and through the most 
urgent solicitation, were accepted and sworn into the service. 
Neither age nor youth kept them back, and when rejected from 
either cause, or from physical inability, would insist on being 
received, believing themselves as capable of doing a soldier's duty 
as thousands who had already gone. More than two thousand of 
as brave men as ever handled a musket or drew a sword went out 
from this county, many, very man)', never to return again. If one 
goes to the battle-fields of the South, he will see how these fell at 
Donelson, Shiloh, Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, 
Chickamauga, Atlanta, Vicksburg, and other places, those who were 
the pride of fond fathers, loving mothers, and unselfish, devoted 
wives. He will see them dropping off, one by one, and often, 
without coffin or burial shroud, thrown into the cold ground, there 
to await the resurrection morn, and the re-union upon the other side 
of the River of Death. In many a home throughout the county 
will be found the vacant chair, and where you will see the mourn- 
ful look of those ever watching for one that cometh not. Upon the 
streets, day by day, will be met those wearing sleeveless garments, 
or walking in a way that tells too plainly the sound of the footfall 
is not made by flesh and blood. Inquire the reason and it will be 
learned that while charging the enemies' lines at Vicksburg, Shiloh, 
or elsewhere, a cannon bail deprived them of a limb. But no word 
of complaint is heard, the only regret expressed being that it was 
not possible to do more for their country. 

The first company, as already stated, to go from this county to 
the tented field left South Bend in less than one week after the 
surrender of Fort Sumter. It became part of the 9th Regiment 
Indiana Volunteers, the muster roll of which will be found else- 
where in this work, accompanied by a historical sketch of the regi- 
ment. Among other regiments formed in part of St. Joseph 
county men were the 15th, 29th, 35th, 4Sth, 73d, 87th, 99th, 128th, 
13Sth and 155th Infantry, 4th and 12th Cavalry and 21st Battery, 
historical sketches of which are given where a full company is 
represented from the county. In the perusal of these sketches it 
will be seen that one and all bore an honorable part. The honor 
of Indiana was felt to be at stake by these brave men. The stigma 
cast upon the State by reason of the course of one of its regiments 
at the battle of Buena Vista was to be wiped out in blood. In one 
of the battles, a Captain in the 10th Indiana Regiment placed him- 
self at the head of his company and said, " Remember Buena 
Vista, boys. There's a stain upon our battle-shield that must be 
wiped out to-day." This incident was taken as a theme for a poem 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 413 

by Lieutenant A. B. Miller, of the 21st Battery, which reads as 
follows : 

Remember Buena Vista! 

Aye, Captain, that we will; 
The world shall know there's brave men left 

In Indiana still. 
The world shall know there's willing hearts, 

And willing hands also, 
To wipe from off our battle-shield 
The stain of Mexico. 

Remember Buena Vista ! 

Yes, Captain, lead us on, 
Into the thickest of the fight : 

We'll show what can ba done. 
Although the foemen double us, 

Yet we will let them know 
That Hoosier boys have not forgot 

The stain of Mexico. 

We were thinking of it, Captain 

(It was only yesterday), 
That a little skirmish now and then 
. Would not wash that stain away; 

But there must be a victory, 

Glorious and grand, you know, 
To wash from off our battle-shield 

The stain of Mexico. 

Now, Captain, lead us on, 

And see what manly stuff 
There is in our rough natures — 

We're Hoosiers, that's enough. 
We're Hoosiers, that's enough for us, 

As all the world will know ; 
When they see how tiger-like we fight, 

They'll not think of Mexico. 

***** 

Well, the fight is over, Captain, 

And we have not fought in vain ; 
Many a rebel over there 

Will not see home agiin. 
My "Enfield " did her~duty well, 

Laid many a foeman low, 
For I had not forgotten 

The stain of Mexico. 

I drew the bead on many forms 

That I had known of old, 
And saw them drop down in their tracks 

All bloody, stark and cold. 
It brought the tears into my eyes 

To see them falling so, 
But somehow I could not forget 

The stain of Mexico. 

And, Captain, when you led us up 

Before the rebel rank, 
Each soldier singled out his man 

And fired his shot, point-blank. 
The rebels fell beneath our fire, 

In a way that wasn't slow ; 
With rebel blood we washed away 

That stain of Mexico. 



iU 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



There are many hearts down yonder, 

In sunny Southern homes, 
Will mourn the loss of loved ones, 

With bitter tears and groans. 
But. it'll be the same up North, 

For here lies friend as well as foe. 
Thank God ! we've washed away at last 

That stain of Mexico. 

While the brave boys in the field were doing their whole duty, 
the patriotic men and women at home were not idle. Each and 
every one not only felt it a duty, but a blessed privilege, to render 
all the aid in their power to the families of the soldiers. Daring 
the four years of the war but little actual suffering was experienced 
by any at home on account of the absence of their natural protec- 
tors, who were serving their country. Fairs and festivals were 
held for the purpose of obtaining sanitary supplies for those in the 
field, and Soldiers' Aid Societies were continually investigating and 
relieving the wants of the needy at home. 



NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

The first regiment in which St. Joseph county was represented 
was the Ninth Indiana Volunteers, the first enlistment being under 
the three months' call, and the second for three years, or during 
the war. The following is the original muster roll of Co. I, three 
months' men: 



Andrew Anderson, jr., 
Captain. 

Henry Loring, jr., First 
Lieutenant. 

Henry J. Blowney, Sec- 
ond Lieutenant. 
Sergeants. 

Chapin, Edward P. 

Doolittle, James 

Pettit, Isaac M. 

Wheeler, John Q. 
Corporals. 

Pettit, Willis H. 

Hollinshead, George W. 

Jenkins, James H. M, 

Kreighbauin, Nathan 
Musicians. 

Badger, Henry L. 

Morrow, Charles S. 
Privates. 

Adams, Andrew 

Ames, Andrew J. 

Anderson, James 

Auten. John 

Beglen, John A. 

Bowes William 

Brezee, William 

Brezee, Henry 



Brown, Alexis 
Bunker, Miles 
Carl, John 
Carpenter, Jay S. 
Casad, Martin V. B. 
Childs, Frank W. 
Cushaw, William 
Dahuff, Amos | 
Dealman, Jacob 
Dewey, Charles A. 
Duffield, John W. 
Filch, Horace B. 
Gibson, Absalom 
Gillman, William B. 
Glassman, Peter 
Hadley, Charles 
Halsted, Riley 
Ham, Edwin 
Haupris, Philip 
Huber, Uriah 
Hunter, Orin C. 
Kelley, Charles G. 
Korp, Andrew 
Lind, George W. 
Martin, Warren 
Matthews, Sanford B. 
McCarthy, Joseph F. 
Merrifield, William M. 



Miller, David B. 
Miller Jesse 
Miller, William H. H. 
Myers, John C. 
Niles, George F. 
Nosle, John 
Parks, Seth B. 
Pierson, Lorenzo 
Peterman, Lewis C. 
Price, Charles W. 
Replogle, Andrew L. 
Reynolds, Amos 
Saudilands, James 
Shank, Daniel L. 
Sheple}-, Samuel 
Sherman, Francis M. 
Shoup, Peter D. 
Smyser, Josiah F. 
Stillson, Calvin R. 
Sweet, James H. 
Sweeney, George C. 
Tarbell, William L. 
Taylor, John 
Utter, George 
W;ule, Alfred B. 
Whitten, William 
Whitman, Martin J. 
Young, Robert 



The Ninth Regiment was organized and mustered into service, 
for three months, at Indianapolis, on the 25th of April, 1861, with 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



415 



Robert H. Milroy as Colonel. This regiment was the first that left 
the State for Western Virginia, departing from Indianapolis on the 
29th of May and arriving at Grafton on the 1st of June. From 
thence it marched toward Philippi, in the column commanded by 
Colonel Kelley, and took part in the surprise of the rebel camp at 
that place on the morning of the 3d of June. Returning to Graf- 
ton, the Ninth was assigned to Gen. Morris's brigade and partici- 
pated in all the marches and skirmishes of that command during 
its brief campaign, and in the engagements at Laurel Hill and 
Carrick's Ford. The regiment returned home in the latter part of 
July, and was finally discharged at Indianapolis soon after. 

Returning home, steps were at once taken for its re-organization 
for the three years' service. A company was formed in this county 
principally from among those who had seen service. The following 
is the roster of officers and men as accepted and sworn into service: 



James Houghton, 

Captain. 
Isaac M. Pettit, First 

Lieutenant. 
William Merrifield, 

Second Lieutenant. 
Sergeants. 
Nutt, James 
Parks, Seth B. 
Childs, Frank W. 
Holliday, Lewis A. 
Criswell, William H. 

Corporals. 
Oliver, James G. 
Sherman, Francis M. 
Miller, Jfs.se 
Pettit, Sylvester 
Boyd, Robert F. 
Sttbbins, Sherman B. 
Sherman, William L. 
Mailer, John 

Musicians. 
Badger, George I. 
Hosper, Isaac 

Wagoner. 
Calwell, William 
Privates. 
Anderson, Benjamin 
Avery, William F. 
Beck, Hanson 
Bliss, Christopher 
Bonney, William 
Brown, Thomas 
Brower, Norman V. 
Buck, Henry H. 
Clark, Ellis 
Clemments, James 
Copper, Isaiah 



Cottrell, Peter 
Crook, Clark B. 
Dahuff, Amos 
Dawley, Darius 
Dressier, Jonas C. 
Ellsworth, Norman E. 
Giles, William W. 
Oilman, Francis M. 
Gilman, William B. 
Gordon, Sylvester - 
Ham, Emmett 
Hardy, Charles E. 
Harrington, William E. 
Heckerthom, William 
Heiss, David G. 
Heiss, Samuel 
Holliday, John N. 
Halsted, Riley 
Hunter, Oren C. 
Jennings, Phineas E. 
Knowlton, John P. 
Kuney, Henry M. 
Lescohier, Charles 
Lescohier, Frederick 
Marsh, James T. 
Metzger, John A. 
Michael, Solomon 
Mosher, Melville 
Newman, Eli O. 
Nodurfth, John H. 
Norwood, David L. 
Packard, Leverene 
Parks, Horace 
Pettit, William 
Perry, Henry 
Pickett, Selah 
Pickett, Joseph 
Pidge, Charles B. 



Pitman, Warren C. 
Powers, Moses 
Pressey, Charles O. 
Reid, Samuel H. J. 
Reed, Stephen 
Rogers, Joseph 
Roper, Wallace W. 
Rosebaugh, George W. 
Shearer, Harrison 
Sherman, Ira 
Slain, Thomas 
Slough, Davi.l 
Snure, Levi P. 
Sternburgh, Peter 
Stuart, Almon 
Swintz, Henry 
Taber, Leonard H. 
Ungry, Daniel B, 
Vanoverback, August 
Willard, Frank 
Wood, Joseph 8. 
Worle, John 

Eecruits. 
Andrews. Frank M. 
Baugh, Henry 
Bonney, Benjamin 
Crampton, Taylor 
Ham, Edwin 
Kreiner, Henry O. 
Long, John A. 
Long, Isaac M. 
Reynolds, Amos 
Slaughter, Jacob 
Tober, Winfield S. 
Taber, Niles 

Substitute. 
Dressier, Josiah F. 



The Ninth Regiment was mustered into the United States ser- 
vice at La Porte Sept. 5, 1861, for three years, or during the war. 
Soon after it was moved, in command of Colonel Robert H. Milroy, 



416 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPa COUNTY. 

to Western Virginia, proceeding by rail to "Webster, where it dis- 
embarked and marched to Elkwater valley, and from thence to 
Cheat Mountain Summit, where winter quarters were built, the 
regiment remaining there until the 9th of January, 1862. During 
this time the regiment participated in the battles of Green Brier, 
Oct. 3, and of Allegheny on the 13th of December, 1861. It then 
marched to Fetterman, Virginia, where it remained until the 19th 
of February, when it was transferred to General Bueli's army, 
being transported by rail to Cincinnati, and from thence by steamer 
to Nashville. Here it was assigned to General Nelson's division, 
and marched on the 29th of March, to the Tennessee river, reaching 
there in time to participate in the second day's engagement at Shi- 
loh. From there it marched to Corinth, Mississippi, and after the 
evacuation pursued the rebels to Boonvilie. It then marched to 
Nashville, by way of Athens, Alabama, and Franklin and Murfrees- 
boro, Tennessee. From thence it moved to Bowling Green, Ken- 
tucky, and back again to Nashville. From the latter place the 
Ninth marched to Louisville, Kentucky, and from there, in the 
pursuit of Bragg, through Bardstown, Perryville, Danville, Camp 
Dick Robinson, Crab Orchard and London, to the Wild Cat Moun- 
tains, and returned to Nashville, through Crab Orchard, Somerset, 
Columbia and Glasgow. During this march the regiment was 
engaged in the battles of Perryville, Danville and Wild Cat moun- 
tain. The Ninth then marched to Murfreesboro, where it partici- 
pated in the battle of Stone River, December 31, 1S62, and Jan. 1 
and 2, 1S63; after which it marched across the Cumberland moun- 
tains and the Tennessee river to Chattanooga. On the 19th and 
20th of September, it was engaged in the battle of Chickamauga. 
After its return to Chattanooga it participated in the battles of 
Lookout Mountain, November 21th, and Mission Ridge on the 25th 
of November, after which it marched over the Cumberland moun- 
tains to Bridgeport, Alabama, and from there to Whiteside, Ten- 
nessee. At the latter place the Ninth re-enlisted as a veteran 
organization, on Dec. 12, 1863. The regiment returned to the 
State on veteran furlough, and on the 21st of February, 1864, left 
Valparaiso, Indiana, for the front, passing through Indianapolis, 
Madison, Louisville, Nashville and Chattanooga to Cleveland, Ten- 
nessee. In the spring of 1S6-1 the Atlanta campaign was commenced, 
the Ninth participating in all the marches of that campaign, 
through Ringold, Dalton, Resaca, Kingston, Calhoun, Cassville, 
around the Alatoona mountains, through Ackworth, Big Shanty, 
Marietta, the investment of Atlanta, in the flank movement around 
Atlanta, through Jonesboro and Lovejov. and back again to Atlanta, 
taking part in the skirmishing on the route, and in the engage- 
ments at Taylor's Ridge, Buzzard's Roost, Dalton, Resaca, Cass- 
ville, Dallas. New Hope Church, Kenesaw mountain, Marietta, 
Peach Tree creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy. It then par- 
ticipated in the retrogade movement in the pursuit of Hood's army, 
to Dalton. and thence through Snmmerville, Georgia, Galesville, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



417 



Bridgeport, Stevenson and Hnntsville to Athens, Alabama. From 
thence it marched to Pulaski, Tennessee, arriving there November, 

1864. Falling back before Hood's advance, on the 26th of Novem- 
ber, it was engaged in the fight at Columbia, in the heavy skir- 
mishing that followed on the route to Franklin, and in the severe 
engagement at that place. Dec. 1 the Ninth entered Nashville, 
and Dec. 15, participated in the battle of Nashville; after which it 
set out with the army in pursuit of Hood's retreating rebels, fol- 
lowing them to Hnntsville, Alabama, when the pursuit was aban- 
doned. It remained at the latter place from Jan. 16 to March 13, 

1865, when it marched into East Tennessee beyond Bull's Gap, 
and back again, reaching Nashville on the 25th of May. Soon 
after it was transferred to the vicinity of New Orleans, and after- 
ward to Texas, where it remained as part of General Sheridan's 
army of occupation until September, 1865, when it was mustered 
out of service and returned to Indiana. 

The following promotions were made during the war: Isaac M. 
Pettit, from First Lieutenant to Captain; James Nutt, from 
Orderly Sergeant to First Lieutenant, then Captain; "William H. 
Criswell, from Sergeant to Second, then First Lieutenant; Seth B. 
Parks, from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant; Frank W. Childs, 
from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant. 

Co. I, of this regiment, had three officers killed in battle and one 
died of wounds received in battle; of the privates, three werekilled 
in battle, and fifteen died of wounds received, or from disease. 



FIFTEENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

The Fifteenth Regiment was originally organized as one of the 
six regiments of State troops, at La Fayette, in May, 1861, and was 
re-organized and mustered into the United States service for three 
years, at the same place, June 14, 1861, with George D. Wagner 
as Colonel. St. Joseph county was represented by Co. B, in this 
regiment, and by one member in Co. A. The following are the 
names of officers and enlisted men from this county: 



Adjutant. 
John E. George, 
Edwin Nicar. 

Captain. 
Alexander Fowler. 
Lieutenants. 
John H. Gardner, 
John E. George. 

Sergeants. 

Nicar, Edwin 
Haller, Joseph 
Owens, John 
Weed, William H. 
Pegg, William A. 
Corporals. 
Turnock, Edwin 
Curtis, Samuel F. 



Whitman, Scott 
Miliken, Noyea 
Metcalf, Henry II. 
Kimble, Barclay 
Halligan, Patrick 
Purse'll, Edwin 

Musicians. 
Johnson, Henry 
Curtis, John C. 

Wagoner. 
Crakes, George 

Privates. 
Anderson, William S. 
Baker, John F. 
Baker, Nelson C. 
Barnhart, Frederick 
Bedker, Frederick 



Bertrand, Alexander 
Bertrand, Victor 
Brick, Charles 
Briggs, Luther 
Bucher, George 
Burke, Patrick, 
Clarke, Pierce T. 
Clogher, Peter A. 
Castelle, Bernard 
Cox, Lemuel 
Cooper, Henry 
Dahuff, Nathan 
Dagraft", Frank 
Devoy, Francis 
Doyle, William E. 
Finch, Walter L. 
Fuller, Cornelius 
Gardner, James M. 



418 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Garaghty, John 
Goodin, Daniel A. 

Guy, Thomas 
Hague, John M. 
Ham, Thomas 
Hamilton, James M. 
Harris, Edmund 
Hargis, John 
Harris, Martin V. 
Hennessey, Michael 
Higgins, James 
Hight, William 
Hill, William 
Hillebran, Oliver H. 
Hosrle, William H. H. 
Holland, William A. 
Hoover, James H. 
Huston, Harrison 
Huntsinger, Edwin 
Keck, Alfred A. 
Knapp, Charles M. 
Leudenberger, Michael 
Logan, Robert L. 



Lucia, Sheffield 
Macy, Abijah 
McDonald, Michael 
Markel, Benjamin F. 
Martin, Horace 
Martin, Jacob 
Melvin, William T. 
Miller, Ludwig 
Norman, James 
Parks, John 
Peck, Abi-1 R. 
Pegg, Charles B. 
Perrault, Edward 
Pierce, Thomas V. 
Replogle, William 
Rockwell, Evi 
Rhoads, Gilbert 
Ruley, Salathiel 
Schutt, Joseph 
Shearer, Henry 

Smith, Ferdinand. 

Swaney, John 
Sweeney, James 



Telford, Jacob 
Tinsley, Francis I. 
Trueblood, Adolphus 
Trueblood, Hamarchs 
Trueblood, William 
Tutt, John F. 
Tutt, Robert E. 
Van Nest, John 
Van Riper, James 
Varney, William C. 
Watkins, William 
White, George 
Zimmerman, John B. 

Recruits. 
Clark, Joseph M. 
Corcoran, Anthony 
Hague, John 
Huey, Melvin G. 
Martindale, Henry W. 
Munger, Erastus 
Schenck, Daniel C. 
Thomas, William H. 



Company B lost in killed six men, while twelve died from disease 
or of wounds received in battle. Capt. Alexander Fowler was pro- 
moted Major Oct. 21, 1801, and resigned Oct. 2S, 1862, for 
promotion to Colonel of 99th Regiment. John E. George was 
promoted Captain Co. B, and resigned May 21, 1864. Edwin Nicar 
was promoted from a Sergeant to Second Lieutenant of Co. B, and 
then First Lieutenant Co. A. Joseph Haller was promoted Second 
Lieutenant Dec. 1S61, and First Lieutenant July 24, 1862, and 
mustered out at expiration of term. Edwin Turnock was commis- 
sioned Second Lieutenant July 24, 1862, and Captain, May 22, 1864. 

Soon after the organization of the Fifteenth Regiment, it moved 
to Indianapolis, which place it left on the first of July, 1861, for 
"Western Virginia, stopping at Cincinnati until the 4th of July. 
Proceeding by rail to Clarksburg, it marched from thence to Rich 
Mountain, where it arrived on the 11th, while the battle was in 
progress, and next day formed part of the pursuing force, assisting 
in the capture of many prisoners. The regiment was afterward 
stationed at Elkwater valley, where it remained until Nov. 19, 
taking an active part in the operations of General Reynolds that 
season, among which were the repulse of General Lee and battle of 
Green Brier. The Fifteenth left Huttonsville Nov. 19, and reported 
to General Buell at Louisville, the last of the same month. It took 
an active part in the campaign under General Buell, arriving at 
Shiloh during the battle, in time to render excellent service; was 
constantly on duty during the siege of Corinth, and took part in 
the closiug scenes of the battle of Perryville. In the pursuit of 
Bragg toward Cumberland Gap, the duty was arduous, forced 
marches and skirmishes being the daily routine for some time. In 
November, 1862, in connection with other troops, the regiment 
marched to Nashville, wdiere the army of the^Cumberland was re- 
organized under General Rosecrans. 



Col. Wagner was appointed 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 419 

a Brigadier General Nov. 29, and Lieutenant Colonel Gus- 
tavus A. Wood was commissioned his successor. In the march 
toward Murfreesboro it participated, and in the battle of Stone River, 
Dec. 31, 1S62, and January 1st and 2d, 1863, it bore a conspicuous 
part, losing 197 officers and men killed and wounded, out of 440 
engaged. After this the regiment remained at Murfreesboro until 
June 24, taking part in the various expeditions sent out from that 
place. It then marched to Tullahoma, where, as part of Crittenden's 
corps, it aided in turning the rebel position on the left, compelling 
the evacuation of Tullahoma. The regiment then remained in 
camp at Pelham, Tennessee, until Aug. 17, when the army advanced 
on Chattanooga, General Wagner's brigade, of which the Fifteenth 
was a portion, being the first to enter Chattanooga. Here the regi- 
ment performed post duty from Sept. 9 until shortly before the 
battle of Mission Ridge, in which engagement it participated, suf- 
fering heavily. Its loss was 202 out of 334 engaged, being over 
sixty per cent. The day after the battle it marched with other 
troops to the relief of General Burnside, at Knoxville, marching 
the whole distance — over 100 miles— in 60 days; a great many of 
the men without shoes, and all on very short rations. The regi- 
ment remained in the vicinity of Knoxville, on very severe duty, 
without baggage or tents, and with very little to eat, until February, 
1864, when it was ordered to Chattanooga to do garrison duty. 
While there a portion of the regiment enlisted, Feb. 15, 1864. 
It remained at that place, under General Steadman, until June 16, 
1S64, when, in obedience to orders from General Thomas, it left for 
Indianapolis, to be mustered out of the service, its time having 
expired on the 14th of June. A detachment of veterans and 
recruits were left behind, and these were transferred to the 17th 
regiment of Indiana Volunteers (mounted infantry) in the month 
of June, 1S64, and served with that organization until Aug. S, 1S65, 
when it was finally discharged. 

TWENTY-NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

The next regiment of volunteers composed in part of St Joseph 
county men was that of the 29th Infantry Regiment. The follow- 
ing names comprise those who enlisted from the county: 

Colonel. Captain. Taylor, John 

John F. Miller. Frank A. Hardman. Eddy, Owen M. 

Major. Lieutenants. Corporals. 

Henry J. Blowney. John C. Myers, Sipes, Levi H. 

Quartermaster. Henry E. Hain. Shanks, Daniel L. 

James B. McCurdy. Co. C— Privates. Whitney, Alden 

Chaplain. Butler, Alfred A. Glass, John 

Joseph C. Reed. Crouch, Ayers, Schenck, Charles W. 

<Z,irnenn Croch, David W. Allcock, Zachariah 

t ■ _ aurg ° on - Hall, Hiram A. Shields, Robert 

Lewis Humphreys. Cg F _ s m Groff, Charles W. 

Assistant Surgeons. Goodrich, Isaac B. Musicians. 

John M. Stover, Paige, Timothy Eller, Homer C. 

Jacob R. Brown. Stillson, Calvin Epps, George J. 



420 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Wagoner. 
Lash, William 

Privates. 
Anderson, John W. 
Augustine, William H. 
Aubert, Antony 
Baker, Israel 
Bentley, Franklin O. 
Bowers, Samuel 
Bowers, Casper 
Boquet, Joseph A. 
Brown, Ashbel M. 
Brewer, Lewis 
Brewer, William H. 
Burdick, Joseph N. 
Burke, Joseph 
Caudle, Joseph 
Christy, Solomou W- 
Duffield, John W. 
Dodd, William H. 
Earls, Asa 
Frame, David M. 
Gillan, James M. 
Hagertv, Rowen 
Hardy Fritz 
Hardy, Jacob 
Judie, Daniel 
Kiner, John W. 
Lario, Augustus 
Lario, Augustus A. 
Lioneous, Augustus 
Mangus, Solomon 
Mangus, Elias 
Mangus, Peter 
Mangus, Eli 
Manuel, Simon 
Mapes, Henry 
Matlock, Samuel S. 
Miller, David B. 
Miller, Solomon C. 
Morehouse, Daniel R. 
Munday, Warren. 
Parks, Henry F. 
Pail', John 
Pratt, William 
Quigley, George W. 
Rentfrow, Turpen 
Rizor, George W. 
Rice, Elum 

Schenck, Chrincyance I. 
Segel, Bernhard 
Shearer, Adam W. 
Shultz, William M. 
Shultz, Abraham S. 
Sheddrick, Henry C. 
Snyder, Jerry D, 
Steimer, Frederick 
Swintz, Andrew 
Tipton, Edward 
Traub, John J. 
Williams, Albion A. 
Williams, Henry S.j 
Whitman, Daniel E. 



Wood, William 
York, Nathan 

Recruits. 
Brewer, Peter 
Blyler, James M. 
Black, William 
Reynolds, Virgil 

Co. G. — Sergeants. 
Vanderhoff, John W. 
Adle, Henry 

Corporal. 
Miller, Aaron H. 

Musician. 
Abbott, Alfred R. 

Privates. 
Abbott, James 
Cunningham, Francis 
Daugherty, Jacob 
Donaldson, James M. 
Gould, Wheeler 
Hicks, Philip 
Haskin, Joseph J. 
Lapp, Henry 
Roberts, Amos H. 
Usher, John E. 
Vader, Seth 
Ocker, John A. 

Co. n. — Recruits. 
Ault, John 
Allen, Charles D. 
Adams, Andrew 
Buckley, Charles 
Becraft, John 
Conover, Jefferson 
Delaney, William 
Flagel, Frederick 
Francis, George 
Green, Ezra 
Green, John 
Goodrich, Alexander 
George, Parkinson F. 
Harding, Edward 
Holwell, Henry 
Jones, Asa 
Keller, David 
Laughton, Nelson 
Laughton, Lewis 
Lafevre, Oscar P. 
Lenegar, Isaac 
Miller, Elias 
McLean, Owen 
Musson, Alonzo 
Mareen, James P. 
Miller, Jacob W. 
McDonald, Anson M. 
Muttesbaugh, Benjamin F. 
Price, Charles W. 
Porter, Daniel 
Rennoe, David M. 
Smyzer, Josiah F. 
Swigert, Daniel 
Streable, William J. 



Senior, Louis 
Surdam, George 
Thornton, Martin 
Thomas, Quigley 
Willis, Anthony 
Willard, David F. 

Co. K. — Sergeants. 
Ducomb, Phillip 
Moon, John R. 
Henderson, Edwin 
Welch, Daniel T. 
Corporals. 
Bunch, Joseph A. 
Ducomb, James M. 
Sample, John 
Mauntz, Andrew 
Wyun, Jacob 
Henderson, Richard J. 
Swezey, Charles J. 

31usicians. 
Perry, Henry 
Decamp, Aurelius 

Wagoner. 
Leonard, Abner 

Privates. 
Aldrich, Luke 
Annis, Lorenzo 
Annis, William 
Bailey, Simon 
Bunch, John L. 
Burnsides, William B. 
Cole, Tobias 
Cline, William 
Cotton, Wilson C. 
Donahue, John 
Elder, John M. 
Fogus, Jasper 
Hildebrand, John 
Hathaway, Henry C. 
Hathaway, Jesse 
Hart JohnW. 
Henderson, Dayton 
Henderson, Paris 
Hildebrand, Elijah 
Hughes, John 
Huyler, Simon S. 
Jnckson, William 
Kirkendall, Philip 
King, Nelson 
Lamb, John A. 
Mangus, Frederick 
Mangus, John 
McGuire, Morgan 
Mountz, Eli 
Oliver, Zebadiah 
Ream, Charles 
Seybold, Benjamin F. 
Smith, Francis M. 
Steiner, Benjamin F. 
Tener, Henry 
Tener, Philip 
Tener, Samuel 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COCNTY. 421 

Wolverton, Burroughs Jay, Henry B. Ritter, Benjamin 

Wood, John Murphy, Henry Steiner, Henry 

Wynn, John C. Miller, Daniel Watkins, Rezin 

Recruits. Ott, John Whitenian, Samuel T, 

Beal, Harrison Parker, Thomas Wood, Delos 

Henry, James B Roberts, Levi Willey, John 

Jackson Hiram E- Rose, Samuel J. 

Out of the various companies that went from this county, five 
laid down their lives upon the field of battle, one was drowned in 
the Tennessee river, four died in Andersonville prison, and 28 
others died from wounds or disease, among the latter being Capt. 
Frank A. Hardman. Among the promotions in Company F, 
John J. Tranb was promoted from the ranks to 2d Lieutenant; 
Robert Shields, from Corporal to 2d and then 1st Lieutenant; Al- 
den Whitney, from Corporal to 2d Lieutenant; Calvin R. Stillsom, 
from Sergeant to 2d Lieutenant; Henry E. Hain, from 2d to 1st 
Lieutenant; John Taylor, from Sergeant to 1st Lieutenant and then 
Captain. 

The Twenty-Ninth Regiment was organized at La Porte, and 
mustered into service for three years, Aug. 27, 1861, with John 
F. Miller, of South Bend, as Colonel. October 9 it joined Gen- 
eral Rosseau's command at Camp Nevin, Kentucky, and moved with 
the army to the vicinity of Mumfordsville, remaining there until 
the movement upon Bowling Green was commenced in February, 
1862. Reaching Nashville in March, it moved with McCook's 
division to the Tennessee river, and participated in the battle ot 
Shiloh on the 7th of April. In this engagement the regiment was 
under tire for more than five hours, suffering severely in killed and 
wounded . 

In the siege of Corinth it took an active part, and upon the 
evacuation moved with Buell's army, through northern Alabama 
and Tennessee into Kentucky, and following in the pursuit ot 
Bragg through the latter State, returning to Nashville in December. 
Marching with Rosecrans' army toward Mnrfreesboro, it partici- 
pated in the battle of Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 1 and 
2. 1863, losing many men and officers. After the occupation ot 
Mnrfreesboro the regiment remained at that place until May, when 
it moved forward with Rosecrans' army to Tullahoma, and after- 
ward to Chattanooga. In addition to the engagements before 
mentioned, the 29th, after joining Rosecrans' army, participated in 
the skirmishes had with the enemy at Levergne, Triune and Lib- 
erty Gai>. In the great battle of Chickamauga the regiment was 
engaged both days, and sustained heavy losses. After this battle 
the regiment was stationed at Bridgeport, Alabama, where it re- 
enlisted as a veteran organization Jan. 1, 1864, and the same 
month proceeded to Indianapolis on veteran furlough. 

On returning to the field the regiment was stationed at Chatta- 
nooga, where it remained until December, when it moved to 
Decatur, Alabama, and was engaged in a skirmish at that place 
Dec. 27, 1864. Returning to Chattanooga it remained at that 



422 



IIISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COL'NTT. 



place until May, 1S65, when it moved to Dalton, Georgia, where it 
participated in a skirmish with the enemy. Subsequently the 29th 
marched to Marietta, Georgia, where it was stationed in October, 
1865. Jan. 5, 1864, Colonel Miller (who, since the month of Feb- 
ruary, 1862, had been serving as Post and Brigade Commander at 
Nashville and elsewhere) was promoted to Brigadier-Genei-al, 
whereupon Lieutenant-Colonel David M. Dunn was commissioned 
Colonel. 

FOKTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTKT. 



This regiment was represented by three entire companies of 
St. Joseph county volunteers, — B,, E and F. The following are 
the names of those in the original roster, together with the recruits: 



Colonel. 
Norman Eddy. 

Adjutant. 
Edward P. Stanfield. 

^'iri/eons. 
Levi J. Hani, 
Sylvester Lulling. 

Assistant Surgeon. 
W. W. Butterworth. 

Co. B. — Captain. 
William H. Sutphen, 

Lieutenants. 
Asa Knott, 
George H. Loring. 

Sergeants. 
Collins, Thomas J. 
Jaqith, Albert D. 
Augustine, Jacob 
Coulter, John C. 
Rhone, Abraham 

Corporals. 
Nelson, James 
Nickals, Henry S. 
Asbshire, Thomas H. 
Clark, Joshua 
Buckels, Enoch F. 
McBride, Clark 
Ruddiek, Daniel 

Musicians. 
Saunders, William S. 
Wells, Ozias W. 

Wagoner. 
Whitmore, William 

Privates. 
Adams, Jerome 
Baxter, William 
Biddle, Thomas 
Barre, William 
Bowen, Joseph 
Bowen, Abner 
Bowers, Isaiah 
Brown, Benjamin F. 
Behee, Leonard 



Cushman, Silas 
Carr, Joseph 
Cathrell, Levi 
Clay, Sylvanus 
Crites, Philip 
Classon, Isaac 
Cripe, Jonathan 
Caslet, William W. 
Duwit, Martin 
Dunham, John E. 
Edwards, Andrew J. 
Fowler, Joseph W. 
Finch, John 
Fuller, Amos 
Frame, Lewis 
Frame, Nely 
Felkner, William H. 
Frazer, David 
Gillon, Edward 
Gordon, William 
Ganoung, Harvey 
Heston, Amos 
Herchelrode, John 
Harriman, John 
Howe, Peter J. 
Horn, John 
Hunt, Jesse 
Hiley, Samuel 
Hall, George 
Hay, John 
James, Joel 
Jones, John L. 
Kelly, Levi 
Kline, John 
Kolb, Mathias 
Kizar, Henry 
Kullner, Henry 
Liba, Cornelius B. 
Liggett, Joseph S. 
Loy, Michael 
Miller, Miles H. 
Moyer, Maynard 
McCullom, William 
Moore, Alonzo 
Mougo, Lewis 



Monroe, George 
McCormick, James 
Nihart, James M. 
Pearson, Samuel 
Reddick, David 
Rays, John B. 
Ritter, Jacob 
Ross, Benjamin H. 
Ross, Joseph M. 
Sheak, Benjamin 
Saeger, Josiah 
Sously, John 
Shepherd, Charles 
Shismadine, Edward 
Straub, Paul 
Swathwood, Jonathan 
Tashur, John C. 
Valentine, Michael 
Wheeler, Michael 
Wykoff, George 
Wyckeun, Worthy 
Whitman, James E. 
Webster, Christopher 
Wells, William H. 
Wheeler, Peter 
Woollett, Michael 
Wiggins, John 
Ziegler, James 

Recruits. 
Biddle, Henry N. 
Bossier, Simon Z. 
Bradley, Luther 
Brookney, George W. 
Blackman, Sylvester 
Bruner, Franklin 
Brower, Reuben L. 
Busby, Thomas C. 
Casteller, Benton W. 
Caldwell, Archibald 
Clelland, Jonathan 
Collins, Samuel B. 
Custer, James 
Cripe, David R. 
Donaldson, James H. 
Decamp, Simeon 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



423 



Dewitt, Martin 
Davis, Charles D. 
Emberlin, Alexander 
Emberlin, John H. 
Edginton, William 
Elkins, Reuben 
Eaglebarger, Hartman 
Fifer, William 
Fifer, Jacob 
Fabim, John 
Fisher, Moses 
Gaddis, John W. 
Klickinger, Philip 
Little, Hoburt 
Layne, Logan A. 
Lobdell, Taylor 
Morris, George S. 
Miner, Eli W. 
Marolet, John 
Pierson, Hart E. 
Perry, Albert 
Preston, Leonard Z. 
Power, William H. 
Perrin, John 
Replogle, Noah 
Reaves. John M. 
Rupe, William H. 
Raustead, John 
Reaves, Riley 
Roland, George 
Ramsby, Ephraim 
Russel, William W. 
Ridenour, George W. 
Stuck, Daniel 
Slater, Silas L. 
Schwartz, John 
Shafer, John D. 

Scrantin, Francis W. 

Saltsgiver, Franklin J. 

Sallenberger, Thomas 

Whorwell, Adolphus W 

Weaver, Jacob 

Winebreuer, James 

Wiess, Enoch R. 

Co. E. — Captain- 

Thomas B. Roberts. 
Lieutenants. 

David F. Spain, 

George W. Hart. 
Sergeants. 

Spain, William B. 

Kelley, Charles G. 

Miller, William H. 

Pidge, Edwin F. 

Stiner, Daniel B. 
Corporals. 

Lapierre, John A. M, 

Alexander, John E. 

Simonton, Thomas 

Johnson, John 

Jones, Silas 

Tarble, William L. 



Shepley, Samuel M. 
Martin, John 

Musicians. 

Johnson, Charles T. 
Hoge, Israel. 

Wagoner. 
Trueblood, Ephraim O. 

Privates. 
Annick, Samuel 
Archambo, Joseph 
Bauard, Enzel 
Bertraud, Charles 
Becknell, Edward 
Becknell, Ananias 
Black, William 
Blyler, Andrew J. 
Blyler, John 
Bonebrake, Abraham F. 
Bresette, Edward J. 
Britton, Henry 
Brown, Jesse 
Burn, Henry 
Copen, Robert B. 
Casada, Samuel 
Catey, Wilson 
Chaudonia, Theodore T. 
Cottrell, Samuel 
Cottrell, John L. 
Coquillard, Augustus 
Coquillard, George W. 
Cum, Edward 

Darr, Franklin 

Doughty, George W. E. 

Drake, John 

Dudley, William 

Ellis, James 

Frederick, Benjamin 

Fritzer, John I. 

Fritzer, Nicholas 

Gephart, William 

Gipson, William 

Gokey, Ezra 

Grindle, Henry 

Hann, John 

Haight, James 

Haney, Alpheus 

Hunter, Robert 

Junnel, Martin 

Kollar, Josiah D. 

Kollar, James 

Kitung, Reuben 

Kembel, Alexander M. 

Kembel, Frederick T. 

Kerns, Elisha 

Lamountain, Charles 

Larimer, Ebenezer 

Larimer, John 

Leech, James 

Myers, Benjamin 

Matthews, Joseph 

Matlock, Thomas 

McDonald, Perry 

Miller, Moses 



Neddo, John 
Omea, George 
PetHey, Henry 
Palmer, Elias 
Peterman, George W. 
Pray, Leander C. 
Rana, Peter 
Rokestraw, Elmsley P. 
Rockhill, Jasper N. 
Replogle, Joseph W. 
Ronell, William F. 
Sipes, Jacob 
Slusser, Obadiah B. 
Slusser, Oliver E. 
Shelmadine, John 
Sharp, George 
Stiner, Frederick 
Stonebaugh, Peter S . 
Stockman, John J. 
Stock, John J. 
Tattle, Francis D. 
Weiss, John 
White, John 
Wikeson, Levi 
Watkins, George 
Warner Jacob 
Zanger, Charles 
Recruits. 

Bowles, Lewis M. 
Barton, James 
Beckwell, Edward 
Butler, Rolla 
Brunson, Reuben 
Campbell, Alvin G. 
Carr, Cyrus 
Cousins, William 
Den son, George 
Dunlap, William T. 
Dugan, John D. 
Douglass, Robert B. 
Eason, John I. 
Forwood, Amos 
Fox, Simon W. 
Hench, Samuel M. 
Hand, Henry N. 
Kilpatrick, Azariah 
Lockhart, William P. 
Lee, William R. 
Levi, Lisle L. 
Morse, Lemuel 
Marts, Daniel 
Morrille, James 
McGraw, John 
McGinnis, William 
Miller, Charles H. 
Newhouse, Alexander 
Olinger, Cyrus 
Phelps, George S. 
Pickerell, Hugh 
Prebble, Alexander J. 
Phillips, Hector 
Potts, John 
"lobison, Andrew M. 



\l 



424 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Rawson, Thomas 
Slocum, Daniel H. 
Saunders, Charles W. 
Thompson, John W. 
Thompson, William H. 
Wheeler, John W. 
Wilson, Ira A. 
Whitlow, James B. 
York, Francis M. 

Co. F. — Captain. 
Barnett Byrkett. 

Lieutenants. 
William A. Judkins, 
Crawford McDonald. 

Sergeants. 
Bingham, Newton 
Ham, Edwin 
Caldwell, William 
Evans, ArnosE. 
Crampton, Adelbert 

Corporals. 
Curtis, Alfred 
Robbison, John L. 
Mason, Charles 
Keifer, Jacob 
Andrews, Michael 
Sandals, John 
Crakes, Thomas 
Anderson, James 

Musicians. 
Perry, George E. 
Uline, Barney. 

Wagoner. 

Myers, Joseph 

Privates. 
Albert, John 
Alger, Pratt 
Allison, George 
Andrews, Lewis 
Babbit, Lewis 
Beiter, Constantine 
Bowker, Matthew 
Boyce, Nathan 
Chapin, William H. 
Cline, John 
Cook, Henry 
Coghill, Josiah 
Corn, Albert 
Cushan, William 
Deppiu, Isaac N. 
Dewey, Charles A. 
Doolittle, John 
Doolittle, Holden A. 
Doolittle, George W. 
Elder, James 
Finch, William 



Fitch, Horace B. 

Garrison, George A. 

Ghrist, Wesley 

Gouyer, Andrew 

Grant, Alexander 

Grop, Jacob 

Hadley, Charles 

Hall, Thomas 

Hann, George 

Haskell, George 

Heiss, Elam W. 

Heiss, Daniel B. 

Heiner, William 

Hopkins, William C. 

Hopkins, Hiram H. 

Hurley, John 

Hurley, William B. 

Hutchinson, William 

Johnson, Thomas 

Kerns, John A. 

Kirkwood, Thomas 

Kling, John 

Lahman, Henry 

Lampert, Ovid W. 

Leslie, William F. 

Livenwood, Joseph A. 

Lees, James 

Lyttle, John G. 

Mine, Casper 

Metcalf, Joel 
McAchren, Joseph D. 
McCarry, Edward S. 
Michael, Edmond 

Michael, John 
More, Ephraim 
Mots, David 
Myers, David 
Myers, Henry 
Owens, Micajah 
Poobaugh, Philip 
Porter, Samuel 
Riffle, David 
Ritchardt, George C. 
Rockwell, Willard 
Roper, James Albert 
Ruple, Charles E. 
Sebring, Charles 
Sheldon, Stephen F. 
Shields, Patrick 
Shirley, Albert 
Schoulder, Ernst 
Smith, Madison R. 
Sweitzer, David 
Underwood, Anderson C. 
Underwood, Henry H. 
Varney, Burton 
Watkins, James 
Wilhelm, John 



Wisel, Madnel 

Williams, Jonas 

Wilson, Thomas 
Recruits. 

Arnold, Samuel 

Briggs, James M. 

Baker, Solomon 

Barntrager, George 

Buck, Horace H. 

Carpenter, Albert H. 

Carithus, David 

Casnaw, William 

Cary, Abram 

Deshyne, Emanuel 

Eagle, John D. 

Fuller, Warren 

Frank, Andrew J. 

Galligher, Charles G. 

Grise, Franklin 

Guise, John M. 

Goldsberry, Henry " 

Haswell, Lewis R. 

Holloway, William 

Judkins.'William H. 

Kelly, John 

Kassins, Albert H. 
Leavitt, Jr., Philander C. 
Lampart, Almarin W. 
Milstead, Frank 
Pellett, Henry 
Parrott, John R. 
Personett, Isaac R. 
Robbins, Levi 
Reed, Joseph W. 
Sheak, Benjamin 
Squires, Benjamin D. 
Smith, Nelson G. 
Smith, John W. 
Smith, Henry 
Snyder, John M. 
Stevens, Henry 
Saurs, Edwin 
Sedinger, Philip 
Sherman, John Q. A. 
Sims, Charles 
Sheldon, Moses J. 
Shirley, Ephraim 
Tuppe'r, Frank 
Wedgeworth, James R. 
Wilson, William H. 

Co. A. — Captain. 
Abner J. Dean. 

Co. O. — Captain. 
Newton Bingham. 

Co. H. — Captain. 
Henry Milburn. 



Many promotions were made in the various companies, among 
whom Thomas J. Collins was promoted from First Sergeant to First 
Lieutenant, and then Captain; Jacob Augustine, from Sergeant to 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 425 

First Lieutenant and then Captain; Albert D. Jaquitli from Ser- 
geant to Second Lieutenant; Enoch F. Buckles, from Corporal to 
Second Lieutenant; David F. Spain, from First Lieutenant to 
Captain; George W. Hart, from Second to First Lieutenant, and 
Captain; William B. Spain, from Sergeant to Second and then 
First Lieutenant; William H. Miller, from Sergeant to Second 
Lieutenant and Captain; Oliver E. Slusser, from private to Second 
Lieutenant; John A. M. Lapierre, from Corporal to First Lieu- 
tenant and Adjutant; Charles T. Chaudonia, from First Lieutenant 
to Captain; George W. Coquillard, from private to First Lieu- 
tenant; Barnett Byrkett, from Captain to Major, and then Lieu- 
tenant Colonel; William A. Judkins, from First Lieutenant to 
Captain; Crawford McDonald, from Second to First Lieutenant; 
Barney Uhline, from Musician to First Lieutenant; William 
Caldwell, from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant and then Captain; 
Charles Mason, from Corporal to Second Lieutenant. The loss of 
the companies from this county were 8 killed, and 48 died of 
diseases or of wounds received in battle. 

The Forty-Eighth Regiment was organized at Goshen on the 6th 
of December, 1861, with Norman Eddy as Colonel, and left for 
Fort Donelson by way of Cairo, Feb. 1, 1S62, where it arrived the 
day after the surrender. It then moved to Paducah, where it 
remained until May, when it moved up the Tennessee river and 
engaged in the siege of Corinth. After theevacuation of "Corinth 
it was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division of the Army 
of the Mississippi, and took part in marches and countermarches 
in pursuit of General Price. On the 19th of September it partici- 
pated in the battle of Iuka, losing 116 men in killed and wounded, 
out of 420 engaged. Oct. 3 and 4 it was engaged in the second 
battle of Corinth, under Rosecrans, and lost 26 killed and wounded. 
The regiment next moved down the Mississippi Central railroad 
as far as Oxford, Mississippi, and on its return marched to Mem- 
phis, where, in January, 1S63, it was assigned to the First Brigade, 
Seventh Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps. After remain- 
ing here two months it was transported down the Mississippi, and 
oining the army of General Grant, marched with it to the rear of 

icksburg. During this campaign the regiment participated in 
the skirmish of Forty Hills, May 3; the battle of Raymond, May 
13; the battle of Jackson on the 14th, and the engagement at 
Champion Hills on the 16th, losing in the latter battle 33 killed 
and wounded. It was actively engaged in the trenches during the 
long siege of the rebel works at Vicksburg, and took part in the 
assault May 22, losing 38 in killed and wounded. 

At the surrender of Vicksburg it remained in that vicinity until 
August, and then moved up the river to Memphis, and from thence 
marched across the country to Chattanooga, and while in that 
vicinity engaged the enemy at Tunnel Hill. From the latter place 
it marched back to Huntsville, Alabama, and while stationed there 
in January, 1864, the regiment re-enlisted as a veteran organization, 



$ 



426 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



and returned home on veteran furlough, reaching Indianapolis 
Feb. 6, with 369 veterans, and on the 8th were publicly received 
in welcoming speeches by Governor Morton and others. After 
the expiration of its furlough it proceeded to Huntsville, Alabama, 
where it remained until June. 

The Forty-Eighth then moved to Cartersville, Georgia, and was 
kept on duty in that vicinity, looking after the guerrillas and pro- 
tecting General Sherman's railroad communications during the 
campaign against Atlanta. It was continued on this duty until 
Hood's invasion, when it joined Sherman's army, and marched with 
the First Brigade, Third Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, in 
its campaign from Atlanta to Savannah. From Savannah it first 
moved to Beaufort, and then on the campaign through the Caro- 
linas, going through Columbia, Cheraw, Fayetteville and Goldsboro 
to Raleigh. From Raleigh it moved northward, after the surrender 
of Johnson's army, making the distance from Raleigh to Peters- 
burg, 165 miles, in six days. From Petersburg it marched to 
Washington, and soon after its arrival was transferred to Louisville, 
Kentucky, where it was mustered out of service July 15, 1S65. 
Returning to Indianapolis it was present at a public reception given 
to a large number of returned troops in the capitol grounds, on the 
18th, on which occasion addresses were made by Governor Morton, 
General Hovey and others. 

Whila at Washington about 250 men were transferred to the 
Forty-Eighth from the Twelfth, Eighty-Third, Ninety- Seventh and 
Ninety- Ninth Regiments, being retained recruits whose organiza- 
tions had been mustered out. These transferred men served with 
the Forty-Eighth until its final muster-out, and were discharged 
with it. During its term of service the regiment lost in battle 213 
men, in killed and wounded. 

SEVENTY-THIRD REGIMENT INFANTRY. 



St. Joseph county was represented by one full company in this 
regiment, together with a few in other companies. The following 
are the names and rank at date of enlistment: 



Adjutant. 
Alfred B. Wade. 

Quartermaster. 
Edward Bacon. 

Co. C — Captain. 
Charles W. Price. 

Lieutenants. 
John A. Richlejv 
John G. Greenwalt. 

Chaplain. 
George Guyon. 

Surgeon. 
Seth F. Myers. 

Assistant Surgeon. 
Charles H. Applegate. 



Sergeants. 

Finley, James B. 
Pearson, Lorenzo 
Clemens, Charles W. 
Pierce, John M. 
Ruple. John W. 

Corporals. 

Romig, John A. 
Teel, John W. 
Cole, Benjamin R. 
Ferote, Nathaniel S. 
Brown, George S. 
Trueblood, William 
Thomas, Andrew N. 
Kendall, Howard L . 



Musicians. 
Gorsuch, Wilber E. 
Hall, James F. 

Wagoner. 
Cotton, Gregory IL 

Privates. 
Annis, Augustus 
Babcock, Hiram 
Ballou, Albert 
Ballon, Orin 
Barr, Samuel T. 
Bivins, Joseph 
Brewer, William H. 
Brewer, John 
Brittenham, John 
Brown, Mahlon 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTV. 



427 



Brown, Nathaniel 
Brurnfield, Stanton J. 
Burk, Milton M. 
Clark, John 
Curtis, James A. 
Davis, Andrew 
Dively, Lorenzo 
Dively, George 
Eaton, James R. 
Fetzer, John 
Finch, Newton M. 
Finney, Ahram 
Finney, Egbert 
Frame, Allen 
Frazer, John A. 
Fulmer, William M. 
Gilvey, Michael 
Herring, Henry 
Henry, John 
Huey, William H. 
Hinebaugh, Jacob 
Hoover, William B. 
Hosier, Christian 
Houser, David M. 
Huber, John 
King, Christian 
Jay, Barton H. 
Lane, Ephraim T. 
Lario, Lewis 
Led wick, James 



Lembeck, Simon 
Liggitt, Joseph 
Lonzo, Moses 
Loy, Jacob 
Madgeburg, Guide 
Mapes, John J. 
Marter, Samuel D. 
Marter, Ezra 
Mattes, George 
May, John 
McDaniel, John W. 
McGoggy, Elijah K. 
McGowan, William 
McLloyd, Joseph F. 
Miller, Jeremiah F. 
Miller, John H. 
Moon, William H. 
Morgan, Henry C. 
O'Conner, John 
Parrish, William T. 
Paul, George 
Pearson, Hiram 
Quigley, John V. 
Quigley, George W. 
Roof, William 
Rose, Asbury 
Schiller, Daniel 
Schreffler, Tiras 
Shultz, John B. 
Slick, John T. 



Steele, Henry C. 
Steele, Austin 
Stone. Frederick 
Streets, James B. 
Swank, Conrad 
Teel, Moses 
Thompson, John M. 
Turner, Melvin F. 
Vaugeison, Richard A. 
Zu Tavern, Charles 

Recruits. 
Burden, Nathaniel 
Cothia, Woodford 
Hughly, Thomas M. 
Polk, William G. 
Roberts, Levi 

Privates — Various Com- 
panies. 

Bulhand, Charles L. 
Westfall, George 
Paxon, John W. 
World, Otto 
Robinson, Joseph 
Kilmer, Christian 
Hagerty, Timothy 
Haskin, Abner S. 
Wigmore, James S. 
Wilkinson, James B, 



Albert B. Wade was promoted from Adjutant to Major, then 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and afterward Colonel; John A. Richley, from 
First Lieutenant to Captain; A. N. Thomas from Corporal to First 
Lieutenant; John T. Slick, from private to Second Lieutenant. 

The loss of this regiment from St. Joseph county was 26, of 
whom two were killed in battle, two accidentally killed, one killed 
in military prison, and the remainder died of disease or wounds 
received in battle. 

The Seventy-third Regiment was organized and mustered into 
service Aug. 16, 1S62, at South Bend, with Gilbert Hathaway as 
Colonel. The regiment was recruited entirely from the Ninth 
Congressional District, of which St. Joseph county then formed a 
part, and entered the service one thousand and ten strong, in less 
than three weeks from the day recruiting commenced. It was 
ordered at once to Lexington, by way of Louisville, Kentucky. 
The defeat of the Union forces at Richmond, Kentucky, Aug. 30, 
necessitated the evacuation of Lexington, and the regiment made a 
long and weary march to Louisville, distant ninety miles. On the 
1st of October the Seventy-third was assigned to the Twentieth 
Brigade (Marker's) of the Sixth Division (Wood's) of Buell's array, 
and commenced the pursuit of Bragg. October 8 it was deployed 
in line in reserve and witnessed the battle of Chaplin Hills, losing 
one man, killed. It then pursued Bragg as far as Wild Cat with 
slight skirmishing. Returning, it inarched to Glasgow, Kentucky, 
and from there to Gallatin, Tennessee, where Nov. 7, it surprised the 

28 



428 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 

enemy, driving hiui out of the place and capturing nineteen 
prisoners. 

November 26 the regiment marched into Nashville, having 
previously encamped for several days at Silver Springs, and engaged 
in an expedition to Lebanon. While foraging on the 1st and 25th 
of December it skirmished with the enemy, and on the 26th 
marched with the army under General Rosecrans to engage the 
enemy. Pressing him back with skirmishing the army reached 
Stone river on the 2itth, and on the evening of that day the Seventy- 
third, with the Fifty-first Indiana, was the first of the whole army 
to cross Stone river under the fire of the enemy. The Twentieth 
Brigade, encountering Breckenridge's whole division, was compelled 
to re-cross, which was effected after dark without serious loss. 
On the 30th the day was passed in artillery firing and sharp skir- 
mishing. On the 31st most terrific fighting occurred. The right 
wing of our army was driven back two miles, and the Twentieth 
Brigade was double-quicked a mile and a half to reinforce it, and 
taking position on the extreme right of the whole army, immedi- 
ately engaged two rebel brigades. The Seventy-third fought for 
about twenty minutes at very close range, losing more than one- 
third of the number engaged; and then, charging down, drove the 
force in its front from the field, and in turn was compelled to turn 
back a short distance by a rebel brigade on its flank. But the 
enemy's advance was checked and the right wing of the army saved 
by the desperate fighting made at this point. General Rosecrans 
complimented the regiment in person, immediately after the battle, 
and recognized these facts. More or less fighting with some loss 
to the regiment occurred Jan. 1 and 2, 1863. During these oper- 
ations the regiment was at the front and under fire for six da.js, 
and Jan. 3, being completely exhausted, it was placed in reserve. 
The enemy retreated the same day. During this battle the regi- 
ment occupied, at different times, the following important positions: 
The extreme right of the whole army, the extreme left, and the 
center. Every member of the color guard except the color bearer 
was either killed or wounded. The regiment lost 22 killed, 46 
wounded and 36 missing. 

On the 10th of April the regiment was assigned to Colonel A. D. 
Streight's "Independent Provisional Brigade," organized and 
mounted for the purpose of penetrating into the enemy's country 
and cutting his communications. Embarking at Nashville on the 
steamer, it moved down the Cumberland and up the Tennessee 
river, disembarking at Eastport, Mississippi. The brigade was 
mounted by impressments from the country, and moved by land to 
Tuscumbia, Alabama, in company with General Dodge's Division 
of the Sixteenth Army Corps. On the 2Sth of April the " Inde- 
pendent Provisional Brigade" left Tuscumbia on its perilous expe- 
dition. General Dodge's Division was to have co-operated with 
the movement eastward, but failed of success. On the morning of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 429 

April 13, at Day's Gap, Alabama, the Provisional Brigade, num- 
bering fifteen hundred, was attacked by four thousand cavalry, 
under Generals Forrest and Roddy. The Seventy-third occupied 
the left flank of the line formed, and gallantly repulsed a fierce 
charge made by the enemy, some of whom charged within twenty 
feet of its colors. The whole brigade then charged the enemy's 
line and drove him from the field, capturing two fine pieces of 
artillery. The brigade at once pushed southward to execute its 
mission, but the enemy, having collected its scattered cavalry, 
overtook and attacked the Brigade late in the afternoon, at Crooked 
Creek, Alabama. A spirited engagement was kept up until night 
closed the battle, with a loss to the Seventy-third during the day of 
23 killed and wounded. The enemy, however, was repulsed with 
heavy loss. 

On the 2d of May the brigade was again attacked at Blount's 
Farm, Alabama. The Seventy-third bore the brunt of this fight, 
and here the gallant Colonel, Gilbert Plathaway, fell, mortally 
wounded, while at the head of, and cheering on his men. On the 
3d of May Colonel Streight, being nearly out of ammunition, and 
exhausted by five days' incessant traveling and skirmishing, and 
surrounded by superior forces, surrendered his brigade to the enemy, 
at Cedar Bluffs, Alabama, on most honorable conditions, which, 
after surrender, were basely violated by the enemy. The men were 
soon forwarded North and exchanged. The officers were kept in 
close confinement nearlj T two years with the exception of a few 
who were specially exchanged or escaped. 

The men of the regiment were kept in parole camp for several 
months and then sent to Tennessee, where, March 28, 1864, Major 
Wade, being released from rebel prison, assumed the command of 
the regiment. During the spring of 1864 the regiment was 
engaged in guarding the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad, and 
during the summer it was placed on duty picketing the Tennessee 
river from Draper's Ferry to Limestone Point, with headquarters 
at Triana. While performing this duty many encounters occurred 
between parties of the enemy and detachments from the regiment, 
in nearly all of which success attended the Onion arms. For its 
bravery and efficiency in this line of duty, the regiment was several 
times complimented by General Granger. During this time, and 
until April, 1865, the regiment was attached to the First Brigade, 
Fourth Division, Twentieth Army Corps. 

In the latter part of September, 1S64, the regiment, after having 
been engaged in defending Prospect, Tennessee, during Wheeler's 
raid, was ordered to Decatur, Alabama, which place Forrest had 
captured a few days before with a garrison of 600. The enemy- 
abandoned the place; Lieutenant-Colonel Wade was ordered to hold 
it, and at once went to work to put it in condition for defense, con- 
structing a bomb-proof in the fort, etc. At three o'clock in the 



430 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

afternoon of the 1st of October, the pickets of the Seventy-third 
were driven in by the enemy, who numbered 4,000 cavalry and four 
pieces of artillery, under command of General Buford. The garri- 
son numbered 500 men and two pieces of artillery. Skirmishing 
continued during the rest of the day. At six o'clock next morning 
the enemy opened with a fierce artillery fire, which was kept up 
without intermission for two hours. The rebel firing was 
extremely accurate. Our artillery spiritedly replied, inflicting 
much loss on the enemy, while the bomb-proof afforded ample pro- 
tection to our forces: no loss was sustained by the garrison. At 
eight o'clock a. m. General Buford sent in a flag of truce and 
demanded the surrender of the place, which was promptly refused. 
So soon as the flag of truce disappeared, the fire upon the enemy 
was resumed. The enemy, repulsed at every point, retired in haste. 

Oct. 26 General Hood appeared before and invested Decatur, 
Alabama, with an army of 35,000 men. The Seventy-third had 
previously been ordered to that place to assist in its defense. The 
Union garrison numbered 5,000, and so stubborn was the resist- 
ance they made to the large army investing the place, that after 
four days' fighting, Hood raised the siege and withdrew his army, 
saying* that "it would cost more to take the place than it was 
worth." In the engagement the Seventy-third bore an honorable 
part, losing one killed and six wounded. 

Part of the winter of 1864 was passed in Stevenson, Alabama, 
and in January, 1865, it was moved to Huntsville and then placed 
on duty along the line of the Mobile & Charleston railroad, with 
headquarters at Larkinsville, Alabama. While upon this line, 
skirmishing with the enemy was of almost daily occurrence. Feb. 16 
a detachment of 20 men repulsed an attacking party of rebel cav- 
alry, killing and wounding five, and taking one wounded prisoner. 
On the 30th of April, 15 men from Company " D " attacked 30 
rebel cavalry, killing two and wounding two, without loss to them- 
selves. Other skirmishes occurred in which the regiment lost four 
killed and two wounded. The regiment remained on this duty 
until the summer of 1865, when it proceeded to Nashville, where, 
on the 1st of July, 1865, it was mustered out of service. Return- 
ing home the Seventy- third was publicly received in the State 
House Grove, at Indianapolis, and addressed by Governor Morton 
and General Ilovey. 



EIGHTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

The Eighty-seventh regiment was represented by Co. K and 
one or two others. The following are the names as recorded in the 
Adjutant- General's Report and credited to St. Joseph county: 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



431 



Chaplain. 
Joseph R. Albright. 

Surgeon. 
Samuel Higghibothain. 

Copt, n a. 
John Q. Wheeler, 

Lieutenants. 
George H. Niles, 
James M. Hollii-lay. 

Sergeants. 
Boyd, John W. 
Beglin, John A. 

Corporals. 
Bulla, William H. 
Tutt, Charles E. 
Williams, Alonzo S. 
Milliken, Francis M. 
Hutson, Charles E. 
Boston, Daniel 

Musician. 
Cobb, William 

Privates. 
Aldriek, Luke A. 
Ashley, Henry J. 
Bartletl, Edwin A. 
Bell. Jacob H. 
Bradley, Philander 
Burgner, John 
Buyssee, Charles 



Chrisman, Andrew J. 
Currier, William 
Deelman, Adam 
Dirst, Herman 
Dressier, Daniel N. 
Ferris, John A. 
Fleming, Peter 
Gav, Ebert 
Christ, Wallace S. 
Gordon, William II. 
Greenleaf, Henry C. 
Guibert, George 
Harris, Henry C. 
Hays, Henry C. 
Heckathorn, Adam 
Heminger, Peter 
James, Zebedee 
Jones, Ira 
Jones, John 
Keit'er, Jacob H. 
Kelsey, Irwin H. 
Leslie, Lawyous . 
Leslie. Albert R. 
Long, Charles W. 
Long, George E. 
Martling, George H. 
Marl in, John H. 
Mangherrnan, William H. 
Mangherman, John G. 
■ McMichael, John A. 
Miller, Loren C. , 



Molloy, Edward 
Udell, Jonas 
Russ, Nathan F. F. 
Schmidt, Benjamin 
Spousler, Alexander 
Stevens, George S. 
Stuckey, James A. 
Sumstine, John 
Sweeney, George C. 
Terrill, Oscar 
Turner, Asher 
Van Nest, Lewis T. 
Van Riper, Garrett 
Van Riper, John 
Van Riper, Bradford 

. Recruits. 
Everhart, Gabriel M. 
Leslie, John II. 
Pyle, Abraham C. 
Musician. 
Hootou, Benjamin F. 

Co. G. 
Roof, John M. 
Gilfayle, Michael 
Garner, John 
Montgomery, Thomas 
Molnt, Ephraim 
Rogers, Amos 



The loss from tiiis county were four killed; five died from 
wounds; one died in Andersonville prison; and ten died of disease 
— a total of twenty. 

The companies composing the Eighty-seventh regiment were 
recruited in the Ninth Congressional District. The regiment was 
organized at South Bend Aug. 28, 1862, and at once moved to 
Indianapolis, where, on the 31st of August, it was mustered into 
the three years' service, with Kline G. Shryock as Colonel. On 
the day of its muster it left Indianapolis and proceeded to Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, where on the 1st of September, it was assigned to 
General Bnrbridge's Brigade. October 1st it was transformed to 
the Third Brigade, Third Division, of the 14th Army Corps, and 
with it took part in General Buell's campaign through Kentucky. 
It was uuder fire at Springfield on the 6th of October, and on the 
8th of that month engaged in the battle at Perryville. 

After marching and counter-marching through Kentucky, the 
regiment encamped near Mitchellville, Tennessee, in November. 
During this campaign the loss to the regiment was light, not 
exceeding six killed and wounded. After this the Eighty-seventh 
occupied camps at Tunnel Hill, Pilot Knob and Gallatin, Tennes- 
see, and Jan. 29, 1863, it moved to Concord Church, south of Nash- 
ville. On the 4th of March it engaged in a skirmish at Chapel 
Hill against General Forrest's command, after which it moved to 
Triune. On the 28th of March Colonel Shryock resigned, where- 
upon Lieutenant-Colonel Newell Gleason was promoted Colonel, 



432 HIST0BY OF ST. JOSErH COUNTY. 

which rank that officer held until the cluse of Sherman's last cam- 
paign, when he was hrevetted a Brigadier-General. 

thine 23 the Eighty-seventh moved with the Army of the Cum- 
berland, and engaged in the summer campaign against Tullahoma, 
being under fire at Hoover's Gap, and being with that part of the 
army which entered Tullahoma. It then marched to Winchester, 
Tennessee, and thence over the mountains to Battle Creek, on the 
Tennessee river. In the fall campaign against Chattanooga, the 
regiment participated, crossing the Tennessee and marching over 
several high mountain ranges. It bore a conspicuous part in the 
bloody battle of'Chickamauga, Sept. 19 and 20, losing of its number 
40 killed, 142 wounded, and 8 missing, among whom were eight 
officers killed and four wounded — being more than half of all the 
officers and men engaged. The regiment remained at Chattanooga 
during the siege of that place, and upon the reorganization of the 
Army of the Cumberland, it formed a part of the Second Brigade, 
Third Division, Fourteenth Army Corps. Nov. 25 the regiment 
was in the front line of its brigade in the storming of Mission 
Ridge, and lost in killed and wounded sixteen men. After the 
victory it engaged in the pursuit of the enemy to Ringold, Geor- 
gia. Feb. 22, 1S64, it participated in an expedition against Dal- 
ton, and skirmished with the enemy in front of Buzzard's Boost, 
near that place. Returning from this expedition, it went into 
camp at Ringold, where it remained until the 7th of May. 

In the laborious campaign against Atlanta, the Eighty-seventh 
participated in all the principal battles and skirmishes, confronting 
the enemy at Rocky Face, Resaca, Cassville, near Dallas, Ivene- 
saw, Peach Tree Creek, and before Atlanta. In a charge upon the 
eneni3 T 's works at trto} T 's creek in front of Atlanta, on the 4th of 
August, the loss of the regiment was seventeen killed and wounded. 
It also participated in the battle of Jonesboro, on the 1st of Sep- 
tember, and then moved into Atlanta, where it went into camp for 
a brief period. 

Moving with its corps from Atlanta on the 3d of October, it 
participated in the campaign in the pursuit of Hood through 
Northern Georgia, marching to Resaca, and thence through Snake 
Creek Gap to the Chattanooga valley. From thence it marched to 
Gaylesville, Alabama, and then returned to Atlanta, going by way 
of Rome and Kingston, Georgia. Nov. 16, the regiment left Atlanta 
with the Fourteenth Corps, and marching through Decatur and 
Covington, took the road to Milledgeville. On the 24th the march 
toward Savannah was resumed, the regiment moving by way of Black 
Spring, Fair Flay and Long Bridge, to Saundersville, which was 
reached on the morning of the 26th. The advance guard of Wheel- 
er's cavalry was met near that place and skirmished with, but 
offered no serious opposition. Marching to the left of the Georgia 
Central railroad, and crossing the Ogeechee, the regiment reached 
Louisville on the 2Sth, where it rested until the 1st of December. 
It then moved toward Jacksonboro, going by way of Reynolds, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



433 



Thomas' Station and "Waynesboro, destroying a portion of the rail- 
road and skirmishing with Wheeler's cavalry, near the latter place. 
From Jacksonboro it marched to Hudson's Ferry, on the Savannah 
river, reaching there on the 6th. On the 9th Ebenezer Church 
was reached, and on the 10th the immediate defenses of Savannah 
were approached and the siege begun. After the evacuation of 
Savannah, on the 21st of December, the Eighty-seventh marched 
into the city and remained there until Jan. 30, 1865. 

The regiment participated in the campaign made through the 
Carolinas, marching with the Fourteenth corps to Goldsboro, 
North Carolina, where it remained in camp until April 10, 1865. 
It then moved to Smithfield and took part in the capture of that 
town. From thence it proceeded to Raleigh and then to a point near 
Holly Springs, whereit camped until after the surrender of General 
Johnston's rebel army. From North Carolina the regiment marched 
to Richmond, Virginia, and thence to Washington city, where it 
participated in the grand review of Sherman's army. June 10, 
1865, the Eighty-seventh was mustered out of service at Washing- 
ton, and proceeded to Indianapolis, where, on the 21st, it was 
publicly welcomed home by Governor Morton, in behalf of the 
State, at a reception meeting held in the capitol grounds, at which 
addresses were also made by Generals Hovey and Gleason. 

The total casualties of the regiment were as follows: Killed 
in action, 47; wounded in action, 19S; died from wounds and 
disease, 214. 

The promotions in Company K were, James M. Holliday, from 
Second Lieutenant to Captain; Andrew J. Chrisman, from private 
to First Lieutenant. 



ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

Company D of this regiment was made up entirely from St. 
Joseph county. In addition to this company a number of men 
from the county enlisted in other companies, the names of all being 
given. 



Co. D. — Captain. 
John M. Pierce. 

Lieutenants: 
Solomon H. Fountain, 
William W. Finch. 

Sergeants. 
Harris, Erastus A. 
Finch, George O. 
James, Zebedee 
Cottrell, John L. 
Hose, Jacob 

Corporals. 
Witner, David 
Kreider, Aquilla B. 
Green, William B. 



Hard}', Jacob 
Marsh, James T. 
Waxham, Herbert 
Hathaway, Jesse 
Emery, Joseph R. 

War/oner. 
Kelley, Martin 

Privates. 
Anderson, John W. 
Avery, John 
Avery, William H. 
Aubert, Antonia 
Ballinger, CharlesJH 
Benway, Edward 
Bodway Zavyer 



Blyler, William C. 
Buchtel, William 
Buchtel, Jonathan 
Buchtel, William D. 
Bowen, George W. 
Baker, Daniel W. 
Caudle, Ensley 
Coho, Bishop R. C. 
Clay, Sylvanus 
Donaghue. Francis 
Ditch, Michael J. 
Emery, Edward 
Finch, Zimri 1 
Finch, Franklin A. 

isher, Peter 
Frasier, William A. 



4-34 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Friar, Jackson 
Green, Albert C. 
Gillen, Hugh 
Getting, Samuel 
Hathaway, Daniel 
Hathaway, Peter 
Hughes, Edward 
Hughes, Patrick 
Huyler, Simon S. 
Huyler, Thomas J. 
Hanville, Charles M. 
Hemiuger, John 
Hardy, James M. 
Hardy, Elmsley H. 
Hardy, James 
Huey, David X. 
Hagerty, Spencer 
Keider, John E. 
Klink, John D. 
Kiser, Daniel 
Lario, Augustus A. 
Lammondee, August 
Liphart, George 
Lyons, Dennis 
Lichteuberger, William 
Liggert, William 
Long, John A. 
Miller, Isaac 
McCann, Charles 
Mayer, Casper 



Matthews, Arthur J. 

Moon, James 

McLear, Owen 

Minzey, James 

Milner, Isaiah T. 

Mangus, Caleb 

Neddo, Columbus 

Orange, Patrick 

Oliver, Alonzo 

Owens, Henry 

O'Connor, Musgrove E. 

O'Ragen, John 

Odiorne, Leonard M. 

Pilson, Kane 

Price, George 

Price, Mordecai M. 

Runnion, Jonathan 

Ramsberger, John 

Rowe, John M. 
5» Smith, John 1. 
_., Smith, James 

Smeltz, Valentine 

Shearer, Dauiel 

Suodgrass, Harrison 

Stevens, Horace H . 

Shinewa, Joseph 

Wier, John 

Willard, Emanuel 

Williams, William 0. 

Young, Silas 



Recruits. 
Oilman, Andrew J. 
McFarland, Albert 
McDonald, William H 
Morgan, William D. 
Myers, Christian 
McEntorfer, Peter A. 
McCloud, Edward 
Munday, Warren 
McEntorfer, John C. 
McAfee, Hiram 
Marshall, William H. 
Neidigh, Francis M. 
Runnion, William 
Smiser, William F. 
Stanbrough, Levi 
Thompson, James 

Other Companies. 
Butler, Harris 
Gaa, John • 
Palmer, Jesse 
Ager, Washington 
Bowen, Benjamin B. 
Cobb, Henry 
Fluckcy, William C. 
Lambert, William 
Moon, Robert A. 
Mullen, George W. 
Wolf, John 



Only one of the foregoing number was killed in battle, two 
were killed by railroad accident, and nineteen died from wounds 
received in battle or from disease. 

The One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment was recruited 
from the Ninth Congressional District, during the fall and winter 
of L863, rendezvoused at Michigan City, and was mustered into 
service March 18, 1864. On the 23d the regiment left Michigan 
City by rail, and proceeded by way of Indianapolis and Louisville, 
to Nashville, where the division commanded by General Hovey 
was organized, and the regiment assigned to the First Brigade. 
April 6 the regiment, started on a march to the front, and, moving 
by way of Stevenson, Bridgeport and Chattanooga, — through a sec- 
tion of country famed for the beauty of its mountain scenery, where 
the hills kiss the clouds, and the silver streams laugh in the sun- 
shine, — reach Charleston, East Tennessee, on the, 21st. General 
Hovey's division was then designated as the First Division, and 
assigned to the Twenty-third Army Corps, under command of 
General Schofield. 

May 4 the regiment marched with its corps from Charleston, 
and entered immediately on the campaign against Atlanta. Sher- 
man's moving columns were concentrating in the vicinity of 
Chattanooga, preparatory to moving with determined vigor upon 
the forces of the rebel General Johnson, who, apparently secure 
behind the inaccessible ridges of Rocky Face, challenged our 
advance through the dangerous defile of Buzzard's Roost Gap. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 435 

leading to Dalton. But Sherman decided to take another route, 
and not expose his men to certain destruction from the fire of 
plunging shot, or the deep waters of the creek hy which the enemy 
flooded the pass. The pass was unapproachable, and the " Great 
Flanker" turned to the left, and left the enemy in position. 

May 9 General Schofield moved with his corps close to Daltou> 
while General Thomas demonstrated with vigor against "Rocky 
Face Ridge. Meanwhile McPherson reached Snake Creek Gap, 
surprised a force of the enemy and held the gap. On the 12th the 
whole army, save one corps, moved through the gap on Resaca. 
The battle of Resaca followed. Thus constantly moving, threaten- 
ing, flanking and fighting, the approaches to Atlanta were won, 
the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth taking part in the principal 
movements, culminating in such battles as Resaca, Dallas, New 
Hope Church, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta and 
Jonesboro. 

From May' 8 until Sept. 5, under the broiling sun by day and 
the pestilential dews by night, through difficult ravines, skirmish- 
ing in dense forests, drenched by heavy rains, struggling through 
mud and mire, our troops pressed on. Some portion of the regi- 
ment was on the skirmish line nearly every day for four months. 

June 'J General Hovey retired from the command of the First 
Division, and the First Brigade was assigned to the Third Division 
(Cox's) of- the same corps. June 6, Colonel De Harb having been 
disabled by wounds, Lieutenant-Colonel Packard assumed com- 
mand of the regiment. Aug. 9 the First Brigade was re-organized, 
and the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth assigned to the Third 
Brigade of the same division, the brigade being under command of 
Colonel I. N. Stiles, of the Sixty-third Indiana. After the fall of 
Atlanta the regiment marched from Jonesboro to Decatur, Georgia, 
where it went into camp with the rest of the corps. 

Oct. 1 the rebel General Hood crossed the Chattahoochee river 
with his army, and marched north by way of Dallas. Sherman's 
army, with the exception of the Twentieth Corps, moved in pur- 
suit. The regiment left Decatur with its corps on the 4th, and, 
crossing the Chattahoochee, moved toward Dallas, threatening the 
flank and rear of the enemy's forces then assaulting Alatoona. 
The rebels being defeated at Alatoona, moved rapidly to the north- 
west, striking the railway at Resaca on the 12th, and capturing 
Tilton and Dalton. The army of Sherman meanwhile made a 
march to Rome, where the Twenty-third Corps crossed the Oostau- 
naula and drove a brigade of the enemy through the narrow 
entrance of the valley of the Chattanooga, capturing two guns. 
Then learning that the enemy had moved for Resaca, the pursuit 
was continued through Resaca, Snake Creek Gap, Villanow, Dirt 
Town and Grover's Gap to Gaylesville, Alabama, which place was 
reached on the 20th. The regiment marched in this pursuit over 
three hundred miles. 

Oct. 3, the Twenty-third Corps was detached from Sherman's 
army, and ordered to proceed to Chattanooga and report to General 



436 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Thomas. The regiment marched with its corps to Chattanooga, 
and was moved from thence by rail to Pulaski and Nashville. So 
soon as it was ascertained that Hood was moving to invade Ten- 
nessee, the regimeut moved with its corps to Columbia. Nov. 24 
the skirmishers of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth encountered 
the advance of the enemy. For six days severe skirmishing was 
had with the enemy's line at Columbia, one-half of the regiment 
being alternately on the skirmish line. The enemy's line pressed 
our line strongly but did not assault. Meanwhile General Scho- 
field made preparations to fall back to Franklin. During the 
night of the 29th the regiment marched twenty-six miles, and 
reached Franklin at day-break of the 30th. The enemy followed 
closely, and repeatedly assaulted our line at Franklin as soon as we 
had formed, but General Schofield had chosen an excellent position, 
and repulsed the rebel onslaught with decisive results. The regi- 
ment lost several officers and men in this battle, which was fought 
with great fury and obstinacy, the enemy continuing his assaults 
until late on the night of the 30th. The battle of Franklin was 
the first severe check of Hood's invasion of Tennessee. 

The regiment fell back the night after the battle, to Brentwood 
Hills, and the next morning marched to Nashville and took posi- 
tion in its defenses. For two weeks the army of General Thomas 
faced the rebel force of General Hood, who occupied the southern 
approaches to Nashville. 

December 15 General Thomas' army moved upon the enemy 
in his chosen position, and, after two days' fighting, utterly de- 
feated the boastful foe, and drove his demoralized command beyond 
the waters of the Tennessee. This battle closed the existence of 
Hood's army. From that time it ceased to exist as an organized 
body. The regiment was actively engaged in the closing up of 
Hood, and joined in the pursuit as far as Columbia, Tennessee, 
arriving at that place on the 26th. Here the command rested for a 
short time preparatory to another campaign which was to strangle 
the last army of the Rebellion. 

Jan. 5, 1865, the regiment left Columbia and marched by way of 
Mount Pleasant and Waynesboro to Clifton, on the Tennessee 
river, where it embarked on transports and sailed to Cincinnati, 
Ohio. From thence the regiment moved by rail to Washington 
city, and thence to Alexandria, Virginia. February 20 it em- 
barked on the steamer Atlantic, and sailed to Fort Fisher, North 
Carolina, and from thence, without landiug. sailed to Morehead 
City, North Carolina, where the regiment disembarked and was 
conveyed by rail to Newburu. 

Early in March the regiment set out with its division, and 
marched along the Atlantic & North Carolina railroad, in the 
direction of Kingston, repairing the railroad as the column moved. 
March 8 the enemy was encountered in force, at Wise's Fork, 
four miles below Kingston. The enemy had met with success in 
capturing two regiments of Eastern troops, by surprise, and was 
pushing on, confident of easy victory, when it was met and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



L37 



checked by Rogers' division, just arriving on the field. For two 
days heavy skirmishing resulted, and on the 10th the enemy made 
a heavy assault, but was repulsed and fled in great disorder from 
the field. The regiment took an active part in this fight, losing 
severely in killed and wounded. The whole command then 
moved to Kingston, which was occupied without resistance from 
the enemy. 

On the 20th the regiment left Kingston, and after a march of 
thirty miles, reached Goldsboro on the evening of the next day. 
On the 25th it left Goldsboro and marched to Le Noir Institute, 
where the regiment was employed in protecting the railroad until 
April 9. The regiment then returned to Goldsboro, and was 
assigned to duty in that city. It soon after was sent to Ealeigh. 

April 29, 1865, Colonel De Harb being mustered out by order 
of the War Department, Lieutenant-Colonel Packerdwas promoted 
to the Colonelcy. Subsequently Colonel Packerd was promoted to 
the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General of volunteers, by the Presi- 
dent, to date, March 13, 1865. The regiment was mustered out 
in 1866. 

The promotions of the St. Joseph county men were as follows: 
John M. Pierce, from Captain to Major; Erastus A. Harris, from 
Sergeant to Second Lieutenant, and then to First Lieutenant; 
George 0. Finch, from Sergeant to Second Lieutenant. 

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY- EIGHTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 

This regiment was composed of one hundred days men, and 
was mustered into the service May 27, 1S64, with James H. Shan- 
non as Colonel. St. Joseph county was represented in this regi- 
ment by company II, the muster roll of which follows: 

Captain. F j Fin , 

James k. Gore. YxAmn, Mar{in 

Lieutenants. Freeman, Lewis 

John T. Kellogg. 
John H. Quigg. 

Privates. 
Austin, William 
Besinger, George 
Beiger, Martin 
Beal, Harvey 
Bingham, Frank 
Boys, Abraham 
Bodkin, Alexander J. 
Bowers, Jacob 
Boyd, James C. 
Bond, Colonel 
Brower, Harvey 
Brittell, Almoii 
Carlton, Willis 
Collier, Christopher 
Crain, Calvin . 
Crockett, Elmer 
Deno, William S. 
Dixon, James 
Eberhart, Frank R. 
Ernc*t, Gabriel 
Ferris, Waverly 



Garrison, Marion 
Gilbert, Henry 
Greuert, Michael 
Harris, James 
Harris, Henry 
Hollingshead, N. 
Holston, John 
Hutchinson, George 
Johnson, Albert G. 
King, Heny 
Kurtz, Edward 
Laidlow, Edwin 
Leonard, William 
Loughman, Thomas 15. 
Metzger, Charles 
Michael, Edward 
Milburn, John 
McDonough, Sylvester 
Macumber, Milo 
Martin, Edwin 
Niles, George F. 
Oliver, William H. 
Onsalmau, Joseph ^ 
Peck, Asahel 



Peltit,EnosF. 
Picket. Braymond 
Platz, Charles 
Reymirs, Dasery 
Reynolds, Charles 
Riddle, James 
Roach, Samuel C. 
Sandilands, John 
Seifert, Daniel 
Sherer, William 
Seniard, Alfred 
Simanton, Brevet 
Sibley, Levi 
Slough, Adam 
Slusser, Levi 
Spake, James 
Sweetland, E. N. B. 
Taylor. Christopher 
Tutt, Elliott 
iJsher, Robert3 
Vine, Samuel H. 
Warren, William H. 
Ward, Jacob 
Weber, Jacob 
Weiss, John 
Young, Joseph 



The regiment was mustered out September 30, 1S64. 



438 



HISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY- FIFTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. 



This regiment was composed of men enlisting for one year. Com- 
pany"!" was composed principally of St. Joseph county men, 
while a number joined other companies, the names of which are 
given as compiled from the Adjutant-General's report: 




Co. I. — Captain. 
Calvin R. Stillson. 

Lieutenants. 

Alexis S. Bertrand. 
Henry Smyser. 

Privates. 
Anton, Mablon W. 
Apey, Andrew 
Adams, James 
Anderson, John F. 
Bassett, William 
Bers, Henry 
Blyler, William C. 
Bell, Charles H. 
Bailey, Lewis V. 
Bonday, Alexander 
Bodkin, Alexander J. 
Byerly, Jr., Samuel 
Chenay, Jerry W. 
Cott on, Joseph 
Creed, John 
Epley, Theodore 
Ebberson, George M. 
Flagle, Frederick 
Galling, Celestine 
Hahn, Henry C. 
Hosier, Peter 
Harris, William J. 
Hager, Stephen 
Hall, Charles 
Henzman, Gottfrey 
Keiner, John M. 
Roller, William 
Kimble, Benjamin B. 
Laflour, Frederick 
Miller, David M. 



Meikel, Albert 
Metzger, Charles L. 
Morgan, John T. 
Metzger, Alfred 
Moore, Stephen 
Monhue, Tliomas 
McMeikel, Wayne 
MoManus, Peter 
Norris, Leonidas 
Nicholson, Henry 
Ordway, Joseph S. 
Perry, Oliver 
Perry, Charles 
Penwcll, Henry C. 
Pierce. William H. 
Roof, David R. 
Rouch, Henry 
Reeves, Salathiel 
Rinehart, Jacob 
^Robinson, William A. 
Ross, Alanson 
Smyser, Josiah F. 
Stevens, T>n\ -id 
Sample, Robert M. 
Simpson, Charles A. 
Stonebill, Daniel 
Smith, Frederick 
Schwin, Ephraim 
Staples, Charles C. 
Sauls, Francis 
Treanor.John W. 
Turner, William 
Thomas, William II. 
Varney, Henry H. 
Vanderhoof, Nathan 
Woofter, John H. 



Webb, David T. 
Webb, George 
Webber, Abraham 
Waner, Frank 
Watkins, Simeon 
Williams, George V. 
Welton, Samuel G. 
Whitmore, William B. 
Yingst, Nathan 

Co. O. 
Heckethorn, John 
Holmes, George W. 
Ketring, John 
Slough, Adam 
Slough, Michael 

Co. H. 
Anderson, George A. 
Beckwith, Franklin J. 
Butler, Alfred A. 
Cummins, Peter 
Clark, Robert 
Evans, William W. 
Hen-man, George 
Heller, Abraham 
Hardy, Avilda 
Haseldon, David 
Kidder, Krandall G. 
Mills, Elijah 
.Martin, James 
McGowan, William 
Singleton, Thomas 
Smith, Xoah 
Six, James 
Taylor, John 
Wood, Jeremiah 



The loss was only one, Francis Sauls, who died at Indianapolis 
May 6, 1865. The following are the names of those mustered out 
as Sergeants: David M. Miller, Alexander J. Bodkin, AVilliam A. 
Robinson, Josiah F. Smyser, William Turner. The following are 
the names of the Corporals on mustering out: Andrew Apey, John 
T. Morgan, Peter McManus, Joseph S. Ordway, Daniel Stonebill. 
George \ r . Williams and Henry Berg were mustered out as musi- 
cians. 

The regiment was organized at Indianapolis on the 18th of April. 
1865, with John M. Wilson as Colonel. April 26, the regiment left 
for Washington, and upon its arrival there it was sent to Alexandria, 
and was assigned to the provisional brigade of the Third Division 
of the Ninth Army Corps. May 3 it was transferred to Dover. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



439 



Delaware, at which place companies were detached and sent to Cen- 
treville and Wilmington, Delaware, and Salisbury, Maryland. On 
the return to the regiment of two of these companies, a railroad 
accident occurred by which a number were severely injured. The 
regiment being brought together was, Aug. 4, 1865, mustered out 
at Dover, Delaware. Arriving at Indianapolis on the 10th with 
32 officers and 800 men, for final discharge, it was publicly welcomed 
home, at a reception meeting held in the State House Grove, at 
which addresses were made by Lieutenant Governor Baker, General 
Benjamin Harrison and others. 

TWELFTH CAVALRY. 



Company H, of the Twelfth Cavalry, was composed of men from 
the county of St. Joseph. Following will be found the original 
muster, as taken from the report of the Adjutant General: 



Go. E. — Captain. 
Amos DaHuff. 

Lieutenants. 
Joseph Turnock, 
Henry R. Fields. 

Privates. 
Augustine, William 
Augustine, David 
Abdill, Aaron E. 
Abdill, Joseph S. 
Barnhart, BeDJamin J. 
Ball, Leander N. 
Ball, Wilber W. 
Beck, Hansom M. 
Baker, David 
Beer, Strong 
Brown, Alexis S. 
Brown, Erastus 
Brown, James M. 
Crumb, William 
Curtis, Luther 
Curtis, Andrew 
Crocker, Henry 
Claffey, Thomas 
Cotton, Daniel H. 
Clark, John 
Castellen, Daniel M. 
Carpenter, William 
Cruthers, Andrew J. 
Dressier, Daniel N. 
Durst, Enos 
Dewey, Charles A. 
Donaldson, Madison 
Ditto, Philip E. 
Diltz, William T. 
Ells, AV'illiam P. 
Eddy, George H. 
Frazier, Mazier 
Fulmer, Oliver R. 



Friend, Amos 
Green, William L. 
Graham, Charles B. 
Goit, James W. 
Herman, John 
Herman, Peter W. 
Herman, Reuben 
Hay, Noah 
Hollingshead, Daniel 
Harlin, William 
Hillard, Martin 
Hausman, Henry 
Hague, Benjamin F. 
Krill, Ceraphine 
Kelley, Daniel P. 
Liggit, Joseph E. 
Liggit, Joseph S. 
Long, Frederick 
McKnabb, Horton 
Morrow, Josiah 
Miller, Marcus L. 
McBride, Lewis C. 
Modlin, Adam 
Maxwell, Richard 
Mc Daniel, James F. 
Martin, Jacob 
McQuiston, George W. 
Metz, Frederick D. 
Noel, John 
Nier, Robert H. 
Ocker, Jacob B. 
Pippenger, Jerome 
Penrod, Alexander 
Patridge, Franklin 
Pool, Malachi 
Reece, William M. 
Rittig, George 
Reggion, Edward 
-Robinson, Martin G. 
Schock, Joseph 



Summey, Jacob 

Scholtz, Benjamin 
>Smith, Neheiniah 
' Smith, Jacob 

Smith, David H. 

Swyhart, Martin 

Simpson, Orin J. 

Sharup, Jerome 

Staffer, Samuel J. 

Sheaks, John 

Sheaks, Sanford 

Throckmorton, Charles 

Tank, John 

Yaumerdstrand, David 

Viney, Lewis 

Woodbury, Delos M. 

Whitney, Alden 

Wood, William 

Wood, John 

Wright, George W. 

Woollet, Solomon S. 

Watking, Lee 

Wilcockson, Joseph 

Zweite, Reinhold 
Recruits. 

Harris, William 

Mann, George W- 

Mitchell, Francis 

Turner, William H. B. 

Tank, Christian 

Woodbury, Emerson 
Other Companies. 

Captain Edwin Turnock. 

Privates. 
Lancaster, Enoch 
Newman, Frederick 
Vandoosen, Robert 
Vandoosen, Daniel 



440 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The loss of Company H was eleven, of whom five died from 
wounds, and the remainder from disease. In the line of promotion 
First Lieutenant Joseph Turnock was promoted to Captain; Henry 
R. Fields, from Second to First Lieutenant; Alden Whitney, from 
the ranks to Second Lieutenant; Daniel N. Dressier, from the ranks 
to Second Lieutenant and then First Lieutenant; Hansom M. Beck, 
from the ranks to Second Lieutenant. William Augustine, Josiah 
Morrow, William M. Reece, were mustered out as Sergeants ; Daniel 
M. Castetten, as Q. M. Sergeant; John Noel, as Com. Sergeant; 
Andrew J. Cruthers, as Bugler; David Augustine, David Baker, 
Daniel H_. C otton , Peter W. Herman and George W. Wright, as 
Corporals. 

The Twelfth Cavalry was organized at Kendallville, Indiana, 
March 1, 1S04, under Colonel Edward Anderson. Early in May, 
IS 64, it left camp at Kendallville, and proceeded to Indianapolis, 
and, on the 6th of the same month, the regiment left that city for 
the field, under orders to proceed to Nashville, Tennessee. But six 
companies of the regiment were mounted, and all of the companies 
were armed as infantry, for want of cavalry arms, until the regi- 
ment arrived at Louisville, where the infantry arms were turned 
over by the six mounted companies, and cavalry arms were issued 
instead. The mounted portion of the regiment marched from 
Louisville to Nashville, under the command of Colonel Anderson, 
while the dismounted portion proceeded to Nashville by rail, under 
the command of Lieutenant Alfred Reed. 

The regiment remained at Nashville, in camp of instruction, for 
about three weeks, when it was ordered to Huntsville, Alabama, 
for which place it started May 29, the dismounted portion proceed- 
ing thence by rail, under command of Colonel Anderson, the 
mounted portion marching from Nashville under the command 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Reed. Colonel Anderson was assigned to 
the command of the railroad defenses from Decatur, Alabama, to 
Point Rock, Alabama, a distance of about sixty miles, and to the 
command of all that district of country lying between Huntsville 
and Point Rock, and between the Tennessee river and the Mem- 
phis & Charleston railroad , that portion of the country being, at 
the time, infested with several bands of guerrillas and " bush- 
whackers." 

The dismounted companies were assigned to the especial defense 
of the railroad, and to the erection of block-houses, under the com- 
mand of Major Orris Blake, and the six mounted companies (which 
were the only mounted cavalry then at or near Huntsville), under 
command of Colonel Anderson, were employed very actively in 
fighting and ridding the country of guerrillas and " bushwhackers," 
in which numerous skirmishes and engagements were fought, and 
quite a large number of the regiment were killed and wounded. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 441 

For about a month after the arrival of the regiment at Hunts- 
ville, the headquarters of the regiment were at that place, when 
they were removed to Brownsborough, where they remained until 
Sept. 15, 1864, when the regiment was ordered to Tullahoma, 
Tennessee, to garrison that post, where it arrived on the night of 
the same day, and reported to Major-General Milroy. Colonel 
Anderson was assigned to the command of the post, and also 
retained command of the regiment. Sept. 23d Colonel Anderson 
was relieved by orders from the Secretary of War, and was ordered 
to Indianapolis to report to Governor Morton for special service, 
soon after which he joined his command in the field. In the 
absence of Colonel Anderson, Major Blake was assigned to the post 
of Tullahoma and of the regiment, during which time the regiment 
was constantly employed in watching movements of the rebel 
General Forrest, who, with a large force, was then threatening Tulla- 
homa and several other points along the line of the Nashville & 
Chattanooga railroad. In the meantime the regiment had several 
skirmishes with a part of Forrest's command, and with bands of 
guerrillas. In the month of October, 1864, Major Blake was 
ordered by the Secretary of War to report for duty to the Acting 
Assistant Provost Marshal General at Indianapolis, as assistant. 

Three mounted companies — C, D and II — stationed at Hunts- 
ville, under command of Captain M. D. Williams, participated in 
the defense of that place, with the Thirteenth Cavalry, on the 1st 
of October, 1S64, against the attack of a portion of the rebel 
Forrest's command. These companies subsequently joined the 
regiment at Tullahoma, and Nov. 26th, upon the evacuation of 
that post, the regiment proceeded to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and 
participated in the battle of Wilkinson's Pike and Overall's Creek, 
and was employed in the several skirmishes in the defense of Mur- 
freesboro against the command of Forrest, in December, 1864, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Reed commanding the regiment, and Colonel 
Anderson commanding the brigade to which the regiment was 
attached; soon after which the regiment proceeded to Nashville 
and went into winter quarters, and there received new arms, and 
was assigned to the Second Brigade, Seventh Division, Cavalry 
Corps. 

Feb. 11, 1865, the regiment embarked on board transports and 
steamers, under orders to proceed to New Orleans, which orders 
were subsequently countermanded, and the regiment disembarked 
at Vicksburg, by order of Major General Can by, to engage in a 
raid along the Mobile and Ohio railroad. These orders were sub- 
sequently countermanded, and the regiment was newly mounted, 
arms changed and embarked again for New Orleans, where it 
arrived March 12, 1S65, whence it proceeded to Navy Cove, Mobile 
Bay, reported to Major General Can by, and participated in the 
operations against the forts and defenses of Mobile, Alabama, 



142 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

a portion of the regiment acting as escort to Major General Canby, 
and the balance engaged in running a courier line into Florida from 
near Fort Blakely, Alabama. 

After the fall of Mobile the regiment reported, on the 17th of 
April, to Major General Grierson. and under the command of 
Major William H. Calkins, participated in the raid of over eight 
hundred miles through Alabama, into Georgia, and then across the 
State of Alabama to Columbus, Mississippi, where it arrived on the 
28th day of May, 1865. The regiment was highly and specially 
complimented by Major General Grierson, in a letter to Governor 
Morton, for its gallant conduct and military discipline. Here the 
regiment remained under the command of Major Blake until about 
the middle of July, when Colonel Anderson rejoined his command, 
after a temporary absence, and proceeded with a portion of the 
regiment to Grenada, Mississippi, establishing the headquarters of 
the regiment there. Three companies, — D, K and L, — pro- 
ceeded to Austin, on the Mississippi river, in command of Captain 
D. M. Graves, where they remained about two months, employed 
in protecting Government cotton and other property, and again 
reported for duty to Colonel Anderson, at Grenada, where that 
portion of the regiment remained, until orders were received for 
muster out. 

The remaining six companies remained at Columbus, Missis 
sippi, and vicinit} - , engaged in protecting Government cotton and 
other property, under the command of Major Blake, until they 
were ordered to proceed to Yicksburg, Mississippi, to join the 
balance of the regiment, which had proceeded there. These com- 
panies arrived Nov. 2, and Nov. 10, 1865, the regiment was 
mustered out of the service at Vicksburg, and ordered to proceed 
to Indianapolis, where it arrived November 16, and on the next day 
was honored with a public dinner by the citizens of the city, and 
was welcomed home by a public reception at the State House 
Grove, where addresses were delivered by Governor Baker and 
Colonel Trussler, Secretary of State, and were responded to by 
Colonel Anderson, Lieutenant-Colonel Reed, Major Calkins and 
Major Blake. The regiment was finally paid off, and its members 
received their discharges Nov. 22, 1865. 



TWENTT-FIRST BATTERY. 

This battery was made up principally from St. Joseph and La 
Porte counties. By reference to the report of the Adjutant-Gen- 
eral of the State it will be found the following named are credited 
to St Joseph county, with their rank at date of enlistment: 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



443 



Second Lieutenant. 
William E. Chess. 

Q. M. Sergeant. 
Miller, Alfred B. 

Sergeants. 
Hicks, George F. 
Baird, Henry C. 
Whitten, William M. 

Corporals . 
Young, Joseph 
Lobdell, David M. 
Ritter, William H. 
Gross, William 
Miller, David B. 
Pennewell, Frank 
Keller, Lewis 

Bugler. 
Cory, George F. 

Privates. 
Bernhart, Welchom 
Blake, James E. 
Barrett, Wesley 
Coonly, Benjamin 
Carpenter, Jay S. 
Dodd, William H. 
Gibson, Absalom 
Green, James H. 
Green, Edward M. 
Gipsom, George B. 
Hoover, William S. 
Hartzell, Elijah H. 
Hardman, Hiram E. 
Huff, Benjamin F. 
Huff, William H. 
Huff, Aaron 
Holloway, Edward P. 
Hintzman, John A. 



Johnson, James A. 
Johnson, Henry 
Keazey, Jr., Joseph 
Kent, James D. 
Miller, Martin M. 
McNabb, Addison 
McNabb, Ezra F. 
Meyer, George 
Meyer, John J. 
Mather, John 
Orvis, Willurd 
Peffley, Simon P. 
Peak, Alexander 
Ryan, Jeremiah 
Roof, Daniel 
Ritter, David M. 
Ritter, Marcus D. 
Slick, Thomas J. 
Schaffer, Peter 
Siexas, Eugene 
Shank, John H. 
Taylor, Charles J. 
Tarbell, Ami H. 
Vandorn, John 
Wagoner, Prosper 
Wickely, Augustus 

Recruits. 
Brandenburg, Sylvester 
Blyler, John 
Balin, Allen 
Bills, Frederick 
Burnhart, Nicholas 
Busett, Janus E. 
Bonebrake, William H. H. 
Best, Franklin 
Cease, William G. 
Casteter, Samuel 
Cunxmings, Richard 
Dodd, George A. 



Drury, John B. 
Eads, Lewis T. 
Gorman, Patrick J. 
Hoose, John 
Heck, William C. 
Ingersoll, Jerry W. 
Jennings, Samuel 
Knepp, Jonathan 
Klindinst, John 
Kindigg, Daniel 
Keller, Cyrenius 
Karcher, Jacob 
Laurand, Anthony 
Liud, George W. 
McCrary, George 
Murphy, Benjamin 
McCarty, James S. 
McCombs, Johu 
McCombs, Lambert 
Metcalf, Charles P. 
Maurer, Charles 
Orvis, George W. 
Osborne, Peter 
Pool, William 
Peters, Henry 
Putnam, Albert B. 
Phiuny, William 
Reidinger, Jacob 
Runnion, Isaac 
Staples, Alexander 
Staples, Henry 
Sandweir, Mark 
Solleuburger, Thomas 
Vogle, Peter 
Woolman, Henry 
Whiteman, Jesse W. 
West, Thomas J. 
White, John 



The loss of the battery from St. Joseph county was eleven who 
died from wounds or disease. 

The Twenty-first Battery of Light Artillery was organized and 
mustered into service at Indianapolis Sept. 9, 1862, with William 
W. Andrew as Captain, and immediately left for Covington, Ken- 
tucky, then threatened by the invading forces of Kirby Smith. 
From Covington it moved to Lexington, and from thence marched 
to Richmond and Danville, and then to Louisville. At the latter 
place it remained until Feb. 2, 1863, when it proceeded to Nash- 
ville, Tennessee. From there it moved to Carthage, Tennessee, 
from whence it marched with an expedition to Rome, Georgia, and 
there skirmished with the enemy March 19 and 20, and after capt- 
uring a number of prisoners returned to Carthage. While on duty 
at this place they engaged in other expeditions, skirmishing with 
the enemy at Gainsboro on the 5th of April, and at Carthage 
May 4 

June 3 the battery left Carthage and proceeded to Murfreesboro, 
joining General Reynold's division of Rosecrans' army at that 

29 



4:44 HISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

place and advancing with it June 24, toward Manchester. In the 
engagement at Hoover's Gap the battery participated, and during 
the summer and fall marched with the army in the campaign 
against Chattanooga. After crossing the Tennessee it engaged the 
enemy at Catlett's Gap, Georgia, and participated in the great bat- 
tle of Chickamauga. Falling back with the army from that field, 
it remained at Chattanooga until the 5th of December, during 
which time it was engaged in the storming of Mission Ridge Nov. 
25. Proceeding to Nashville, the battery remained there during 
the winter and the following spring. 

March 26, 1864, it moved to Columbia, at which place it was 
engaged with the rebels under General Forrest on the 1st of Octo- 
ber. Sept. 17 Capt. William W. Andrew was discharged for disa- 
bility from wounds and Lieutenant Abram P. Andrew was 
promoted his successor. On Hood's advance the battery moved to 
Nashville, and was under fire in the engagement before that place 
on the 15th and 16th of December. After the battle it remained 
at "Nashville as part of the reserve artillery until it was ordered to 
be mustered out of service. Arriving at Indianapolis from Nash- 
ville June 21, 1865, with five officers and one hundred and forty- 
two men for final discharge, it was present at a public reception 
given to the returned soldiers at the State House, at which wel- 
coming speeches were made by Governor Morton, Generals Hovey 
and Wilder, and others. On the same day the battery was form- 
ally mustered out of and discharged from service. The Twenty- 
first Battery entered service with one hundred and forty-one men 
and five officers, and during its term of service received sixty-nine 
recruits. Its losses were as follows: Killed in action, two; died of 
wounds received in action, one; died from injuries received by 
explosion of ammunition, two; died of disease, twenty-one; dis- 
charged, twenty-nine; deserted, seven. 

In the line of promotion William E. Chess was promoted from 
Second to First Lieutenant; William M. Whitten, from Sergeant 
to Second Lieutenant; Alfred B. Miller, from Quartermaster Ser- 
geant to Second Lieutenant. 

ROLL OF HONOR. 

" It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." Thus it 
may be written over the graves of the following named, who freely 

fave their lives to save the Union, and whose memory will ever be 
ept green by those who remain behind : 

OFFICERS. 

Capt. James Houghton— Killed at. Battle of Shilob, Tenn., April 7, 1S62. 
Capt. Isaac M. Pettit — Died of wounds received in action, March 19, 1863. 
Capt. Frank A. Hardman — Died March 15, 1862, near Nashville, Tenn. 
Lieut. Seth B. Parker— Killed at battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, Sept. 19,1863. 
Lieut. William H. Criswell— Killed at battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 445 

Lieut. Solomon H. Fountain — Died April 9, 1805, of wounds received in action. 

Capt. Thomas B. Roberts— Died July 4, 1802. 

Chaplain Joseph R. Albright — Died of disease, Dec. 5, 1862. 

Surgeon Samuel Higginbotham — Died of disease, May 29, 1863. 

Capt. James M. HolUday — Killed at battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS AND PRIVATES. 

Auten, John — Killed at Bealington, Virginia, July 10, 1861. 

Asoshire, John H. — Died at La Grange, Tenn., Jan. 30, 1863. 

Adams, Andrew — Killed at battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 

Ashley, Henry J. — Died October 21, 1863, from wounds. 

Boyd, Robert F.— Died at Cheat Mountain, Nov. 6, 1861. 

Brown, Thomas — Died May 9, 1862, from wounds received in action. 

Baugh, Henry — Died at Corinth, Miss., June", 1862. 

Bonney, Benjamin — Died at Nashville, March 20, 1864. 

Bedker, Frederick— Died at Louisville, April 28, 1862. 

Bowers, Samuel — Died at Louisville, Jan. 20, 1862. 

Brewer, John — Died near Murfreesboro, Feb. 15, 1863. 

Brown, Mahlon — Died at Bowling Green, Jan. 5, 1863. 

Beglin, John A.— Died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan. 25, 1863. 

Bulla, William H. — Died Oct. 15, 1863, from wounds. 

Bartlett, Edwin A.— Died at Richmond, Va., Nov. 18, 1863. 

Bowen, Benjamin B. — Died in prison in Georgia, Oct. 28,1864. 

Bowen, George W — Died at Nashville, July 9. 18G4. 

Baker, Daniel W.— Died at Knoxville, Tenn., July 14, 1864. 

Blake, James E — Died at Danville, Ky., Jan. 31, 1863. 

Bowen, Abner — Died in 1863. 

Behee, Leonard — Died at Paducah, Ky., in 1862. 

Brown, Jesse— Died July 4. 1862. 

Clements, James— Died at Louisville, March 18, 1862. 

Clemens, Charles W. — Killed in military prison, July, 1863. 
^Cotton, Gregory H. — Killed by accidental shot, Oct. 2, 1864/ 

Currier, William — Died in Andersonville prison, May 30, 1864. 

Claffey, Thomas— Died at Gallatin, Tenn., Jan. 10, 1865. 

Crites, Philip— Killed at Inka,Miss., Sept. 19, 1862. 

Custer, James — Died. 

Cum, Edward— Killed at Iuka, Miss., Sept. 19, 1862. 
•Daugherty, Jacob — Killed by railroad accident at Chattanooga, May, 25, 1864, 

Ducomb, James M. — Died in rebel hospital, May 15, 1862. 

Dively, Lorenzo — Died at Danville, Ky., Dec. 1, 1862. 

Dively, George— Died at Nashville, Nov. 21,1862. 

Deelman, Adam — Killed at Atlanta, Aug. 4, 1864. 

Dirst, Herman — Died at Nashville, May 3, 1863. 

Davis, Charles D.— Died at Madison, Ind., Feb. 23,1865. 

Drake, John— Killed at Corinth, Oct. 4, 1862. 

Ells, William P.— Died at Huntsville, Ala., July 7, 1864. 

Fluckey, William C— Died at Knoxville, Tenn., Aug. 13, 1864. 

Finley, James B. — Died near Murfreesboro, Jan. 28, 1863. 

Finney, Abram — Killed bv accidental shot, Feb. 6, 1865. 

Frazer, David— Killed at Iuka, Miss., Sept. 19, 1862. 

Frederick, Benjamin — Died July 4, 1862. 

Fulmer, William M.— Died Feb. 11, 1863, from wounds received at Stone River. 

Gilman, Francis M. — Died at Cheat Mountain, Dec. 10, 1861. 

Gillan, James M. — Died in Andersonville prison, Sept. 18, 1864. 

Goodrich, Alexander — Died May 10, 1862. 

Gay, Ebert — Died Jan. 14, 1864," from wounds. 

Greenleaf, Henry C— Died at Louisville, Sept. 10, 1862. 

Guibert, George — Died at Nashville, March 31, 1863. 

Green, Albert C. — Died at Chattanooga, May 23, 1864. 

Gipsom, George B. — Died at Carthage, Tenn., June 3, 1863. 



446 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Grindle, Henry — Died at Paducah, Ky., in 1862. 

Gilfoyle, Michael— Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 

Hooper, Isaac — Died at New Albany. 

Harris, Edward— Died at HuttouvUle, Va., Nov. 17, 1861. 

Hennessey, Michael— Killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. 

Higgins, James — Died at Louisville, Jan. 19, 1863. 

Hight, William— Died at Liberty Mills, Ind., May 23, 1863. 

Hill, William— Killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, 1863. 

Hogle, William H. H. — Died Jan. 7, 1863, from wounds received at Stone River. 

Hoover, Jonas H. — Killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. 

Harding, Edward— Died at Columbia, Tenn., May 31, 1862. 

Holwell, Henry— Died at Louisville, March 6, 1862. 

Hart, John W.— Died at Camp Nevin, Nov. 23, 1861. 

Henderson, Dayton — Died at home in 1862. 

Hildebrand, Elijah — Died in 1863, from wounds received at Chickamauga. 

Henry, John— Died at Rick's River, Ky., Oct. 16, 1862. 

Huey, William H.— Died at Nashville, Feb. 3, 1863. 

Hinebaugh, Jacob — Died near Glasgow, Ky., Nov. 18, 1862. 

Heminger, Peter — Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863. 

Hathaway, Jesse— Died at Newberu, N. C, April 28, 1865, from wounds. 

Huyler. Simon H. — Killed by railroad accident, Nov. 1, 1864. 

Hanville, Charles M. — Killed by railroad accident, Nov. 1, 1864. 

Hardy, James— Died at Nashville, Sept. 8, 1864. 

Herman, John — Died at Vienna, Ala., Aug. 11, 1864, from wounds. 

Herman, Reuben — Died at Vienna, Ala., Aug. 11, 1864, from wounds. 

Huff, Aaron— Died at home, March 11, 1863. 

Hicks, George F. — Died at Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct. 7. 1863, of wounds. 

HerchelrodeTJohn — Died at Memphis, Aug. 21, 1863. 

Harriman, John — Died at Memphis, Aug. 21, 1863. 

Horn, Johu— Died at St. Louis, Oct. 14. 1^62. 

Hunt, Jesse— Died at Memphis, Oct. 14, 1862. 

Hall, George — Died at Vicksburg, in 1864. 

Ham, John— Died in 1862. 

Hunter, Robert— Died at Paducah in 1862. 

Johnson, James A.— Died at Carthage, Tenn., March 25, 1863. 

James, Joel — Died at Memphis. June 4, 1863. 

Jones, John L. — Died at Memphis, June 4, 1863. 

Jennings, PhineasE. — Died Jan. 8, 1863, from wounds received at Stone River. 

Keller, David— Died at Savannah, Tenn., April 15, 1862. 

Keifer, Jacob H.— Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863. 

Kelscy, Irwin H.— Died at New Albany, Iud., July 17, 1863. 

Khnk, John D.— Died at Louisville, Jan. 2, 1865. 

Kiser, Daniel— Died at Lakeville, Iud., Sept. 2, 1864. 

Keazey, Jr.Joseph —Died at home, Jan. 14, 1864. 

Kline, John — Died. 

Kizar, Henry— Died in 1862. 

Kelley, Charles G.— Died of wounds at Corinth, Oct. 10, 1862. 

Kitung, Reuben— Died in 1862. 

Kerabel, Alexander M.— Died in 1862. 

Lescobier, Frederick— Died at Cheat Mountain, Oct. 25, 1861. 

Landenberger, Michael — Died Jan. 23, 1863, from wounds received at Stone 

River. 
Lucia, Sheffield — Died Jan. 25, 1863, from wounds received at Stone River. 
Lenegar, Isaac— Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 
Lane, Ephraim T.— Killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. 
Litchtenberger, William— Died at South Bend, Ind., March 26, 1864. 
Lahman, Henry— Killed at Kingston, N. C, March 10, 1865. 
Miller, Jesse— Killed at Shiloh, April 7, 1862. 
Michael, Solomon— Died at Mishawaka, Ind., July 11, 1862. 
McDonald, Michael— Killed at Mission Ridse, Nov. 25, 1863. 
Markel, Benjamin F— Killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. 
Mangus, Elias — Died at Danville, Va., prison, April 15, 1862. 
Mangus, Peter — Died inFlorence, South Carolina, prison, Oct. 10, 1864. 
Mangus, Eli— Died at Tullahoma, Tenn., Sept. 8, 1862. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 447 

Mapes, Henry — Died at Andersonville prison, Oct. G, 1864. 

Miller, Elias— Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 

Musson, Alonzo — Died at Louisville, April 13, 1862. 

Mareen, James P. — Died at Corinth, Miss., Jan. 14, 1862. 

Mountz, Eli— Died at Nashville, April 8, 1862. 

Mapes, John J. — Died at Louisville, July 17, 1863. 

Moon, William H.— Killed at Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. 

Mangherman, William H.— Died at Louisville, July 23, 1863. 

Miller, Isaac — Died at Marietta, Georgia, Aug. 7, 1864. 

Mangus, Caleb — Died at New Albany, Ind., May 1, 1864. 

McKnabb, Horton — Died at Vienna, Ala., Aug. 11, 1864, from wounds. 

Maxwell, Richard— Died at Port Gaines, Ala., May 1, 1865. 

Martin, Jacob — Died at Vienna, Ala., Aug. 11, 18G4, from wounds. 

Metz, Frederick D.— Died at Huntsville, Ala., Aug. 27, 1864. 

Miller, Martin M— Died at Nashville, March 10, 1863. 

Murphy, Benjamin — Died at Columbia, Tenn., July 1, 1864. 

Miller, Miles H.— Killed at Iuka, Miss., Sept, 19, lt62. 

Martin, John — Died from wounds, at Memphis, Jan. 6, 1863. 

Miller, Moses- -Died at Paducah in 1862. 

Myers, David— Died at Louisville, Julv 26, 1862. 

Moon, John R— Died at Camp Nevin, Nov 12, 1861. 

Mountz, Andrew— Died at Louisville, Oct. 12, 1862. 

Moffit, Ephraim— Died at Gallatin, Trim., Jan. 18, 1863. 

Norman, James— Died at Clarksville, Va., July 8, 1861. 

Owens, John— Died at Nashville. Sept. 3, 1863. 

Odell, Jonas— Died at Gallatin, Tenn., Dec. 13, 1862. 

Oliver, Alonzo — Died at Kingston, Ga., July 5, 1.^64. 

Potts, John— Died at Andersonville, Feb. 2, 1865. 

Packard, Leverene — Died at Corinth, June 18, 1863. 

Pickett, Selah— Died at Madison, Ind , Dec. 1, 1863. 

Pressey, Charles O. — Died at Bowling Green, Ky., Dec. 2, 1862. 

Pratt, William — Died at Andersonville prison, Sept. 13, 1864. 

Parrish, William T— Died at Louisville, Dec. 10, 1862. 

Paul, George — Died Jan. 2. 1863, from wounds. 

Pearson, Hiram — Died at Danville, Ky., Nov. 9, 1862. 

Palmer, Jesse— Died Feb. 15, 1865. 

Parker, Thomas — Died at Murfreesboro, Aug. 1, 1863. 

Quigley, John V. — Died at Harrodsburg, Ky., Nov. 9, 1862. 

Rodgers, Joseph — Died at Huntsville, Ala. 

Rockwell, Evi.— Died near Corinth, Miss., May 26, 1862. 

Ritter, Benjamin — Died in Andersonville prison, Aug. 21, 1864. 

Robinson, Joseph — Died at Gallatin, Tenn., Nov. 25, 1862. 

Ramsberger, John — Died at Nashville, Dec. 8, 1864. 

Robinson, Martin G.— Died at Huntsville, Ala., Aug. 15, 1864. 

Ritter, Jacob— Died at Paducah, Ky., Nov. 20, 1862. 

Ross, Benjamin H. — Died. 

Roberts, Thomas B —Died July 4, 1862. 

Rockhill, Jasper N. — Died at Corinth, Oct. 7, 1862, from wounds. 

Rockwell, Willard— Died at Paducah, March 6, 1862. 

Robbins, Levi — Died at Louisville, July 13, 1865. 

Stiner, Daniel B. — Drowned in 1863. 

Shepley, Samuel M— Killed at Iuka, Miss., Sept. 19, 1862. 

Sipes, Jacob — Died at Vicksburg, Aug. 8, 1863. 

Shelmadine, John — Died at Jackson, Tenn., Sept. 11, 1862. 

Shields, Patrick— Died at Paducah, Feb. 28, 1862. 

Shearer, Harrison — Died in Andersonville prison. 

Snure, Levi P.— Killed at Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 1863. 

Schutt, Joseph — Drowned at Bowling Green, March 3, 1862. 

Schenck, Daniel C. — Died Dec. 3. 1863, from wounds received at Mission Ridge. 

Schultz, Abraham S.— Killed at Chickamauga, Dec. 19, 1863. 

Steiner, Frederick — Died at Andersonville prison, Nov. 13, 1864. 

Streable, William J.— Died at Savannah, Tenn., April 15, 1862. 

Seybold, Benjamin F. — Died at Louisville, June 1, 1862. 

Steiner, Benjamin F.— Died at Camp Nevin, Dec. 10, 1861. 






448 HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Steiner, Henry — Drowned in Tenn. river, Dec. 12, 1864. 

Streets, James B.— Died at Scottsville, Ky., Nov. 6, 1862. 

Swank, Conrad — Died at Louisville, Dec. 11, 1862. 

Schmidt, Benjamin — Died Nov. 7, 1868, from wounds. 

Sumstine, John — Died Jan. 14, 1864, from wounds. 

Smith, John I. — Died in St. Joseph county, Ind., May 5,1865. 

Shearer, Daniel — Died at Chattanooga, Aug. 1, 1864. 

Shinewa, Joseph — Killed at Columbia, Tenn., Nov. 29, 1864. 

Sauls, Francis — Died at Indianapolis, May 6, 1865. 

~rnith, David H. — Died in Andersonville prison, Feb. 3, 1865. 

Swatuwood, Jonathan — Died in 1862. 

Somsley, Elias— Died atTerre Haute, Ind., June 28, 1862. 

Tener, Henry— Died at Camp Nevin, Nov. 27, 1861. 

Tener, Samuel — Died at Camp Nevin, Feb. 9, 1862. 

Trueblood, William— Died at Nashville, Dec. 16, 1862. 

Teel, Moses — Died Jan. 19, 186:!, from wounds received at Stone River. 

Thompson, John M.— Died at Gallatin, Tenn., Nov. 29, 1862. 

Tarbell, Ami H — Died at home, Sept. 8, 1864. 

Tuttle, Francis D.— Died at Memphis, Feb. 20, 1864. 

Ungry, Daniel B.— Killed at Shiloh, April 17, 1862. 

Vanriper, John— Died at Gallatin. Tenn., Jan. 22, 1S63. 

Varney, William C. — Killed at Mission Ridge, Nov. 25, 1863. 

Valentine, Michael — Died. 

Watkins, Regin — Died at Chattanooca, July 4, 1864. 

Weslfall, George— Died near Nashville, De'c. 5, 1862. 

Whitman, Daniel E.— Died at Camp Nevin, Nov. 14. 1861. 

Williams, Albion A.— Died at Louisville, Nov. 21, 1861. 

Weir, John— Died at Knoxville, Tenn.. July 14, 1864. 

Wilson, Ira A. — Died from accident at Washington, June 3, 1865. 

Wedgeworth, Jonas R. — Died at Columbia, South Carolina, Feb. 15, 1865. 

Wilson, William H.— Died March 3, 1865. 

Wells, Ozias-Died July 2,1863. 

Wykoff, George — Died in 1863. 

Wells, William H.— Died in 1862. 

Woollen, Michael— Died at Evansville, Aug. 7, 1862. 

Wiggins, John — Died at Evansville in 1S62. 

Wagoner, Prosper — Died at home, Jan. 29, 1864. 

Woolnian, Henry — Died at Louisville, Feb. 25, 1863. 

Woodbury, Emerson— Died at Murfrcesboro, Dec. 20, 1864, from wounds. 

Young, Silas— Died at Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 2, 1864. 

Zeigler, James— Killed at Iuka, Sept. 19, 1862. 

THE FIRST MAETTE. 

John Auten, a member of Co. I, Ninth "Regiment Indiana Vol- 
unteers, was killed in a scouting expedition the afternoon of July 10, 
1861, being the first man from St. Joseph county killed by the 
enemy. He was a son of Abram Auten, of Portage township, and 
was in the 22d year of his age. His energy, patriotism and bravery 
were evinced in that he was not detailed to go with the expedition, 
but ot his own accord joined the scouting party, who were taken from 
another company, lie could not brook the idea of being inactive 
when there was work to be done, or an enemy to fight. His death 
was well avenged, and his friends and relatives, in their anguish at 
his loss, had at least the consolation of knowing that he fell bravely 
fighting in the sacred cause of his country, " with his feet to the 
field, and his face to the foe." He was loved and respected by all who 
knew him, and his death was deeply mourned by all the citizens. 
His bodj* was sent home for interment, and his funeral at South 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. ±49 

Bend, on Friday, Aug. 2, 1861, was attended by at least 5,000 
people, testifying their respect tor the deceased, and their sympathy 
lor the noble cause in which he had sacrificed his life. The services 
were held in the court-house, and an eloquent and appropriate 
sermon was preached by Rev. J. C. Reed. The coffin was enveloped 
in the national flag, and was tastily ornamented with evergreen. 
Upon the top of the coffin were laid the revolvers captured by the 
deceased from a rebel officer. His body was escorted to the grave 
by a large number of his brother soldiers, marching witli arms 
reversed and to the sound of military music. Three rounds of 
eight guns were fired over his grave by the military squad under 
command of Lieutenant Blowney, and the vast assemblage then 
retired. 

BLACK HAWK WAE. 

By Judge Thomas S. Stanfield. 

The great event in this locality in 1832 was the Black Hawk war. 
One morning John Defrees came into our house and told us that 
the Indians had broken out into open hostility against the frontier 
people way beyond us. This was the first we had heard of it. It 
was not long, however, before fugitives from the west came dashing 
through pell-mell, as if they expected every instant to hear the 
dread war-whoop of Black Hawk behind them. Many of them 
were so frightened they hardly took time to take up their women 
and children before starting, and went sailing through South Bend 
without stopping to inform us of our danger. Others had come so 
far and fast they were compelled to stop and feed and rest their 
horses, and while so employed embraced the opportunity to circu- 
late the most frightful stories of savage brutality perpetrated by 
Black Hawk and his followers upon the unoffending and unpro- 
tected inhabitants just beyond where the fugitives came from. The 
continuance of this flight and its increase in volume, together with 
the enlarged area of Indian hostilities, and the apprehension that 
the Pottawatomies, who then more than equaled the white popula- 
tion of this county, might be in sympathy with the warring tribes 
under Black Hawk, began to alarm a great many people in our 
locality, especially people not familiar with frontier life. 

Different localities immediately organized, drilled military com- 
panies, and built forts for their protection. The people on Portage 
Prairie and vicinity were among the first to build a block house. 
It was situated on old Daniel Miller's farm. It was understood 
here (South Bend) to be occupied by a military force, and was 
regarded as an advance guard that would have to be overcome 
before the enemy would reach us. It was understood there was a 
night picket guard kept up around the block house, so that we 
need not apprehend a night surprise from the enemy. Many 
people reposed in confident slumbers, believing that the lives of 
themselves and little ones were protected by the watchful diligence 
(it the night guard. On one occasion when the excitement was 



450 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

up to the highest pitch, the guard was set at proper distance and 
duly cautioned as to their responsibilities, and what their country 
expected of them. Among the rest was an old fellow who had 
lived on the frontier all his life, and knew about what reliance was 
to be placed in such rumors; and having no fear of the Indians, and 
believing the whole thing so far as there being any danger to the 
people of this part of the country a childish fear of the Indians, 
with such feelings he took his station as a watchman for the night. 
After the night began to wear away he got sleepy, and entertaining 
the opinion he did of the foil}' of the whole performance, it was an 
easy matter to give way to his drowsy feelings, so he stood his 
gun up against a tree, and quietly laid himself down and went to 
sleep, and was soon oblivious to all danger from the tomahawk and 
scalping-knife of the red-skins. At the proper time an officer in 
charge of the picket-guard passed around to see that all were in 
the strict discharge of their duty, when to his great astonishment 
and utter disgust he found this man not only asleep on his post, 
but actually snoring away as unconscious of clanger as if Black 
Hawk and his followers were in a similar condition in the bottom 
of Lake Michigan. This was a fearful breach of military law; a 
reckless disregard of human life; a capital offense. Such a willful 
disregard of duty could not be overlooked. It must be punished, 
or all military subordination would be at an end. Without enforc- 
ing strict military discipline no efficient defense could be expected, 
and all would be inevitably lost. With all these thoughts flighting 
through the mind of the officer, he indignantly and in no gentle 
manner aroused the unconscious sleeper into a realizing sense of 
the enormity of his crime, and in an unceremonious manner 
marched him off to the guard-house, duly admonishing him of his 
impending fate. It is easier to imagine than to describe what 
must have been the feelings of this poor, thoughtless soldier while 
waiting in the guard-house to hear his doom announced. 

When the officers assembled in the block house in the morning, 
his case was reported in all its naked deformity. They all felt it 
was a grievous thing to inflict the extreme penaltj 7 of the law, but 
duty was their imperative master, and they were not the men to 
shirk duty. So with one voice it was declared that the delinquent 
should lie shot. It was a painful duty, but it must be done. Before 
this resolution could be carried out, it occurred to some of them 
that it was unlawful to put a man to death without a trial — that 
there must be ajudgment or sentence pronounced by a competent 
court, or the taking' off would be murder. Then they were all in a 
quandary. Who was to compose such a court? How was it to be 
organized? Did it have a jury? Were they to be selected from 
soldiers or citizens? Was the criminal entitled to be present by 
himself and counsel? Was the trial to be public or secret? All 
these questions were discussed. They searched the revised statutes 
and consulted ex-justice of the peace, but no light was thrown upon 
the vexed question. It had never been revealed to them that there 



UISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 451 

was such a thing as a written military code, and they were all left 
in the dark and perplexed as to what they should do, and in that 
condition of mind concluded it would be better to let the poor cul- 
prit go than to run the risk of putting a man to death without due 
process of law. So the victim was permitted to enjoy a whole hide 
for many years afterward, and died a natural death. I will not 
swear this story is all true, but it is in substance as it was reported 
at the time, and as it took place so long ago I do not believe it can 
be disproved, and therefore I have recorded it as veritable history. 
My own personal observations were more strictly confined to 
South Bend and its immediate neighborhood. It could hardly be 
expected that one could note and remember all the military opera- 
tions in a distant field like around the block house on Portage 
Prairie, and remember them after the lapse of 49 .years. 

Col. Hiram Dayton was quite a noted man of that period. He 
lived where Adam Baker now resides. He was not only willing 
to sacrifice all his wife's relations upon the altar of his country, 
but was willing to sacrifice himself. In our present peril he 
volunteered to lead a company against the enemy. He beat up 
for volunteers, and the fighting men soon flocked to his standard. 
A company was immediately organized. The Captain drilled his 
men until he was satisfied with their proficiency, and then dis- 
missed them with his compliments to meet again at one minute's 
call. Hence they were called minute men. Allow me to whisper 
in your ear that I was one of that Spartan Band. Still the people 
were not satisfied that all had been done for their protection that 
ought to be done. No one doubted the courage or skill of Captain 
Dayton and his company, but not long could such a short wall of 
flesh stand against the concentrated forces of the enemy under 
Black Hawk. It was a question of too much importance to be 
postponed or trifled with. A large majority insisted on building a 
fort. The} 7 said other exposed places were protecting themselves 
in this way, and we must also. So it was agreed on all hands that 
a fort should be built. At first there was some difficulty about its 
location. But after consulting the best military experience it was 
concluded to occupy that triangular piece of ground bounded by 
Jefferson street on the south, St. Joseph on the west, and Pearl on 
the northeast. Some objected to this location because they said the 
Indians might conceal themselves in the brush under the hill just 
above where MenssePs old brewery now stands, and slip up at night 
and cut off the picket guard, but their criticisms were disregarded, 
and we went on with the construction of the fort in good earnest 
on the location described. The ground was to be enclosed by a 
wall of timbers' made of split logs or puncheons, to be set in the 
ground three feet deep and rising above nine or ten feet. This 
wall was to be pierced at proper places with port-holes to fire from. 
I cannot for the life of me recall the name of the military engineer 
who designed the fort. I have no recollection of seeing Captain 
Dayton there. It was before Lathrop M. Taylor had been elevated 



452 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

to the Colonelcy of the 79th Regiment, or Francis R. Tutt to the 
Lieut. -Colonelcy of the same; nor had Dr. Hardman yet become 
Major of that regiment, and it is very doubtful whether that regi- 
ment had been organized, and it is certain that neither Taylor, Tutt, 
nor Hardman had then risen above the rank of a private; so that 
there is no certainty that the plan of the fort sprang from the fertile 
brain of either of them. It is feared that the name of the designer 
of this fort will forever be lost to the history of South Bend. 

The people of the town went to work earnestly to build the fort, 
according to the plans and specifications. The excitement was 
then up to fever heat. The county was full of the wildest and 
most improbable stories of Indian atrocities, and yet a great many 
peeple would believe them and insist that the Pottawatomies were 
secretly hostile and only waiting a favorable opportunity to break 
out into open warfare. As an illustration of the feeling then exist- 
ing, I remember while we were at work on the fort, a Pottawatomie 
came sauntering along by us, looking through the cracks between 
the puncheons, and as soon as it was noticed, it was earnestly 
asserted by many that he was a spy, and ought to be arrested and 
shot at once. One man was particularly fierce on the subject. 
After awhile the work on the fort began to lag. People were com- 
iiitr to their senses and regarded the danger as much farther off 
than at first supposed, and besides, the United States Government 
was now earnestly engaged in suppressing Black Hawk and his 
hostile tribes. Still there was a lurking fear in the minds of some, 
and it was thought best to send out a party of our own people to 
make a reconnoisance sixty or seventy miles west. These men went 
out on the expedition. I think it was made up of Jonathan A, 
Liston, Elisha Egbert and Dr. Stoddard; but I am not certain as 
to the persons, though I saw them on their horses as they started 
off. 

After several days' absence they returned and reported to the 
people in front of Johnson's tavern. Among other things they 
said they had been sixty or seventy miles west and had made dili- 
gent inquiries as to the whereabouts of Black Hawk and his 
warriors, and they felt perfectly sure there was not a hostile Indian 
within one hundred and fifty miles of us, and that no apprehension 
need be felt of any danger from the Pottawatomies; that the chief, 
Po Kagon, was undoubtedly friendly, and as evidence of it he kept 
the American flag flying over his cabin, and that if any of his tribes 
were unfriendly they would remain neutral. At the announcement 
of this word neutral Joe Hanby, an erratic kind of a Pennsylvania 
Dutchman, cried out, "Tarn old Neutral; he is mit Black Hawk 
now!" The fears of the people were well quieted by 'this time, and 
they raised a great laugh at Joe's blunder. This was the end of 
the Black Hawk excitement in this part of the country; but there 
was a little breeze sprung up in Sonth Bend a short time after- 
ward growing out of it. The Governor of this State had called 
out a battalion of three hundred cavalry, and started them under 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEl'H COUNTY. 453 

command of Col. Rupel to the front. They never got nearer than 
one hundred miles of the place where their services were needed, 
and while they were dallying along between Lafayette and Chicago, 
John Defrees, without expecting them to return by way of South 
Bend, had the temerity to say in his paper, "That it was not to be 
expected that this holiday battalion would ever be found within a 
hundred miles of a hostile Indian," and other hostile things not 
very complimentary to their bravery or efficiency. In a short time 
afterward these fellows lit down on us suddenly as if they had 
dropped out of the sky. They were going to make mince-meat of 
Johu Defrees right off. I saw a company overhaul and surround 
him as he was passing along the street. Judging from the threaten- 
ing language and manner of his captors, 1 expected to see him 
depart life in about three seconds, but some of the prominent 
officers rushed in and kept the furious ones at bay. Notwith- 
standing his perilous situation, Mr. Defrees stood up manfully 
before them and insisted upon his right as an editor of a newspaper to 
criticise the conduct of this battalion. But the men swore if they 
were not permitted to lynch him, his press and type should go into 
the river. The printing office was in the second story of a hewed- 
log house, accessible only by an outside stairway. A squad started 
for it, but in the meantime Capt. Anthony Defrees had collected 
around him, in the printing office, five or six men all well armed. 
As soon as one of the squad put his foot on the stairway, the Cap- 
tain warned him that if he came any further it would be at the 
peril of his life; then he would back out, and another would come 
as if he intended to go right up, but as soon as lie saw five or six 
guns leveled at him, he would suddenly conclude that it would not 
be a healthy undertaking and would back out. The squad would 
leave and another would come more determined and threatening 
than their predecessors, but as soon as the old Captain and his men 
•would level their guns on them, their courage would ooze out and 
they would retire in good order. And so they kept coming and 
going for three or four hours. They had swords and pistols, but no 
guns, and they knew some one would get hurt before they could 
get Captain Defrees and his men out of that hewed log-house, and 
considering discretion the better part of valor, marched off without 
exterminating John D. Defrees or his printing office, and were 
always afterward recognized and known as " the bloody three 
hundred." 

This doses the history of our connection with the Black Hawk 
war. The unrequited services of that valiant corps under Captain 
Dayton is but another instance of the ingratitude of a republic. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RAILROADS. — TERRIBLE RAILROAD ACCIDENT. — THE TELEGRAPH. — 

FERRIES. 

RAILROADS. 

The citizens of this county early took an interest in railroad mat- 
ters, and were determined at the earliest practical moment the iron 
horse should speed over the prairies and through the timber of the 
beautiful St. Joseph valley. Notwithstanding a large number 
were favorable to a railroad enterprise, there were yet those that 
opposed it and favored the less expensive canal. The same argu- 
ment offered by farmers and breeders of horses throughout the 
country, was made here: the building of a railroad would destroy 
this industry, and horses, which then commanded a good price, 
would be worthless in the markets. 

In February, 1835, the Legislature of the State passed an act 
incorporating the Buffalo & Mississippi Railroad, it being the 
design of the company to build a railroad from Buffalo, New York, 
to some point on the Mississippi river. Under this act a company 
was organized in 1838, to build a road through this State from some 
point on the eastern line of the State to Michigan Citj' on the west. 
Gen. Joseph Orr, of La Porte county, was made president of the 
company. During this same year a survey was made from Michi- 
gan Oity to South Bend, and the contract let for grading the road 
from the former place to La Porte. Some three or four miles were 
properly graded, when the company ran out of money, and the 
work was abandoned. 

Everything in the direction of railroad building now lay dor- 
mant for a number of years. In the spring of 1847 the discussion 
of the question was again commenced, and in August of that year 
a meeting of all interested in a line from Toledo, Ohio, to Chicago, 
Illinois, was called at Mishawaka. A large number of leading 
men from Chicago and Toledo, as well as many other points, met 
according to the call, Judge Stanfield, of South Bend, presiding. 
Great interest was manifested by all in having the road built, but 
nothing was directly accomplished at that meeting. 

A party of capitalists in New York, about that time, purchased 
the Michigan Southern railroad, then running from Toledo, Ohio, 
and Monroe, Michigan, to Hillsdale, in the latter State. It was 
now thought the objects of the people in this county, as well as in 
the entire St. Joseph valley, could be accomplished by uniting 
with that company, having them build the road in this direction. 

(454i 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 455 

To this end correspondence was opened between interested parties 
who responded to the call at Mishawaka, and the officers of the 
Michigan Southern. The latter party responded favorably, and 
made a proposition to build their road to the Indiana State line on 
the east, provided a company was organized to build through the 
State to the Illinois line, and from thence to Chicago. 

Agreeably to this proposition a company was organized in Indi- 
ana and a charter obtained for a road, under the name of the 
Northern Indiana Railroad Company. Soon after this object was 
effected, an effort was made to consolidate the two companies into 
one, which effort was successful, the consolidation taking effect in 
1850 under the name of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indi- 
ana Railway Company. The united company now proceeded to 
let contracts and build the road through Northern Indiana to La 
Forte and from Michigan City to Chicago, in the meantime making 
a further survey and leaving open the project for building the road 
between La Forte and Michigan City. 

It being the desire of the company to reach Chicago by t'he 
easiest, shortest and most practicable route, and the grade between 
La Forte and Michigan City being so great, as well as the line being 
lengthened in reaching Chicago in that way, it was determined to 
abandon the charter of the Northern Indiana Railroad Company, 
under which they were operating, west of La Porte, and adopt 
that of the Buffalo & Mississippi Company. Under the charter 
of this latter company the road was then constructed from 
La Porte to Chicago as it now runs. About 20 miles of track west 
of Michigan City was taken up, the present line intersecting the 
road as built from that point to Chicago at this place. 

It must not be inferred from what has already been said that 
the railroad company was pursuing this work without serious 
obstacles being thrown in the way of accomplishing their ends. 
At the same time this road was being constructed, the Michigan 
Central was also being built, and this was upon an almost parallel 
line. Each road had for its terminus Chicago, and each wished to 
reach the city first, and if possible prevent the other from reaching 
it at all. It was not thought possible there could be business 
enough to pay both roads. The friends of the Michigan Central 
could not, of course, prevent altogether the building of the Michi- 
gan Southern, but did manage to have incorporated into the charter 
of the latter road, by the Michigan Legislature, that it should not 
go nearer than two miles of the Indiana line until after it reached 
Constantine, in Michigan. This did not suit the Michigan South- 
ern Company. They did not care about taking in Constantine, but 
did wish to reach Indiana as quickly as possible, and thence by the 
shortest route into Chicago. As " love laughs at locksmiths," so 
railroad companies laugh at legislative enactments designed to 
throw obstacles in their way. 

When the Michigan Southern Company reached White Pigeon. 
Michigan, they were within two miles of the Indiana line on the 



456 IIIST0KY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

south, but four miles iu the direction they were running. At this 
juncture Judge Stanfield, of South Bend, proposed to the com- 
pany, it' they would furnish the money he would undertake to buy 
the right of way, get the roads vacated by the county authorities, 
and build it the four miles from White Pigeon to the Indiana line. 
His proposition was accepted, and he lost no time in carrying out 
his contract, this road being known as the Portage railroad. For 
ten years the Judge held this line in his own name, the Michigan 
Legislature refusing to amend the charter allowing them to run 
into Indiana east of Constantine. When the charter was amended, 
however, the Judge assigned all his right and title to the company, 
which, of course, had been operating it all this time under a lease 
from Mr. Stanlield. 

In order to aid in the construction of the road, the County Com- 
missioners, under instruction from the people who petitioned them 
for that purpose, voted a subscription of $40,000 to the capital 
6tock of the company; but in consequence of there being a suffi- 
cient sum subscribed by the people to build and equip the road, 
the amount was never issued. About $15,000 was subscribed by 
the people of this county, which amount was all bought up by 
Judge Stanfield for Eastern parties, at a premium of '2b percent., 
in the year 1851. This was fortunate for those investing, as in a 
short time the stock went down to 60 cents on the dollar. Thus a 
line of railroad was obtained in this county without costing the 
people one cent. 

The name of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Rail- 
way Company was retained until its consolidation with the Lake 
Shore road from Cleveland to Buffalo, when it took the name of the 
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, by which name it is 
now known. It is one of the leading railroad companies in the 
United States. 

On Saturday evening. Oct. 4, 1851, the first through train from 
Lake Erie reached South Bend, and created a great deal of excite- 
ment and enthusiasm. Says a local writer at the time: " Brilliant 
bonfires were the order of the evening, and when, at 9 p. m., the 
locomotive, John Stryker, came puffing into the midst of the mul- 
titudes who were assembled, cheer after cheer rent the air, the 
cannon also poured forth its deep-toned greeting in forty-eight 
rounds, and for the first time in our streets were heard 'Walk this 
way to the Washington House omnibus,' ' Show your baggage for 
the American Hotel.' We did not estimate the number of hundreds 
that were present. All the town were there in the first place, men, 
women and children, ministers, merchants and mechanics, old and 
young, and quite a number from the country around. And this, 
too, when it was more than doubtful whether the cars would- come 
that evening or not, the track not being finished that evening until 
after nightfall. The first train east from here Monday morning 
took thirty passengers — a very fair commencement, and its depart- 
ure was honored by seventeen rounds of the cannon. Monday 



HISTORY OF ST JOSEPH COUNTY. 457 

afternoon the locomotive Goshen brought in a heavy freight train, 
and in the evening another mass meeting assembled to welcome 
the second passenger train. The moonlight evening was en- 
livened by the fife and drum, and when the E. C. Litchfield 
rattled in with the train, another towering bonfire lit np the heavens 
with its flame, and the cheers of welcome again rang forth to greet 
our visitors. 

"The rapidity with which the work has'been done on this road 
is almost, if not entirely, without parallel in the annals of our 
country. On the 22d of August last the railroad crossed the 
Michigan State line, thirty miles distant, and since that time one- 
half mile a day of the track has been laid. The directors of the 
road have determined to complete it at the earliest possible mo- 
ment, and what they intend to do, they do. By the way, do our 
Niles friends over the line begin to believe that South 'Bend will 
have a railroad, or are they all doubtful Thomases still?" 

In 1867 a railroad meeting was held at Jackson, Michigan, to 
which the people along the St. Joseph valley in Indiana, and Michi- 
gan were invited. The object of the meeting was to see what in- 
ducements could be held out to the Grand Trunk Railroad of Can- 
ada, to extend their line of road from Ridgeway, Michigan, through 
the States of Michigan and Indiana to Chicago. A company was 
formed at this meeting and organized under the name of the 
Michigan Grand Trunk; Rail way Company. A route was proposed and 
adopted, fixing the points which the road should take, and making 
it obligator}- upon the company, after reaching Niles, Michigan, 
to take the most direct route to Chicago. This cut oft* the city of 
South Bend, even if not the entire county of St. Joseph, Indiana, 
much to the disgust of the people. 

A survey was made and a line adopted for the proposed road. 
Subscriptions were opened at different points, quite a large 
amount of stock subscribed and some work done; but in conse- 
quence of some places west of Jackson, Michigan, failing to sub- 
scribe the amount agreed with the company, work was suspended. 
A meeting was then called at Jackson for the purpose of amending 
the charter of the road and changing some of the points west. At 
that meeting the provision was struck out providing that the road 
should go the most direct route from Niles, Michigan, to Chicago. 
This left it in the power of the company, if it was thought advisa- 
ble, to run the road from the State line to South Bend. Ahout 
this time the name of the company was changed from Michigan 
Grand Trunk Railway Company to the Michigan Air Line 
Company. 

The latter company began now the construction of the road, but 
60on fifter became so embarrassed it could not go on with the work, 
and therefore, in 1869, leased it to the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company. The latter company at once completed the road to 
Niles, Michigan. In order now to get it to South Bend, a com- 
pany was formed at the latter place, and organized under the name 



458 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

of the St. Joseph Valley Railway Company. The city of South 
Bend subscribed §25,000 to the capital stock of the company in 
order to assist in building the road. An agreement was now made 
between the St. Joseph Valley Railway Company, and the Michi- 
gan Air Line Company to consolidate the two companies. In 
consideration of the St. Joseph Valley Railway Company trans- 
ferring to the Air Line the amount subscribed to its capital stock, 
the Air Line agreed to build, equip and run the road to South 
Bend. This, too, was leased to the Michigan Central Railroad 
Company, who yet operate it. The road was completed to South 
Bend in the spring of 1870, and was the second road secured to 
the city. 

While these operations were going on the people of Michigan 
undertook to build a parallel line from Port Huron, Michigan, by 
way of Flint, Lansing, Battle Creek, to the Indiana line in the 
direction of South Bend, with the expectation of its being extended 
through Indiana, the most feasible route to Chicago. To accom- 
plish this a company was organized, under the name of Port Huron 
& Lake Michigan Railway Company, for the purpose of building a 
road from Port Huron to Flint, Michigan. Another company was 
organized at the same time, called the Peninsular Railway Company, 
to build a road from Lansing, Michigan, by way of Battle Creek, 
to the Indiana State line. In Indiana a company was organized to 
build a road from the point where the Michigan touched the State 
line, through the State by way of Mishawaka, South Bend and Val- 
paraiso to the Illinois line, where it was to be completed, by a 
company formed in Illinois, to Chicago. These various companies 
were afterward all consolidated into one company under the name 
of the Chicago & Lake Huron Railway Company. Under this 
organization the road was built through from Port Huron to Flint, 
and from Lansing to Valparaiso, Indiana. 

In consequence of the hard times and other adverse circumstan- 
ces the railway company was unable to pay its interest on its 
mortgaged road, and the road was therefore put in the hands of a 
receiver to run it in the interest of the mortgagees. While in the 
receiver's hands a company was organized called the Northeastern 
Railway Company, which built the line from Flint to Lansing, 
thereby making a through line as originally intended from Port 
Huron to Valparaiso. 

The road was in the hands of the receiver until 1879, when the 
Grand Trunk Railway Company, of Canada, finally came to the con- 
clusion they must be placed in better connection with Chicago; 
therefore an arrangement between that company and the bond- 
holders of the Chicago & Lake Huron railroad was made by which 
the mortgages on the latter road were foreclosed and the road sold, 
the Grand Trunk Railway Company being the purchaser. A new 
company was now organized by the purchasers of the road under 
the name of the Chicago & Northwestern Grand Trunk Railway 



FTISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 459 

Company. Previous to this these parties had purchased about sev- 
enteen miles of a road running out from Chicago, and the whole 
was now united, forming a through line from Chicago to Port 
Huron, and on the 26th of March, 1880, all the companies were 
consolidated into one, which was called the Chicago & Grand Trunk 
Railway Company. 

TERRIBLE RAILROAD ACCIDENT. 

Two miles east of South Bend, midway between that place and 
Mishawaka, the track of the Michigan Southern & Lake Shore rail- 
road crosses a narrow ravine on an embankment about 25 feet high. 
At its base was a culvert through which ran a rivulet, too small a 
stream, indeed, to be called a creek, and whose waters were drained 
from the high ground south of the road. When this culvert was 
put in, the neighbors, remembering the sudden and extraordinary 
rise of this rivulet in 1841, contended that it was too small; but it 
seemed impossible that its waters could be swollen to such an extent 
as to exceed its capacity to carry off; and it had not been until the 
fatal night of June 2?. The afternoon and evening of that day the 
rain poured down in torrents, and the little rivulet grew rapidly, 
but no danger was apprehended. At half past 8 o'clock p. m. the 
express train from the East passed over it in safety. What hap- 
pened after that time until midnight can only be inferred; but it is 
evident that the culvert must have been choked up with driftwood 
and sand, as it might have done even if larger — that the embank- 
ment thus became a dam, behind which the water rapidly accumu- 
lated, and that it rose to almost the level of the track. 

A little before midnight, the night express from Chicago passed 
South Bend, Mr. Osgood, conductor, and T. Chulip, of La Porte, 
engineer, and one of the most careful ones on the line. The pas- 
sengers all testified as to how carefully he had run his train when 
it passed over a bridge or other locality he thought might be dan- 
gerous. He checked up the train when passing the Studebaker 
bridge, less than a mile west of the ravine, and then regarding the 
embankment as unquestionably safe, increased his speed. He must 
have been running, however, at less than twenty miles per hour 
when he reached the fatal spot. The embankment was, beyond a 
doubt, thoroughly water-soaked and ready to give way as he reached 
it; and the weight of the train, or any other violent concussion, 
was all that was needed to complete the work of destruction. Down 
went the track, train, embankment and all, into the narrow gorge. 
The tender, baggage car, and two second-class cars mostly shattered 
into fragments, piled up their ruins on the engine upon the oppo- 
site side of the bank. Two passenger cars followed, landing nearer 
the center of the channel, and the sleeping car. the last of the train, 
with all its inmates, escaped apparently uninjured, though taking 
the frightful leap with the rest. The vast volume of water thus 
released by the destruction of the dam which had confined it, swept 

30 



460 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

for a few moments over them, carrying several, who finally escaped 
down its stream, and drowning many others. Three of the dead 
bodies were found two hundred yards below where the rivulet emp- 
ties into the St. Joseph river. In a short time the waters of the 
rivulet had run down, and the uninjured were enabled to look for 
the wounded and the dead. 

As soon as possible the alarm was given atMishawaka and South 
Bend, the citizens of both places going to the wreck and working 
zealously through the remaining hours of the night and the follow- 
ing day. Physicians, with many other citizens, came from 
La Porte and other neighboring towns, and all was done that was 
within the power of man. The engineer and fireman, who were 
brothers, were killed at their post — so were the baggage man and 
express messenger. The express safe was broken open by the 
crash, but the money (over $60,000) was nearly all found during 
the day. 

The dead, as they were found, were mostly taken to Mishawaka, 
and many of the wounded also. The rest were taken to South 
Bend. The scene at the wreck was sorrowful beyond description. 
There were at least 150 passengers upon the train. 



THE TELEGRAPH. 

The progressive spirit of the citizens of St. Joseph county has 
often been tested, and almost invariably has it been proven to the 
world that in no matter of public interest has she been wanting. 
About the first of April, 1847, J. J. Speed, a representative of a 
proposed telegraph line from Buffalo to Milwaukee, visited the 
county and proposed to run his line through the valley, establish- 
ing an office at South Bend, provided citizens would take stock to 
the amount of $2,000. This was easily raised, and it was confi- 
dently expected the tick of the telegraph wire would be heard in 
South Bend in the following fall. In consecpaence of the unpro- 
gressive spirit of the citizens of Chicago in refusing to take the 
share of stock apportioned to that place, the enterprise was for a 
time abandoned, to be resumed when Chicago was ready to do her 
share of the work. In June the work was again commenced, sub- 
scriptions having all been taken. In the spring of 184$ the line 
was complete, and South Bend was in instant communication with 
places far distant. 

FERRIES. 

In 1831, at the September term of the Board of County Commis- 
sioners, a ferry was authorized established over the St. Joseph river 
at the east end of Water street, and N. B. Griffith was licensed to 
run the same for the sum of two dollars per year. He was 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 461 

" required to keep a good and sufficient flat or boat to convey con- 
veniently over said river two horses and a wagon at one time." 
For such privileges he was allowed to charge as follows: 

For each person 6}£ cents. 

For a man and horse 12^ " 

For 1 one-horse wagon or carriage 25 " 

For two horses and wagon 31 J£ " 

For each additional horse with a wagon as above 6*4 " 

For oxen in wagons the same rates as horses 

Loose cattle per head 3 " 

Hogs and sheep per head 2 " 

In November, 1832, the Board ordered Mr. Griffith to have con- 
structed a boat forty-five feet long and twelve feet wide for his 
ferry, and allowed him until the first day of the following January 
to have it completed ready for use. Mr. Griffith was further 
required to " keep two able-bodied men to attend to said ferry." 
Some change was made in the amount allowed for ferriage. " All 
persons traveling with or forming a part of the load shall pass over 
in wagons at said ferry free." 

In September, 1834, the Board ordered that a ferry be established 
across St. Joseph river on the county road leading from South Bend 
to Niles, and that a boat should be placed thereon not less than 
forty-five feet long and twelve feet wide. Elisha Egbert was 
licensed to run the ferry on the payment of ten dollars. He was 
further required to give bond in the penal sum of five hundred dol- 
lars. The same rates were fixed as was allowed at South Bend. 

At the January term, 1835, Alexis Coquillard was licensed to 
keep a ferry across the river from Market street, in South Bend, 
his boat to be not less than forty-five feet long by twelve wide. The 
same requirements were made of him as of those already engaged 
in the business. In 1840 the license was transferred to Robert 
Wado and William Graham. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SOME OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY'S ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD. — ALEXIS COQUILLARD. 

MAKE WHINEBY. — WILLIAM MILLER. — LOUIS HUMPHREYS. — JACOB 

HARRIS. SOLOMON W. PALMER. NORMAN EDDY. — MRS. HANNAH D. 

MATTHEWS. — FATHER LAWRENCE. REY. AUGUSTON LEMONNIER. 

REV. N. H. GILLESPIE. — BENJAMIN WILCOX. C. WENZER. — POWERS 

GREENE. JOHN STUDEBAKER. JOHN MACK. — ARIEL E. DRAPIER. — 

GEORGE W. MATTHEWS. ALFRED B. WADE. — HORATIO CHAPIN. 

SAMUEL BYERLY. ELISHA EGBERT. — DWIGHT DEMING. — JOHN A. 

HENRICKS. 

ALEXIS COQUILLARD. 

. " Honor to whom honor is due." One deserving special mention 
in the History of St. Joseph County is the subject of this sketch, 
the first man to settle in the county with the intention of making 
it a permanent abiding place. 

Alexis Coquillard was born in Detroit, Sept. 28, 1795. Detroit 
at this time was but a mere frontier settlement, and fortress 
life in garrison had much to do with the morals of its society. 
There were here no schools of importance for the training of its 
youth, and beyond the limits of the village and garrison the 
unbroken wilderness stretched miles away — its solitary paths known 
only to the savage and the trapper, no ax of the pioneer making 
civilizing music among the forest echoes; in short, Detroit of that 
dav was not the grand emporium of commerce and refinement it is 
to-day, and so the early boyhood of young Coquillard was passed 
among scenes and events all too exciting and present to admit of 
that system of mental culture out of which the men of to-day are 
fashioned. He was emphatically a child of nature, and through her 
teachings, and his own God-endowed instincts, became what he 
was — a great and good man. 

When about 17 years of age, the ardent spirit of Alexis lontred 
for active and manly employment, and the fortunes of the period 
favored him. The army of occupation, under General Harrison, 
was in a state of defense at Fort Stephenson. Shut out from direct 
communication with their friends, in consequence of the vigilance 
of the English enemy, and the wily savage allies of Great Britain, 
with whom this country was at war, their messengers generally 
captured, their stronghold being menaced by the enemy, that degree 
of gloom that even infects the bravest when doomed for a time to 
inactivity, hung over the minds of all. At this crisis, young 
Coquillard arrived at the camp and profferd his services as mail car- 
rier. His uncouth originalitv, his French accent and his youth 

(462) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 463 

made him at first a butt for ridicule of the soldiers; but that earnest, 
impressive demeanor that so marked him as a boy and man soon won 
a more serious consideration of his proposition. He was employed, 
passed through all the privations and dangers of a formidable 
journey, and returned successful, bearing back information of great 
importance to the beleaguered. So valuable were his services con- 
sidered, that the commander personally thanked and complimented 
him, and the officers made up a purse of $50 and gave it to him 
in addition to the compensation promised. He continued in the 
employ of the Americans during the war, discharging his arduous 
duties in a satisfactory manner. 

When about 20 years of age he made an application to Hunt, 
Brewster & Co., of Detroit, who were then extensive dealers in 
Indian goods, for so much of a stock as would enable him to traffic 
with the tribes of the peninsula and the country of St. Joseph river. 
He told the circumstances of the case with that clear, unvarnished, 
natural rhetoric that ever distinguished him conversationally, and 
so won upon the confidence of the merchants to whom he applied, 
that without a friend to recommend him, and personally unknown 
to the firm, they let him have the desired assortment of articles, and 
he started forth a trader. From the day he left Detroit his course 
was upward and onward. Fortune favored him in a special manner. 
With a herculean form, an open countenance with truth stamped 
indelibly upon it, always joyous and fearless in its every lineament, 
by his natural shrewdness and skilled by contact, he was enabled 
to properly appreciate character, whether of the French trapper and 
trader, or the aborigines. He mingled with all in a frank and 
cheerful manner more markedly conspicuous in Alexis Coquillard 
than in any other man who ever roughed it in the wilderness, or 
sought an exchange of notions for peltries in the lodges of the natives 
of our American forests. 

His promptness in his dealings soon made him extensively known, 
and his name became a synonym with all for honesty, sagacity and 
truth. His reputation was such that he was, in a short time after 
beginning business for himself, appointed agent for the American 
Fur Company, established by John Jacob Astor, which connection 
necessarily extended the theater of his business territory, and mul- 
tiplied his already ample resources. 

In the year 1822, in connection with Francis Comparet, of Fort 
Wayne, he purchased the extensive agency of the American Fur 
Company for all the region of the upper lakes. Subsequently he 
and Mr. Comparet bought the exclusive control (including the 
property and debts due the post), for which they paid about one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. Coquillard estab- 
lished a post at South Bend which he operated alone, while Mr. 
Comparet remained in charge of the Fort Wayne post. The former 
was soon known as the Big St. Joseph station, and the latter as the 
Little St. Joseph. These posts were the grand rendezvous of all 
who traded with the Indians in Indiana and Michigan. 



46+ HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

During all this time Alexis Coquillard was considered the pio- 
neer introducer of civilized customs among the Indians in North- 
ern Indiana. It is true that the missionary efforts of the French 
had effected something in " blazing the way " of the path of white 
settlement; but in such a man as the subject of this sketch, cause 
was only the lever to direct effect; his enthusiastic energy breasted 
and threw aside every obstacle as a boy lashes away a summer rip- 
ple, and immediately after constructing his cabin for trading pur- 
poses on the waters of the St. Joseph, his mark became perceptible 
upon the surrounding region. This building was the first one 
erected by a white man in this section of Indiana, and his nearest 
civilized neighbors were residents at Bertrand, or Cary's Mission. 
He next constructed a log residence, which remained for some time 
the only evidence of the abode of white men, and this where now 
stands the bus} 7 , thriving city of South Bend. 

By a charter granted by the Legislature in the session of 1835- 
'36, opportunities were offered for the establishment of flouring 
mills, in and along the water courses of the north part of the State. 
In 1839 Mr. Coquillard, in connection with John A. Henricks and 
John Rush, built the first flouring mill in South Bend. It was 
known as the Kankakee Mill. He had previously constructed a 
saw-mill on the same water-power. In addition, he subsequently 
built a second large flouring mill, which was afterward removed 
and converted into a woolen factory. These were the first flouring 
mills (aside from those built for custom work) which were started 
in Northern Indiana. But this was not all. He built extensively 
in other parts of the town, both for residence and business, and it 
may be said, without doing discredit to the enterprise of others, 
that mainly to his efforts and to his inducements and material aid 
is South Bend indebted for its good start, which has resulted in 
such a satisfactory manner. 

His regard for the advancement of his townsmen was one of the 
noblest of his many noble characteristics. To see South Bend pros- 
per and enlarge was the prompting motive for which he toiled; so 
that buildings went up and a wholesome population gathered here, 
it mattered not to him materially whether his personal fortunes 
remained intact or depressed. He ever welcomed, and was ready 
to assist, the incomer who brought intelligence and industry where- 
with to make himself a useful citizen. All the improvements of 
the place were the result of his counsel, for all knew that his advice 
was to be relied on, that he would counsel nothing that he did not 
think was for the best. To notice the advance made by his neigh- 
bor was as much a source of satisfaction to him as if he were the 
immediate gainer. If a general evil afflicted the business interests 
of his neighbors, no one felt it more acutely than he did. If his 
own affairs became embarrassed — and such proved to be the case 
at times, owing to the financial revolutions of the country — his 
stock of philosophy enabled him to bear his reverses unmoved. 



BISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 465 

His thorough knowledge of the Indian character, his perfect 
understanding of the several languages spoken by the different 
tribes, combined with the unlimited confidence in his honor and 
good faith, made him admirably fitted to discharge the duties of 
interpreter and Government agent in adjusting the difficulties and 
carrying into effect the various treaties made with the Pottawato- 
mies, Ottowas, Chippewas, Miamis, Chicagos and Sandusks. He 
acted prominently in conducting the treaties at Tippecanoe, Chi- 
cago and other places subsequent to the peace of 1S14, and was in 
high favor with Governor Cass, Agent for Indian Affairs, Com- 
missioner McCoy and George Crawford, Secretary of the Indian 
Agency. 

"Having been appointed in 1840 to carry through a Pottawatomie 
emigration, he established a rendezvous at Potato creek, and suc- 
ceeded in effecting his object at a very heavy outlay. He was to 
have received $40,000, the drafts for which amount were forwarded 
by the Government, but these fell into the hands of one Alverson, 
who converted over $40,000 to his own use, leaving Coquillard not 
only to suffer the consequence of the whole defalcation, but with 
heavy and crushingliabilities,cripplingand jeopardizing his personal 
estate. This Alverson was with him when he effected the removal of 
the Indians to their reservation, which had been agreed upon, west 
of the Mississippi. The Government had received the required 
assurance of the completion of all the conditions by Mr. Coquil- 
lard, but Alverson pocketed the" promise to pay," and also retained 
certain sums held subject to the terms of former treaties. For a 
time these misfortunes and this breach of integrity weighed sorely 
on the spirits of the "Pottawatomie Chief," as Mr. Coquillard 
was frequently called, — but only for a limited season, when he was 
again at work repairing damages with his usual indomitable 
energy. 

In the year 1824 Mr. Coquillard married Miss Frances C. Com- 
paret, at Fort Wayne, Indiana. One child, Alexis Theodore, 
was born unto them, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in 
this work. The union of Mr. Coquillard and Miss Comparet, 
founded by strong mutual regard, was in all respects a happy one, 
lasting unchanged through all the vicissitudes of life, and grow- 
ing more affectionately interblended as time told of the coining on 
of the autumn and winter of life. One of the most painfully 
effecting incidents connected with the death and burial of the 
departed was the ebullition of wild sorrow with which his aged con- 
sort clung to his form, strikingly manly in its last sleep, — " the 
sleep that knows no waking," — and the heart cries that told her 
soul's deep agony, as that form was shut forever from the gaze ot 
one who had so long shared in his confidence and confided in his 
unspeakable tenderness. Bitter, indeed, was the parting to the 
wife of his youth and age; for no man was ever better qualified, by 
the excellent traits of his heart, more truly to win, or more per- 
manently to retain the love of woman. 



i66 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

On Monday afternoon, January 8, 1855, Mr. Coquillard was 
examining the ruins of his flouring-mill, which had burned the Sat- 
urday previous, and accidentally fell from abeam on which he was 
walking some 16 or 18 feet below, striking with his whole weight 
on the front part of his skull, crushing it in, so that he lived but 
about one hour. Tie did not speak after his fall, or give any evi- 
dence of being sensible. The funeral concourse which followed his 
remains to the chapel of Notre Dame showed how extensively he 
was respected when living, and how sincerely all mourned for 
him in death. All classes of citizens left all other duties to be 
in attendance on the sad occasion. The friends of his business 
life, the intimates of his conversational hours, the hundreds whom 
he had aided to commercial positions, the poor whose necessities he 
had ever unsparingly relieved, and to whom he was an almoner and 
father, all were in the throng that lined the roads leading to Notre 
Dame; and all hearts were touched with sentiments of woe, as the 
sacred melody rilled the building from dome to architrave, wherein 
the servants of Christ pronounced over his bier the last solemn rites 
of the Holy Catholic Church, of which through all his life he had been 
a sincere and unwavering member — squaring his conduct in accord- 
ance with its purest and most charitable teachings The funeral 
service was performed in a fervent manner by Rev. Father Shortess, 
and was in ever}' way worthy the officiating clergyman and the 
marked virtues of the deceased. Daring the day the places of 
business in South Bend remained closed, and in all respects those 
tokens of mourning were exhibited that are bestowed when a good 
and great man dies. 

As showing the estimation in which Mr. Coquillard was held by 
those who knew him best, the following is extracted from a series 
of reminiscences of the early times in South Bend, by one who was 
an active participant: " One of the leading men in South Bend in 
1830 was Alexis Coquillard. At that time he had charge of an 
Indian store, which was successor to the American Fur Company. 
He was a very remarkable man — large in person, of a commanding 
presence, magnificent head and piercing eyes. Taking him alto- 
gether he impressed me as a man of very great natural endow- 
ments, both mental and physical. When he walked he moved as 
if he was impelled by some irresistible force. In his younger days 
he was known to have walked eighty miles in a day. The power 
and rapidity of his movement gave him the name of ' Old Steam- 
boat.' He had no book education. He could not read or write 
except to sign his name, but his association with intelligent busi- 
ness men, and his very retentive memory and keen observation of 
every tiling passing around him made him a very intelligent man 
in the every da}- practical affairs of life. When angry he made 
everything blue around him, and yet when unexcited he was as 
tender and sympathetic as a child. No man's heart would melt 
quicker in the presence of an object of sympathy, but while pos- 
sessing these tender feelings of compassion he was a man of daring 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 467 

and reckless bravery. He seemed to have no conception of per- 
sonal danger. In his early life, while engaged in trade among the 
Indians, he passed through startling and thrilling adventures, such 
as men of common prudence would have avoided. One of these 
adventures was related to me by a man wdio was present and saw 
the affair take place. It was at an Indian payment more than fifty 
years ago. There were a great man)' Indians present, among the 
rest a noted Miami chief, who had been in debt to Coquillard for a 
good while. He was regarded as a vain, brutal and murderous 
savage — feared by both white people and Indians. On public occa- 
sions, to impress people with his dignity, he wore suspended from 
his neck down his breast a broad band of silver ornaments in the 
shape of quarter moons hung together. After having received his 
annuity and being fixed up in his best rig, Coquillard came across 
him and dunned him for his pay. His majesty was not in a pay- 
ing humor at that time, and gave Coquillard an insulting reply, 
whereat he sprang at the chief and stripped him of his ornaments 
and finery in a minute, and strode off with them to his tent. This 
was done in the presence of hundreds of Indians and a few white 
men. It was a mortal insult; blood only could atone for it. The 
Indians were soon in an uproar. The white people present were 
greatly alarmed for their own safety. They' thought Coquillard 
could not stay and live, but he refused to leave. "While at dinner 
in a log cabin, he was notified that the chief with a party painted 
up in their war paint were approaching the cabin. Everybody 
trembled with fear but Coquillard. He got up, opened the door, 
and stepped behind it. and as the chief entered the room knocked 
him to the floor senseless, and the followers slunk back as if they 
had just escaped a stroke of lightning. After the chief came to his 
senses he went back to the camp and gave Coquillard no farther 
trouble. Coqnillard's early life was full of such scenes of reckless 
bravery. As a business man, he was always enterprising and lib- 
eral, ready to do anything he could to advance the growth of the 
town." 

Many anecdotes might be given illustrating his noble charities 
and the benevolence of all his impulses. When applied to for aid 
for some philanthropic enterprise, or to relieve individual distress, 
he paused not to inquire into the antecedents of the applicant. "I 
have nothing to do with your religion," he remarked on one occa- 
sion, " I only know that 1 have the means of assisting you, and of 
course it is my duty to do so." The golden rule ever governed his 
actions. 

HON. MARK WHTNERY. 

Mark Whinery was born in Clinton county, Ohio, Sept. 1, 
1812, and removed to this county in 1S34. For several years he 
worked at his trade of carpentering in South Bend, after which he 
was employed as a salesman by the firm of E. S. Reynolds & Co. 
Mr. Whinery remained with this firm nearly ten years, and it was 



46S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

in this capacity that he formed an acquaintance that included 
nearly every person in the county at that day. He became very 
popular with all classes. This popularity caused him to be nomi- 
nated by the Whigs for the Legislature as the man best calculated 
to beat Lot Day, St., one of the most popular Democrats in the 
county. The canvass was an exciting one, and Mr. Whinery was 
elected by a large majorit}', and served with satisfaction to his 
constituency. 

When G. W. and John Reynolds took contracts for building sec- 
tions of the Lake Shore railroad, they employed Mr. Whinery, and 
he remained in their service until the road was completed to South 
Bend, when he was made the first agent of the road at that place. 
In 1S56, on the completion of the original St. Joe block, a union 
store was organized, and when the stockholders met to elect some 
one to take charge of it, Mr. Whinery was unanimousl} 7 chosen. 
When the war broke out he entered the pay department and re- 
mained there until the close, and then went into the cotton-raising 
business in the South. This venture proved very unprofitable and 
stripped him of a handsome competence. He returned to South 
Bend and was elected City Judge, and afterward Justice of the 
Peace. ' Mr. Whinery died in Indianapolis, Feb. 21, 1879. His 
body was taken to South Bend for burial, and was tenderly laid 
away by South Bend Lodge, No. 29, I. O. O. F., of which he was 
a charter member. 

HON. WILLIAM MILLER. 

William Miller was born in Franklin county April 1, 1809, and 
died at South Bend May 2, 1879. He was the son of Tobias and 
Sarah Miller, and the sixth of a family of 13 children. When a 
year and a half old Mr. Miller's parents moved from Virginia to 
Union county, Indiana. When 24 years of age he was married to 
Miss Mary Miller, daughter of John Miller, also a Virginian, and 
an officer in the war of 1812. Four years after this marriage, in 
May, 1S33, he moved to this county and settled on Portage Prairie, 
in what is now German township, and engaged in farming. He 
was a practical and enthusiastic farmer, and probably did more to 
advance the agricultural interests of the county than any other sin- 
gle individual. His farm became noted as one of the most produc- 
tive on the prairie, and was rich in fruits, trees and hedges, the 
best stock and agricultural implements. 

In his enthusiasm for agriculture Mr. Miller did not forget the 
large family growing up around him. Of the nine children born to 
him six are yet living, and they were given the best educational 
advantages the times afforded. The oldest of these, John F., became 
an attorney in South Bend and served one term in the Senate. On 
the breaking out of the Rebellion he threw down his law books, 
raised the 29th Regiment, and entered the army as its colonel, serv- 
ing through the entire war. He made a brilliant officer, possessing 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. -±09 

all the dash and daring of a Sheridan, and for his bravery was made 
a Major-General. He participated in several of the most important 
engagements of the army of the Tennessee, had his left eye shot 
out, and was also shot in the neck. Added to his daring was a 
splendid administrative capacity, on account of which he was at dif- 
ferent times placed in command of Nashville, and afterward Mobile. 
At the close of the war he was made Collector at the Port at San 
Francisco, and is now president of the Alaska Fur Company. 
Another son, Henry Clay, is also in California, cashier in the cus- 
tom house, and one of its most valuable officials. Two others of the 
sons, William H. and H. G., are well-known business men of St. 
Louis. The remaining one, and second in order of age, I. N., fol- 
lows his father's occupation of farming, in Olive township, this 
county. The only daughter, Martha, is the wife of M. Butterworth, 
of Kingsbury. Reference is thus briefly made to Miller's family 
to show, that laboring under the disadvantages of pioneer life, he 
always remembered that his first duty was the culture of his family, 
and that the result shows the correctness of his views. 

Naturally so active and enterprising a man as Mr. Miller would 
soon have his merits recognized in the community. He had been 
in this county but a short time when he was called to serve as Jus- 
tice of the Peace, which he did for many years, and with the same 
thoroughness that distinguished all his affairs. In 1844 he was 
elected to the Legislature, and made such an acceptable member 
that he was returned for a second and a third term. He made 
himself very active while in the Legislature in establishing asylums 
for the deaf and dumb, the blind and the insane. 

In 185S Mr. Miller, having a competency, moved into the city of 
South Bend, partly that his wife and himself might rest from the 
arduous duties imposed by active farm life, and partly to give his 
younger children the benefits of the city schools. He purchased a 
handsome residence on Lafayette street, where he resided to the 
time of his death. He was several times elected to the City Coun- 
cil, and took an active interest in city affairs. He labored incessantly 
to establish manufactories in the city, his judgment showing him 
that in them lay the future prosperity of the city. 

Mr. Miller was all his life, and up to the death of that party, an 
uncompromising Whig. He was one of the organizers of the 
Republican party in this county, and was one of its most steadfast 
supporters. 

William Miller was a powerfully built man, with a personal 
appearance that would command respect anywhere. He was over 
six feet in height, symmetrically built, a graceful carriage, aleonine 
face, with long, wavy, iron-gray beard, and a large forehead, set off 
by masses of crisp hair. 

Mr. Miller had been gradually failing for six weeks, but it was 
not thought his end was near. On the morning of the second day 
of February, 1879, he was attacked with a sinking spell, his physi- 
cian was sent for, but when he arrived he discovered his patient 



470 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

was dying. He passed peacefully away without a struggle or a 
groan. He was buried by the Odd Fellows fraternity of South 
Bend, he being a member of that order. 

DE. LOUIS HUMPHREYS 

AVas born in Springfield, Ohio, Sept. 21, 1S16, and died in 
South Bend, Sunday evening. May 9, 1S80, in his 64th year. He 
was of Irish descent on his father's side, and of Virginian on his 
mother's. His father came to this country from Ireland before the 
Revolutionary war and took part in that contest which gave this 
country its independence. Dr. Humphreys' education was received 
at an academy in Franklin, Ivy., and at the high school in his 
native town of Springfield. At the age ot 22, in 1S38, he came to this 
city, where his older brother, Dr. Harvey Humphreys, was already 
established in a successful practice. He read medicine with this 
brother for a short time, then went to La Porte, where a medical 
department had been organized in the La Porte University, with 
Dr. Daniel Meeker at its head. Here young Humphreys pursued 
his medical studies until this department of the college suspended, 
and he then went to the college at Keokuk, Iowa, where he com- 
pleted his studies and received his diploma in 1S44. He returned 
to South Bend and entered into partnership with his brother in the 
practice of medicine, and this partnership was only dissolved by 
the death of his brother, whose remains rest in the city cemetery. 
On April 4. 1844, Dr. Humphreys married Miss Margaret Pier- 
son, a native of Cooperstown, New York. She survives him with 
their two daughters, Mary and Eva. 

Dr. Humphreys was a close student and thoroughly in love with 
his profession. He soon became one of the leading physicians 
and surgeons of Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan, and liis 
fame extended all over the State. He early saw that a medical 
association would be beneficial, not only to his brother physicians, 
but to the community, and in 1855 he organized the St. Joseph 
County Medical Society and was elected its president and held the 
office for three terms. At the same time he took a great interest in 
the literary, musical, social and religious affairs of South Bend. 
He was interested in organizing a literary society, and was one of 
its best contributors. In the Presbyterian Church he was a lead- 
ing member, and did all in his power for its advancement and 
particularly for its Sunday-school. He was for many years its 
Superintendent, and conducted a large and very interesting Bible 
class. Much of the success of the school connected with the Church 
is due to his untiring and unselfish efforts. Dr. Cassady, a brother 
physician, reports that he has gone to Dr. Humphreys' office near 
the midnight hour, when he knew the doctor was nearly exhausted 
with the day's work, and found him preparing the lessons for his 
Bible class. In this work as in all other he used the same exactitude 
and promptness that he did in his profession. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 471 

Amid all the laborious duties of his profession Dr. Humphreys 
found time to devote to literature, and he was one of its most 
ardent students. To him the study of belles-lettres was a pleasant 
duty rather than the pastime that so many make of it, and he kept 
it up to the latest weeks of his life. There are few whose minds 
are laden with learning's richest store as his was; and with it, too, 
he had the knack of imparting his knowledge to others. Dr. 
Humphrej-s was also an accomplished musician. In his early 
days here he was a member of the band. Later he organized several 
musical societies, the last being the Philharmonic Club. His 
criticisms on books, music or pictures were rarely at variance with 
the best criticisms in the country, and as a writer he stood high, 
whether on matters connected with his profession, on literary sub- 
jects or on local affairs. The local papers of South Bend have 
published much that he has written, and in a war of words it can 
truly be said that his keen and cutting satire made any man 
who crossed pens with him regret afterward that he did so. Those 
who knew how much Dr. Humphreys' time was occupied in attend- 
ing to the duties of his profession wondered when he acquired so 
many accomplishments, for with all the rest he was a brilliant and 
entertaining conversationalist, and in his demeanor toward all a 
Chesterfield could not have been more courteous or dignified, or 
placed one at greater ease. 

When the war of the Rebellion broke out all the latent patriot- 
ism of Dr. Humphreys was aroused. He had the opportunity to 
take command, but his better judgment told him that he could do 
the cause more good in his profession, and when the 29th Indiana 
Regiment, under Col. John F. Miller, went into active service, Dr. 
Humphreys was made its Surgeon. This was in July, 1861. On 
the March following he was made Surgeon of a brigade, and served as 
such until June of the same year. At that time the medical 
department of the army had become so unwieldy that the rules 
laid down in the army regulations were insufficient to handle it. 
There were thousands of surgeons and their subordinates to look 
after, numerous quantities of medical stores at the different depots 
of supply, an interminable hospital service that all required looking 
after. There was needed a connecting link between the Surgeon- 
General of the army and his highest subordinates. A corps of 
eight Medical Inspectors was appointed and commissioned by 
President Lincoln. These men were selected through no powerful 
political influence, as too many of the army appointments were 
made. They were chosen rather for their eminent fitness for the 
responsible position, as shown by their record in the profession at 
home and in the army. One of the very first appointed was Dr. 
Humphreys. He was taken from his brigade in the army of the 
Cumberland and placed on duty in the army of the Potomac, with 
his headquarters at Washington. In less than six months he had 
brought order out of chaos, the incompetent were weeded out, and 



472 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNT V. 

he was then ordered to the West, with his headquarters at Louis- 
ville. His duties were very arduous, but he performed thcui 
faithfully and unflinchingly. They took him often with the advance 
of the army and he was in several battles. He remained in the 
army as Medical Inspector until June 1, 1866, when he was mus- 
tered out and returned home. His army duties were so hard that 
they undermined his health, and laid the foundation for the com- 
plication of diseases which eventually killed him. 

On his return home he resumed the practice of medicine and his 
interest in the affairs of South Bend. From the time he set foot 
in it when a young man he believed South Bend had a brilliant 
future, and no man did more in his way to make a brilliant future 
for it. He bought property and laid out an addition to the city; 
he wrote in favor of and talked for every improvement which would 
benefit it. In 1865 he was elected Mayor to succeed the first Mayor, 
Hon. W. G. George, and in 1870 he was elected his own successor. 
He filled both terms with great credit to himself and benefit to the 
city, and retired with the good will of all parties. During these 
four j'ears he was one of the commissioners of the Indiana hos- 
pital for the insane. He was one of the founders of the St. Joseph 
Valley District Medical Society, and its president for two terms. 
At the same time he was an officer of the Indiana State Medical 
Association and a member of the American Medical Association. 
When the St. Joseph County Savings Bank was organized he was 
made its president and continued in the position until his death. 
He was a charter member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of 
Pythias lodges in this city, and a member of the Grand Army of 
the Republic, and had held offices in all these societies. In the 
Presbyterian Church he filled the positions of trustee and elder, 
and was for several years superintendent of its Sunday-school, and 
for many years a teacher there. He was a man who never sought 
an office, and yet few men had more of them thrust upon them than 
he, and few were as competent to fill them. 

Dr. Humphreys, or Col. Humphreys, as President Lincoln's com- 
mission titled him, was the youngest of a family of 14 children. 
His ancestry were noted for being long-lived. His father reached 
the age of ninety odd years and was a splendid specimen of man- 
hood. Those who knew Dr. Humphreys can well believe that this 
physical trait of the father descended to his youngest son. Dr. 
Humphreys was a trifle above six feet in height, handsomely pro- 
portioned, and had an easy, graceful carriage and a courtly dignity 
that is rare to see. He had a military bearing that was " to the 
manner born," and many a time was he seen passing along the 
streets of Nashville in his uniform, and exciting the inquiry if he 
was Gen. Rousseau, who was to the soldiers of that army the 
embodiment of the ideal general in all that made up dignity of 
bearing, grace of manner, and the inbornness of a gentleman. 

The immediate cause of Dr. Humphreys' death was paralysis 
of the respiratory nerves. He took cold some days previous, and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 473 

although the congestion of the lungs passed off it was followed by 
this paralysis. Three or four days ago he began failing rapidly 
and it was easy to see by those intimate friends who visited him 
every day that the end of a long and useful life was near. The final 
struggle came last evening. In the presence of his loved family, 
his pastor, Rev. Geo. T. Keller, his physician. Dr. Cassadv, Hon. 
T. S. Stanfield and Mrs. Stanfield, Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Reynolds, Mr. 
and Mrs. dishing, Dr. Dayton, W. A. Bugbee, and a few other near 
and dear friends, he passed away peacefully and to the acceptance 
of that reward which is in store for all who faithfully practice the 
teachings of Him who died upon the cross. His last moments 
were unconscious, but before they came he had recognized those 
about him, and fully realized that he was going out upon the long 
journey which all humanity must sooner or later take. 

JACOB HARRIS. 

Among the early settlers of St. Joseph county, few men were 
better known than Jacob Plarris, the first settler of the prairie 
which bears his name. He was a native of Northumberland 
county, Pennsylvania, and in early life moved to Starke county, 
Ohio, and in the spring of 1829 came to this part to see the 
country. He immediately returned for his family, and the same 
season removed to the place on which he lived until the time of his 
death. Jacob Harris was a man of indomitable will, together with 
an iron constitution, and scarcely knew what sickness was until the 
latter part of his life. The early settlers of this county, as well 
as many others, will remember the first " stop " in this county at 
Mr. Harris,' where the stranger as well as relatives and friends, 
all found a home. There are few men who took more interest in 
that direction than he did. It seemed to him good to be a father 
to the fatherless and a friend to the friendless and the stranger. 
Mr. Harris had been sick several weeks previous to his death, but 
one prior to that time he was so much better he arose from his bed, 
walked out to the kitchen and had a favorite dish prepared, eating 
and relishing it very much. He was at the time very cheerful, and 
could hardly be prevailed upon to return to his room. When he 
did so he was suddenly taken worse, and in a remarkably short 
time passed away, as " one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
about him and lies down to pleasant dreams." Death called him 
home Monday, March 5, I860, in the 76th year of his age. 

SOLOMON W. PALMER. 

Solomon William Palmer was born at Davenport, New York, 
Nov. 3, 1814. Both of his parents died before he was three years 
old. He lived at the place of his birth the greater portion of the 
time until shortly after he was of age, when he removed to Bru- 
nersburg, Ohio. About six months later he was married to Sarah 



474 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

D. Allen, which event occurred Dec. 31, 1837. In 1843 they 
removed to Indiana, settling in Mishawaka, where Mr. Palmer 
engaged in the lumber trade. After a three years' residence in 
Mishawaka, the family removed to South Bend. 

While living in Mishawaka, Mr. Palmer united with the 
Presbyterian Church, but finally ceased his attendance on that 
denomination in consequence of the pro-slavery sentiments among 
the members. In South Bend lie was a constant attendant of the 
First Methodist Episcopal Church, of which the other members of 
the family were members, and in January, 1877, he, too, united 
with that body. For upward of twenty years he was a member 
of the Odd Fellows of South Bend. He loved the order and all 
its associations, and was a frequent attendant at its meetings. 
The temperance movement early attracted his attention, and his 
influence and labors were always at the service of the cause, and 
especially was this the case when the Temple of Honor, of which 
he was a member, was in a nourishing condition. 

In politics Mr. Palmer was originally a Whig, but after his 
removal to South Bend he became a strong Abolitionist. He was 
one of the little band of nine men in South Bend, who, in those 
early days, braved public odium and reproach for conscience' sake, 
and maintained that human bondage was accursed of Cod, and a 
blot on the fair fame of the Republic. The old and middle-aged 
men that are now living well remember that the avowal of being 
an Abolitionist was to invite general ostracism even in the North. 

Mr. Palmer was one of the number who in 1849 rescued a party 
of colored people, a mother and her three children, who had been 
kidnapped in Michigan, and were being taken to Kentucky. His 
participation in this act cost him nearly every dollar of his worldly 
possessions, suit being brought against him in company with 
several others, for the recovery of the value of the slaves together 
with the penalty attached to the rescue of slaves under the law of 
1793. For years the case dragged along in the courts, and was 
finally decided against Mr. Palmer and his associates. 

To illustrate the character of the man, and to show that dollars 
and cents would not influence him in an act against his conscience, 
it is related of him that when engaged in the lumber trade at Mish- 
awaka, he assisted a man to load up some building material, when 
the person procuring it incidentally made known that it was to be 
used for a distillery. Immediately Mr. Palmer proceeded to unload 
the lumber, saying to the astonished customer, " Yon can't use my 
lumber for such a purpose." His convictions were always on the 
side of truth, justice, and the oppressed, and he was faithful to his 
convictions. Dignified, affable, gentle-mannered, firm in his beliefs 
but tolerant of the views of others, he lived a true man, and died 
universally respected. 

On the organization of the Republican party in 1856, Mr. Pal- 
mer identified himself with it, and was elected by that party to 
the office of Sheriff" of the county in 1S64, and re-elected in 1866. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 477 

The same party also elected him Justice of the Peace, and Coun- 
cilman of the Fifth Ward, positions he was tilling at the time of 
his death. 

On Wednesday, March 12, 1879, he was on the street in his 
apparently usual health, and that night attended a meeting of the 
Odd Fellows lodge that he might witness the initiation of his son, 
Orlando H. Palmer, his only surviving child. Thursday morning 
he arose as usual, but not long after had a hard chill. Medical aid 
was summoned, and every aid rendered. During the day he kept 
his bed, taking the medicine left him, continuing the same during 
the night. At 7:45 a. m., on Friday morning, March 14-, he 
breathed his last. The funeral services were held in the Methodist 
Episcopal church Sunday afternoon, and were largely attended. 
He was laid away to rest by the Odd Fellows, with which order he 
was so long identified. 

COL. NORMAN EDDY. 

Norman Eddy was born in Scipio, Cayuga county, New York. 
His father was one of the earliest settlers of that part of the State. 
In 1836, having studied medicine, he removed to Mishawaka, in 
this county, for the practice of his chosen profession. In 1847 he 
removed to South Bend, where he resided, except when temporarily 
absent in the discharge of public duties to which he was called, till 
the day of his death. In the practice of medicine he was very suc- 
cessful, but feeling a strong desire to become a lawyer, he 
accordingly prepared himself by a thorough course of study, and 
was regularly admitted to the Bar of this county on the first day of 
April, 1S47. After he had practiced three years he was elected 
State Senator on the Democratic ticket. In 1852 he was elected to 
Congress, having Schuyler Colfax as a competitor, but in 1S54, 
was himself defeated by the latter on the Nebraska issue. In 1855 
he was appointed United States District Attorney for Minnesota, 
by President Pierce, and in 1856 Commissioner of Indiana Trust 
Lands in Kansas, which office he held until the fall of 1857. At 
this time he again commenced the practice of law, associating him- 
self with the late Judge Egbert, but two years after was appointed 
by the Legislature on a commission to settle claims due the State. 

When the war of the Rebellion broke out he zealously took his 
stand on the side of the Union, and in 1861 organized the 4Sth 
Indiana Regiment, of which he was appointed Colonel. He fought 
with great bravery in the battle of Iuka, where he was severely 
wounded; also at Corinth and Grand Gulf and the siege of Vicks- 
burg, until its surrender, when he resigned, being disabled by his 
wounds from further serving his country as a soldier. Resuming 
the practice of his profession, he continued in it until 1S65, when 
he was appointed Collector of Revenue for the Ninth District, by 
President Johnson. 

31 



478 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

In 1870 lie was elected to the office of Secretary of State, which 
office he held at the time of his death, which took place Sunday 
morning, Jan. 28, 1872, in the city of Indianapolis, of enlarge- 
ment of the heart, aged 62 years. 

Commencing late in life as a lawyer, Colonel Eddy never achieved 
that success in his profession to which his legal accomplishments 
entitled him. The reason for this is obvious. His professional 
life was not continuous enough to build up a large and lucrative 
practice. The law, like the other professions, demands all of one's 
energies, and Colonel Eddy, who at various periods gave it up to 
accept office at the hands of the public, could not, with all his 
abilities, attain that success which his brother attorneys were devot- 
ing their lives to attain. He was not a custom-seeking lawyer, any 
more than he was an office-seeking politician. He was one of the 
most impressive speakers in the northern part of the State. His 
delivery was dignified and graceful. His voice was deep and full. 
He never seemed to have taken the infection common to young 
men of giving great importance to mere speech. He possessed that 
justness and beauty of diction, that happiness and grace of figures, 
and that facility of expression which never failed to attract and 
delight his hearers. Though a lawyer he never confined himself to 
that contentious style which breathes nothing but war and debate. 
Politically he was a Democrat of the old school, and while he earn- 
estly advocated the doctrines that he espoused, he did it in such a 
manner as to gain the respect and good will of his opponents, even 
though he did not convince them of the justness of his cause. He 
was never an office-seeker. In his case the office sought the man, 
and not the man the office. 

He was during the greater portion of his life the victim of ill 
health. He had the head to manage, but not the constitution to 
bear, the affairs of State. Had he possessed a strong and healthy 
body, coupled with higher aspirations, his splendid abilities might 
have earned him a much wider reputation. To know him was to 
love and respect him. It was in the sacred precincts of the domestic 
circle, or when surrounded by faithful and admiring friends, that 
the fine gold in his nature came out with its richest effects. To 
the friend who entered his residence or place of business, he gave 
a frank and cordial reception, stretching forth that pure hand which 
had never been soiled by a mean act. His conversation was rich 
in political and moral instruction; rich in anecdote and character 
of times that were past. His address, politeness and knowledge of 
the world qualified him to wield a powerful influence over the 
minds of others. It was to him a source of pleasure to impart to 
the young that best of wisdom which is learned from real life. Lord 
Bacon has somewhere written that " a good man is like the sun, 
passing through all corruption and still remaining pure." In no 
way can this be applied with greater justice than to the career of 
Colonel Eddy. During a quarter of a century, at various times, he 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 479 

was called upon to fill offices of trust and responsibility, and while 
all around him were growing rich from the spoils of office, he was 

Through all this tract of years 

Wearing the white flower of a blameless life. 

His was the white page in the blotted volume of politics. Such 
is the example Norman Eddy has bequeathed to the young men of 
Indiana. He was a lover of his kind, a friend to the friendless, 
the outcast and forlorn. Right royally could he forgive an injury. 
A faithful public servant, a considerate patriot, a true man and 
friend, a loving husband and affectionate father, has gone to his 
reward. The Bar of this county held a meeting and passed a series 
of resolutions of respect, f which resolutions were reported to the 
Circuit Court and Court of Common Pleas and transcribed upon 
their records. 

MBS. HANNAH D. MATTHEWS. 

Mrs. Matthews was born in the city of New York, March 21, 
1805. Her maiden name was Stryker, and her grandfather, Samuel 
De Lamater, was one of the old Knickerbocker families of that 
city. At the earl}' age of fifteen she married Schuyler Colfax, her 
first husband, who was a son of General William Colfax, of New 
Jersey, and whose mother was a Miss Schuyler, cousin of General 
Philip Schuyler. Mr. Colfax was teller of the Mechanics Bank of 
New York. Three years after his marriage to Miss Stryker, he 
died of consumption, leaving her a widow with one little daughter, 
who died the year following. Soon after his father's death, Schuyler, 
the second child of this marriage, was born. She remained a widow, 
living with her mother, Mrs. Stryker, and assisting her in keeping 
a boarding-house, until her son became 11 years of age. 

During this time, and although in straitened circumstances 
pecuniarily, she strove to give her son the best education the com- 
mon schools of New York afforded, and by example and precept to 
give him that best of all gifts, character. Often in his speeches he 
has casually remarked that such and such a rule in life he had 
learned in his youth from maternal instruction, and he has always 
in social conversation attributed his success in life to the impress 
of his mother's mind and teaching on his youthful years, when 
widowed, and fatherless, they were all in all to each other. 

In 1834 she married George ~W. Matthews, then a commission 
merchant in New York. By this marriage she had 5 children, one 
of whom died in childhood, the others living to man's and woman's 
estate. 

In 1836 she removed with her husband and little family to New 
Carlisle, this county, where Mr. Matthews opened a store and sold 
goods for several years, Schuyler serving as clerk and deputy post- 
master. 

Mrs. Matthews had always taken a great interest in Sunday- 
school work, and shortly after her arrival in New Carlisle, organized 



480 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

a school which prospered greatly under her fostering care. She 
obtained a library for the school from New York, and her son was 
made librarian. Some of these books are yet found in that locality, 
treasured as mementoes of what one woman's energy did for the 
Christian cause in a new country. 

In 184:1 Mr. Matthews was elected Auditor of this county, and 
the family removed to South Bend, the county seat. Here Mrs. 
Matthews was largely instrumental in organizing the Reformed 
Church Sunday-school, and every member of her family was con- 
nected with it either as teacher or scholar. After Mr. Colfax's 
election to Congress, Mr. Matthews received an appointment at 
Washington, and during the sessions of Congress was there with 
his wife. For nine years they formed part of Mr. Colfax's family 
there, residing with him, and during five of the six years of his 
Speakership, Mrs. Matthews " received" with him, acting as the 
head of his family, he being a widower. Though 60 years old then, 
her vivacity, as well as her genial manners, was remarkable, and in 
a great measure served to make her son's receptions the most 
popular in Washington. Her popularity in social circles was uni- 
versal. President Lincoln had a deep and abiding friendship for 
her, and a great respect for her judgment on important public 
questions which came up in his administration, and in which she 
took all the interest of a statesman. Frequently at her son's recep- 
tions, she was the recipient of the most flattering attentions from 
the martyred President. 

Shortly after the war, that terrible disease, cancer, commenced 
its ravages upon her system. Five times extirpated, it returned 
each time with increased violence. Once it was thought the dis- 
ease was mastered, and her family were quite hopeful; but while 
returning from California, in 1869, she was attacked with mountain 
fever, and came near dying at Cheyenne. From that time she 
failed, and although every effort was made to destroy the disease, 
it became evident, in time, that the cancer had obtained absolute 
mastery of the system, and that nothing could longer hold it in bay. 

Her sufferings for several years were indescribably great, and but 
for her strong hold on life, and the most faithful, affectionate and 
devoted nursing by her husband, she must have sooner succumbed 
to the intense agony she otten endured, in addition to the terrible 
drain upon her system. She bore it all, however, with Christian 
resignation, illustrating that profession in which for forty years she 
had never faltered, and with abiding faith that beyond this life she 
would be free from pain and anguish. 

After her return from Washington, in the spring of 1S72, she 
steadil} - grew worse. As long as she could keep up her husband 
took her riding daily, but daily these rides were made shorter, until 
at last her vital forces were so sapped and weakened she was com- 
pelled to keep her room and finally her bed. For two or three 
years previous to her death she scarcely saw any company, and her 
family had but little lest it might weary her. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 48] 

On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 11, 1872, she peacefully died, and 
with but little suffering, recognizing her family most lovingly to 
the very last. Noble in all her traits of character, cheerful in/ her 
disposition, carrying sunshine and gladness wherever she went, it 
is seldom that death finds such a shining mark. 

FATHER LAURENCE, C. S. C. 

Brother Laurence, a well-known and popular steward of Notre 
Dame University, died in the infirmary attachment to that institu- 
tion, Friday evening, April 4, 1873. Brother Laurence was named 
" in the world," Jean (John) Menage, and was born March 22, 1816, 
at St. De Gatines, in France. He was induced by Father Sorin, 
while giving a mission in that locality, to enter the Congregation 
of the Holy Cross, in the year 1840. He made his religious pro- 
fession in 1841, at the Mans. His death, therefore, took place in 
the fifty-seventh year of his age, and in the thirty-second of his 
profession. He was one of the six original companions who came 
with Father Sorin to the United States, landing at New York on 
the 14th of September, 1841. The little colony settled first at 
St. Peter's, near Vincennes, in this State, but the year following 
they moved to Notre Dame, where they arrived on the 30th of 
November, 1842. From that time Brother Laurence was closely 
identified with the growth of the institution, and contributed not a 
trifle to its prosperity. He filled for many years the responsible 
office of steward, and was three times deputed to the General Chap- 
ters of the Congregation, where his voice was always listened to 
with marked attention. 

Father Sorin, founder of the University, and Superior General 
of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, in a circular letter issued 
on the death of Brother Laurence, thus speaks of him: " Brother 
Laurence carries with him the deep and unfeigned sentiment of 
respect and esteem, not alone of his entire congregation, but of 
all with whom he came in contact, either as a "religious", or as 
the agent or steward of the institution. For more than thirty years 
he spent here, he was always, as every one knows, foremost among 
those who sought honestly and earnestly to promote the interests 
of the community; and if any one is to be named as having con- 
tributed more than others by earnest and persevering exertions, 
both of mind and body, to the development and prosperity of Notre 
Dame, if I did not do it here, the public voice would declare it, and 
name Brother Laurence. No religious in our family ever possessed 
and retained more constantly the confidence of his superiors 
and the community at large. In the death of Brother Laurence we 
sustain a serious loss, which none can better appreciate or more 
keenly feel than myself, however much his memory may be held in 
gratitude and love among those who knew him best, or whom he 
assisted most in advice or example, or in pecuniary transactions. 
It was myself who^ brought him to the community thirty-three 



482 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

years ago; and although I have seen more than any other men of 
my age, religious of undoubted fidelity, of great zeal and admirable 
devotedness, I can remember none whom I would place above our 
departed one on these various points. He leaves behind him not 
only a long, but also a stainless record, such indeed as would honor 
the memory of the most ambitions among us. Not only will you 
not perceive in the ensemble of his religious life none of those 
blemishes that paralyze the effect of the best qualities; not only 
was he remarkable by a clean negative of serious defects, but he 
was really prominent by the strength of his mind, the freshness and 
often the originality of his inventions and resources in general, of 
which he always had some in reserve. Directly or indirectly he 
has benefitted persons and things here more than any one of us. 
May all whom he leaves in justice obligated to him, acknowledge it 
now by the fervor of their supplications in his behalf. The com- 
munity loses in Brother Laurence one of its first pillars; but his 
spirit will not die away with him, or disappear; his virtues and 
examples shall live forever on the spot where his name is identified 
with every acre now cleared, and every building erected with his 
personal assistance. The neighborhood itself loses one of its hardi- 
est pioneers, and one of its most efficient and honest citizens. As 
to myself, I lose a friend who never refused me any sacrifice, who 
for thirty-two long years kept himself, without a moment excepted, 
ever ready and willing for any call of obedience. Never can I for- 
get his devotedness." 

REV. AUGUSTUS LEMONNIKR. 

Augustus Lemonnier was born April, 1S39, at Ahuille, France. 
His boyhood and early youth were passed amid the enjoyments of 
a happy home, and in preparing himself for college by the elemen- 
tary studies pursued in the common schools. At the age of nine- 
teen he entered the College of Precigne, in the diocese of Mans. 
Here he spent seven years, during which time he completed the 
full collegiate course of that institution. On his departure from 
college, he entered upon the study of law. not having any idea at 
the time of studying for the sacred ministry. For one year he prose- 
cuted his study in the office of Monsieur Hontin, and the year fol- 
lowing in the office of Monseiur Dubois, at Laval, France. 

After two years' experience in a law office, he began to look upon 
the world in a far different light from that in which other young 
men in similar circumstances usually view it, and after a few 
months of serious reflection, and consultation with judicious friends, 
he abandoned the bright prospects of distinction which then smiled 
npcn him, and rejoined his brother and college classmates, at the 
Theological Seminary at Mans, where he passed one year in the 
study of philosophy. The death of his mother, about this time, 
removed the only obstacle to the execution of a project which he 
had entertained from the time of his determination to study for the 



HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 483 

ministry, namely, to enter the Seminary of Foreign Missions, at 
Paris. However, Father Sorin, his uncle, induced him to come to 
America, and, with this understanding, sent him to Rome, to study 
theology in the Roman College. While in Rome, he entered the 
Congregation of the Holy Cross, in October, 18(50, being received 
by Father Dronelle, then Procurator General of the Congregation. 
In 1861 he was called to America, and arrived at Notre Dame in 
February of that year, where he completed his theological studies 
and after making his profession as a member of the Congregation, 
was ordained priest on the fourth of November, 1863. 

Soon after his ordination, Father Lemounier was appointed 
Prefect of Discipline, in which office he continued until Ma}-, 1865, 
when he was appointed by the Provincial Chapter, which met at 
that time, Prefect of Religion. In July, 1866, he was appointed 
Vice President and Director of Studies in the University, and after- 
ward succeeded Rev. W. Corby as President, which position he 
occupied at the time of his death, which occurred at Notre Dame, 
Oct. 30,1874. 

Father Lemonnier displayed'a great deal of natural energy in 
the discharge of his official duties, and gave evidence of consider- 
able ability of a literary character. His almost complete mastery of 
the English language, within one year after his arrival at Notre 
Dame, showed a decided aptitude for languages, and several very 
fine dramatic productions, written amid the cares and annoyances 
of his office, gave evidence of literary talent of a high order. It 
is seldom that nature combines in one the polished gentleman, the 
scholarly professor, the religious teacher and correct business man 
as she did in him. 

REV. N. H. GILLESPIE. 

N. H. Gillespie was born at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. His 
early years passed without incident, beyond the usual catalogue of 
events common to youth whose chief occupation is to attend school 
and prepare themselves for usefulness in after-life. Pie was sent 
to Nutre Dame to complete his studies, having accomplished which, 
he received the degree of A. B. in June, 1841*, being the first grad- 
uate, in course, of the University. In 1851 he entered the Novitiate 
of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and began his theological 
studies, fulfilling, at the same time, the duties of Professor of 
Mathematics in the college. In 1854, ha\ing made his religious 
profession in the preceding year, he was sent by his Superior to 
Rome, to complete his theological course in the celebrated schools 
of the Eternal City. This he did in the following years, and was 
ordained priest on the 29th of June, 1856. 

Returning to Notre Dame, Father Gillespie was appointed Vice- 
President in 1856, which position he occupied till 1859, when he 
was appointed President of St. Mary's College, Chicago, Illinois. 
In 1860 he was recalled to Notre Dame, and again filled the post 
of Vice-President. Tn 1863 Father Gillespie was sent, to Paris 



484 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

where he remained a year, and then being summoned to the 
Mother House of the Congregation at Mans, remained till the 
summer of 1866, when he returned to Notre Dame. For several 
years after this, he performed the duties of Master of Novices, and 
was for some time editor of the Ave Marie, one of the leading 
Catholic magazines of the country. 

Father Gillespie, after an illness of several months, died at Notre 
Dame on Thursday morning, Nov. 12, 187-1. A peculiar interest 
centers around his death from the fact of his being the first gradu- 
ate of the university, whose interests he afterward did so much to 
promote. • 

PKOFESSOR BENJAMIN WILCOX. 



Benjamin Wilcox was born in Connecticut in the year 1816. His 
early life was spent in an earnest attendance of the schools of his 
native place, and until the age of 16, in assisting his father in the 
duties of his farm. At that age his career as a teacher began. 
Later he entered Williams College, and graduated with high honors 
in 1811 at the age of 25 j-ears. With a strong inclination for the 
study of medicine, a careful review of his qualifications convinced 
him that his widest and most natural field of usefulness lay in the 
onerous but noble duties of a teacher. He consequently adopted 
it as his life profession, entering it with his soul full of purpose and 
determination to succeed. His wide-spread fame, and the manifest 
good results of his life's labor, have demonstrated with striking 
force the wisdom of his choice. His life as a professional teacher 
began at Yates, New York, soon after his graduation; subsequently 
he taught at Wilson, New York, for 11 years, and then removed to 
Wisconsin, from where he was called to take charge of the high 
school at Valparaiso, in 1864. During his residence in Wisconsin 
misfortunes overtook him by an almost wholesale destruction of his 
property by fire, so that he came to Indiana in rather limited cir- 
cumstances. He remained at Valparaiso until IsTO, when a more 
advantageous offer from theSchool Board of South Bendinduced him 
to come here and assume the preceptorship of the high school, a 
position he filled with great public satisfaction and personal grati- 
fication until his untimely and lamented death. In his professional 
life he was always thorough, earnest and energetic. He was a most 
perfect disciplinarian, and knew no higher ambition than that 
which prompted him to become one of the best and most distin- 
guished instructors in the country. His schools were governed, 
not by the chafing power of an iron will, but by the unbounded 
love and respect which his treatment of pupils invariably com- 
manded. Under his loving rule it was easy and pleasant to conform 
to the ever strict regime of the school, fur love was the controlling 
power, and self-respect the guardian angel. In evidence of the high 
esteem in which he was held wherever he has lived, the family 
archives contain columns of notices of presentations of beautiful 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 485 

and valuable gifts by his pupils and others. In life he kept a list of 
all persons who had received instruction from him during his pro- 
fessional career, and a correct record, as far as possible, of their 
whereabouts and condition. When it is known that this list con- 
tains between nine and ten thousand names, the magnitude of his 
life-work will be comprehended. This labor extended through a 
period of 42 years in all, and 34 as a professional teacher. 

Professor Wilcox was twice married, his first wife being a sister 
of his bereaved widow. Five children were the issue of these 
marriages. His home was a happy, peaceful one; his private life 
pure, joyous and undisturbed. Nothing ruffled his even temper; 
offense was unknown to him. There was a quiet, impressive dig- 
nit}' upon his face, in his speech and daily walk which forbade 
offensive approach, and silenced importunity. He was a pro- 
fessed and earnest Christian, a Mason and an Odd Fellow, an 
elder in the First Presbyterian Church, and so zealous in his labors 
that a former pastor remarked on leaving that he was consoled with 
the thought that the Church could not go down so long as Professor 
Wilcox lived. 

With health impaired by long continued labor, he left South 
Bend in the summer of 1875, to seek its restoration in the salubri- 
ous air of the Atlantic coast. But the continued wet weather and 
dense fogs during that season affected him so unfavorably that it 
was deemed best to return. While on the boat he was taken 
seriously ill, and while on the cars grew rapidly worse, necessitating 
a stop at Le Boy, New York, where his only sister lived, and 
where he breathed his last, on Monday afternoon, Aug. 16,1875. 
His remains were brought to South Bend for interment. Bev. 
Mr. Morey preached his funeral discourse, taking for his text 2d 
Timothy, iv: 7, 8, 9: "For I am now ready to be offered and the 
time of my departure is at hand. 1 have fought a good fight; I 
have finished my course; I have kept the faith; henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, 
but unto all them also who love His appearing." Mr. Morey 
spoke of the dead with great feeling. All might say of him that 
"he had fought a good fight." lie had kept himself humble, 
steadfast and true in a world full of selfishness, deceit and trickery. 
His lite had never been marred by a single underhanded blow. 
He was pre-eminently a man of faith, and had the utmost reverence 
for the Bible as the word of God. and implicit confidence in Jesus 
Christ as a divine Savior. His faith was absolutely royal, or 
rather it was the child-like faith that asks not sight. It colored the 
whole atmosphere of his life, and gave to his character manliness, 
purity and tenderness, making a perfect whole, commanding and 
receiving the homage of all. His appreciation of the true and 
beautiful in character, in thought or nature, was marvelously keen, 
and his power of expression was something wonderful. 



4:86 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Morey closed his address with an exhortation to the pupils 
of the dead professor, to cherish his memory and teachings, by 
quoting his parting words to the graduating class of 1875. " We 
hope that the moral precepts that you have received in connection 
with your daily lessons will not be altogether fruitless; but that 
you will ever be found identified with the friends of truth, morality 
and religion. We hope it will ever be yours to walk in the light 
of the wisdom that comes from God, and in the personal assurance 
of His approving grace. And now, commending you to God as 
your protector, and His word as your guide, I bid you an affection- 
ate farewell." 

Resolutions of respect and condolence were passed by the teachers 
and students of the high school. 

ELDER C. WENGER. 

One of tha early settlers of this county was Elder Wenger, of 
Sumption Prai"ie. Mr. Wenger was born in Lebanon county, 
Pennsylvania, Dec. 10. 1814:. In the spring of 1837 he emigrated 
to St. Joseph county, Indiana, stopping for awhile with the family 
of Samuel Studebaker. In the fall of 183S he was joined in wed- 
lock to Esther, eldest daughter of Samuel Studebaker, and for 
several years ran the little saw-mill that used to stand near the 
Wenger br'dge, on the road from Mishawaka to South Bend. In 
1843 he moved to a piece of land on the Turkey creek road. Here 
hi6 wife died, leaving 4 children. In 1852 he married Esther 
Ullerj 7 , who survives him. From this marriage he had 2 children. 
On Thursday morning, Nov. 2, 1876, he died in the full assurance 
of faith. Elder Wenger was widely known through this section of 
country, and was a minister of ttie German Baptist Church for 
over thirty years, and an elder for over twenty years, and in the 
early days he had to travel long distances to fill appointments, and 
very often through the most inclement weather, but so zealous was 
he in the Master's cause that he did it cheerfully. In the death of 
Elder Wenger the community lost one of its most useful, honor- 
able and energetic members; the Church, an honorable counselor, 
and an industrious, faithful, and able minister of the gospel ; the 
bereaved family, an affectionate husband a. id kind father. In his 
sickness of twenty-five day& of intense suffering, he never murmured, 
but patiently resigned his will to God, bid farewell to his family 
and friends, and died without a struggle or a groan. 

JUDGE POWERS GREENE. 

The subjpct of this sketch was born in Rensselaer county, New 
York, Jan 1, 1793. He moved with his parents, when a boy, to Oneida 
county, in the same State, and in 1837 came to St. Joseph county, 
settling first at Mishawaka, where he remained two years, engaged 
in hotel-keeping, and then moved to Portage Prairie, where he had 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 487 

purchased a farm in German township, on which he set out a large 
orchard of nothing but Northern Spy apple-trees. He remained 
on this farm until 1S65, when he removed to South Bend, where he 
resided until his death, which took place Monday evening, July 2, 
1877. Judge Greene was twice married and twice bereaved. The 
first wife was buried in Oneida county, and the second in Herkimer 
county. New York. By his first wife he had one child, now Mrs. 
Harriet C. Hills, of Waukegan, Illinois. In early life, before com- 
ing to Indiana, he sold maps of various kinds in the South, 
principally in Tennessee, and in that way laid the foundation for 
the large fortune which he left to his daughter. He was a soldier 
in the war of 1S12, a private in Captain William Hubbard's 
company of militia volunteers, and for several years previous to his 
death, drew an annual pension from the Government. 

For several years Powers Greene was an associate judge with 
E. B. Chamberlain, of Goshen, who at one time occupied the Bench 
of the Circuit Court. He also served as County Commissioner, and 
in other ways has been identified with public life in St. Joseph 
count}'. He was a man of strong, positive mind and more than 
ordinary intellect; a wide and deep reader and thinker, and a fine 
conversationalist on almost any subject. Naturalh' enough, witli so 
strong and positive a nature, considerable eccentricity was inter- 
woven with it. Powerful in mind, his physical development was 
in fine proportion, presenting a rare and beautiful combination. A 
short time before his death he visited his old homes in Oneida and 
Rensselaer counties, New York, and spent a number of happy days 
in living over again a veiy happy period of his life. While visit- 
ing acousin in Canada, he caught cold while sitting on the verandah, 
exposed to the evening air. He at once returned to his home in 
South Bend, and in forty-eight hours after his arrival his spirit 
returned to God who gave it. His remains were taken back to 
New York State and placed beside that of his first wife, who years 
before had preceded him to that " better land." 

JOHN STUDEBAKER. 

John Studebaker was born in York, Pennsylvania, Feb. S, 1799. 
His father was a farmer, and until fifteen years of age lie assisted 
in the farm work. At that age he was apprenticed to his brother- 
in-law, a wagon-maker and blacksmith, with whom he completed 
his trade, and made himself a skillful worker in wood and iron, 
being able to construct a wagon entire. On the 19th of October, 
1820, he was married to Miss Rebecca Mohler, of Lancaster county, 
the same State. He soon afterward bought a farm in Adams county, 
Pennsylvania, and in connection with it conducted a wagon and 
blacksmith shop. In 1835 he sold his farm and shop, and, in 
wagons of his own construction, crossed the Alleghenies into Wayne 
county, Ohio, where he purchased a farm and engaged in the same 
business he had carried on so successfully on the eastern side of the 



48S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

mountains, and in addition ran grist and saw mills. But here a 
reverse came to him, his lirst and hardest. Before leaving Penn- 
sylvania he had endorsed for a friend, and being compelled to pay 
the amount for which he had become security, the whole of his little 
property was swept away. There was no exemption law in those 
days. At this time Mr. Studebaker had ten children living, five 
sons and live daughters, the oldest of the sons being Henry and 
Clement. His stringent circumstances called these two oldest from 
their country school-room to a little shop which their father had 
managed to lit up with tools. Here they learned their trades and 
laid the foundation for the great success which has rewarded their 
labors in later years, in the building up of the largest wagon factory 
in the world. The father and sons labored early and late, and in 
the course of a few years redeemed their fallen fortunes, and placed 
themselves once more in comfortable circumstances. 

In 1S-1S Mr. Studebaker, seeing no prospect in the future for the 
advancement of his sons in the quiet precincts ofAVayne county, 
set out on horseback to prospect the Western country. He traveled 
over a large portion of Indiana, but finally settled on South Bend 
as the most advantageous location, the excellent water-power being 
the main attraction. He returned to Ohio, and having arranged his 
business and disposed of his property, again fitted himself out with 
wagons, and in 1851 moved to that place, bringing with him two 
sets of tools, with which Henry and Clement went to work on the 
present site of the Studebaker Carriage Factory and formed the 
nucleus of the present extensive works. Mr. Studebaker engaged 
in no business, except to aid all in his power his two sons. He 
located his residence on the lot where he resided at the time of his 
death, though a new and handsome building has taken the place of 
the old one. 

Mr. Studebaker and his wife, who survives him, had lived together 
fifty-seven years. Thirteen children had been born to them, nine 
of whom are living, five sons and four daughters. At the time of 
his death there were also forty-three grand-children, and eighteen 
great-grand-children, of this aged couple. They united with the 
German Baptist Church, 1829, and for nearly half a century had 
lived consistent Christian lives together, beloved by all who knew 
them. On leaving the home of his father, when a young man, his 
father gave him this injunction: " John, remember the poor." And 
he always obeyed it, remembering them often, even when it took 
that of which the need was felt by himself. He was public-spirited 
in his nature, the friend of the young man struggling for a place in 
life, the benefactor of the widow, the fatherless, and all in need. 
He leaves a name rich in the memory of good deeds, and an example 
the emulation of which by all would lead the world to better things. 



John Mack was born in Ontario county, New York, Nov. 15 
704. His great-grandfather was John Mack, who came from Lon 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 489 

donderry, Ireland, in 1732, settling at Londonderry, New Hamp- 
shire. His father was born in Vermont, Aprils, 1702, and in 1788, 
six years before the birth of the subject of this sketch, moved to 
Ontario county, New York. In 1801 his father moved to Hamburg, 
Erie county, but in 1800 removed to Hanover, Chautauqua county, 
in the same State, where there were but three white men at the 
time, and where his sister was the bride in the first marriage ever 
celebrated in that county. At this time there were but two houses 
on the site of the present great city of Buffalo. In 1814 he moved 
to La Porte county, Indiana, but being highly pleased with the 
location of South Bend on passing through, returned and settled 
here in the fall of that year. At an earl) 7 day his father kept a tavern 
at Cattaraugus, New York, which was long and deservedly popular, 
and the subject of this sketch, inured to the privations and sacrifi- 
ces of pioneer life, both by personal experience, as well as constant 
and intimate association with the moving multitudes, with whom 
he daily mingled, as he assisted them on their way, or provided for 
their comfort, his courteous and dignified manner, his genial and 
obliging disposition, made him a favorite with the traveling public 
during the years of his youth and early manhood. Many offices of 
trust and honor, both civil and military, were conferred upon him 
by his friends and neighbors, the duties of which were discharged 
with scrupulous fidelity and faithfulness. He held a commission 
in the war of 1812, and often related an incident of his experience 
in that war. Two English vessels chased a small transport into the 
mouth of a creek within a short distance of his father's house, and 
had sent a boat armed with a howitzer up the creek a short distance. 
Aforce of men was collected, however, and the boat retired after 
firing a few rounds, which compelled the removal of their family 
and goods. One of these vessels was the " Queen Charlotte," and 
both were afterward captured by Commodore Perry. 

Mr. Mack spoke the language of the Seneca Indians quite fluently, 
and was frequently called upon by the Government to act as an 
interpreter and as an arbiter between the Indians themselves. He 
was Adjutant of the 162d Regiment and 43d Brigade of New York 
militia, and in 1S24 was appointed Adjutant General of the militia 
detailed for the reception of the Marquis de Lafayette, on his visit 
to this country, and escorted that distinguished ally of our country 
from Fredonia to Dunkirk, where he took ship for Buffalo. In 
1814 he was appointed postmaster at Cattaraugus. In 1838 he was 
engaged in filling a Government contract for timber for harbor 
improvements on Lake Erie. After that he was agent of the Erie 
railroad in the settlement of claims with property owners along the 
line, and the agent of Ogden & Fellows, part owners of the Holland 
purchase. He was made a Mason, at Buffalo, shortly after reaching 
his majority, and was consequently one of the oldest members of 
the order in the United States at the time of his death. He became 
a member of St. Joseph Lodge, No. 45, at South Bend, Dec. 



490 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

20, 1844, and in 1862 demitted to become one of the charter mem- 
bers of South Bend Lodge,'No. 294. He was twice married : First, 
in 1819, to Clarissa W. Hanford, who died in 1841, leaving four 
children. He was married the second time, in 1S43, to Achsah M. 
Leland, who died April 6, 1S75, leaving one child. 

Having lost all his property in New York, he emigrated to South 
Bend at an early day, in the hope of recuperating his shattered for- 
tune, and at first engaged in hard labor, doing whatever his hands 
found to do. By the second or third year, however, of his stay in 
that place, he entered the service of the pioneer Indian agent, Alexis 
Coquillard, acting as bookkeeper and general secretary. He accom- 
panied Coqnillard to the western reservation when he removed the 
Indians under authority of the general Government, in 1851, and 
during his life related many interesting incidents of the trip. He 
was with the Indians when the cholera broke out among them, and 
was unceasing in his efforts to relieve their sufferings. He was 
afterward engaged in the mail service on the Lake Shore railroad, 
and during his later years acted as bookkeeper and accountant for 
a number of persons and filled the office of Assessor. He erected 
the first house on the east side of the river, after the platting of 
Lowell, and aided materially in building up that part of the present 
city of South Bend. He joined the Baptist Chnrch in 1846, and 
during the remainder of his life lived a consistent Christian. 

ARIEL E. DEAPIEE. 

Ariel E. Drapier was born Aug. 31, 1808, in Sempronius, Cayuga 
county, New York. From the time he was 10 years of age he was 
a resident of this State, in the counties of Clarke, Perry, Posey and 
St. Joseph, his connection with the press sometimes carrying him 
out of the State for longer or shorter periods. In 1825-'6 he com- 
menced a weekly paper, the Western Compiler, in Hardinsburgh, 
Breckinridge county, Kentucky, in the days when it was required 
in that State for a newspaper to be " authorized" by law. The two 
years following he occupied in law and general reading in the office 
of Hon. Willis Greene, in Hardinsburgh, and in the McClure 
School of Industry, New Harmony, Indiana, dividing his time in 
the latter place between reading and the general management of a 
6emi-monthly scientific journal of that institution, The Dissemi- 
nator of Useful Knowledge. This work preserves the letters and 
lucubrations of the Hon. William McClure, the liberal but eccen- 
tric patron of the McCluran Workingmen's Library Associations, in 
so many townships in Indiana. The succeeding year he was again 
a journeyman printer a second time in Natchez, Mississippi, and 
then a schoolmaster in Southeastern Louisiana, where some fishing 
and hunting was attended to by him in companionship with his early 
friend, Dr. John A. Veatch, since distinguished as a naturalist in 
California. In 1830-'31 he was "at the case" in Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, where, in September, 1831, he was married to Miss Martha 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 491 

M. Spencer. By this marriage he had three children. In 1S32 he 
served as foreman of the Boston Daily Atlas. In 1833 he typed 
the third and fourth volumes of Bowditch's Laplace's Mecanique 
Celeste. In 1834-'35 he published the Louisville Notary (weekly), 
and the Louisville Daily Transcript. In 1836 he published the 
St. Joseph Herald, in Southwestern Michigan, and the next year 
he essayed farming. Soon failing in means, and losing health in 
his family, he repaired again to the printing business, taking charge 
of the State printing in Indianapolis for the session of 1837-'38 of 
the General Assembly. In 1839-'40 he published the Equator, a 
literary weekly, at Bloomington, Indiana. In lS41-'42 he was 
again connected with the Louisville (Kentucky) press, publishing 
with the Popes and William H. Johnson, the last year of the daily 
Louisville Public Advertiser. He was afterward interested in a 
general job office in that city with John C. Noble. About this time, 
in his thirty-fourth year, he assumed reporting as a profession. 
Three sessions he served in the Kentucky Legislature for the Frank- 
fort and Louisville press. In 1843-'44, with M. T. C. Gould, he 
reported the Campbell and Rice debate, in Lexington, 1,312 pages, 
Svo. Before this time he had reported a theological debate in 
Bellville, Hendricks county, which was printed in Indianapolis. 
Afterward the Weinzophfieu Catholic priest case, in the Gibson 
Circuit Court, at Princeton, Indiana, with other court trials in 
Louisville and Frankfort, Kentucky, and in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

In 1845 he compiled the "Elements of Swift Writing, after 
Taylor and Gould" — E. Morgan & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio; Morton 
& Griswold, Louisville, Kentucky, Publishers — adapting movable 
types to the short-hand symbols. In lS46-'7 he wrote for the Ohio 
Statesman, in that State Legislature. In 1847 he was engaged in 
the Tennessee Legislature. Then for two years he was in the first 
effort made by the Washington press to establish verbatim reports 
in Congress, which resulted in giving the contract to John C. 
Rives. In 1850-'ol he wrote in the Ohio and Indiana Constitu- 
tional Conventions. In 1852 he was again in the corps of reporters 
for the Daily and Congressional Globe. In 1853 he established the 
St. Joseph County Forum, a Democratic weekly newspaper, in 
South Bend. In 1855-'56 and in 1857-'5S he was engaged in the 
Tennessee Legislature, for the Legislative Union and American, 
two volumes of which were authorized as the authentic records of 
that body. He also reported the proceedings and debates in the 
Southern Methodist General Conference, at Nashville, in May of 
that year. He wrote in the Minnesota Constitutional Convention 
in 1857, and was official reporter to the Kansas Constitutional Con- 
vention in 1859. In 1858-'59 he instituted the first professional 
reporting for the Indiana Legislature, uuder the title of the " Bre- 
vier Legislative Reports." 

As a citizen, Mr. Drapierwas very modest and retiring. Had 
he pushed himself forward, a very prominent position in public 
life might have been his, but he was too pure a man to stoop to 



492 IIISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH county. 

the arts of a politician, and too dignified a man to be popular with 
the rabble. Twice he was the nominee, against his own wishes, of 
the Democratic party for the Legislature, but was defeated with his 
party, which was in a hopeless minority. He had a most com- 
manding presence, being over six feet in height, and shapely as an 
Adonis. He was very frank and cordial in his greeting to friends, 
and courteous to all. He was grave and dignihed in manner, and 
to some may have seemed stiff and cold, but his heart was always 
warm; it was the dignity of an old style gentleman. He was al. 
his life a Christian, and was one of the founders of the Christian, or 
Disciple Church in South Bend, and at times, in its early days, 
officiated as a lay preacher. Editor or politician, preacher or citizen, 
he was always the same quiet, nnostentatiousman, whose real worth 
was not justly estimated by the stranger, but which had a warm 
appreciation by the many who knew him well. Death called him 
home Saturday, May 26, 1S77. His remains were interred in the 
South Bend cemetery, there to await the resurrection morn. His 
last days were full of pain, for his affliction was one of the most 
painful the human system can bear; but under all he bore himself 
with courage and Christian resignation. He heard the summons 
and he answered the call: 

■ sustained and soothed 

By an unfaltering trust 

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

GEORGE W. MATTHEWS. 

George W. Matthews was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Jan. 17, 
1810. He was married to Mrs. Hannah D. Colfax, mother of Hon. 
Schuyler Colfax, in New York, November, 1834. Their children 
numbered five, four of whom are yet living. In October, 1S36, 
he moved with his family to New Carlisle, this county, and 
remained there five years, engaged in the mercantile business, until 
he was elected County Auditor, when he removed to South Bend. 
He held this office two terms, Mr. Colfax serving part of the time 
as his deputy. Afterward Mr. Matthews was appointed Special 
Agent of the Postoffice Department, by President Taylor. For 
twelve years he served as printing clerk of the House of Represent- 
atives, with rare ability, resigning in the latter part of the year 
1S73. The long illness, and finally the painful death of his wife, 
with the unremitting care bestowed by him toward her, told upon 
his own health. In the spring and summer of 1873 he was thought 
to be in better health than he had been for years, but in August 
of that year, while superintending the erection of a building being 
built for himself, he was prostrated by a sunstroke, from which he 
never fully recovered. In November, 1873, he went to Buchanan, 
Michigan, to visit brothers residing there, hoping the change 
would be beneficial to his health, but he steadily failed so he could 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 493 

not return to his home in South Bend. He died very easily and 
quietly on the 15th of January, 1874, aged 64 years. Mr. Matthews 
was held in great esteem by all who had the pleasure of his 
acquaintance, and in South Bend, where he was so well known, and 
in Washington, where he was so long in public life, he made many 
friendships, deep and lasting, and he will long be remembered by 
all for his many good qualities, which made his friendship desirable 
and his companionship valuable. 

OOLONEL ALFRED B. WADE. 

Alfred Bryant Wade was the youngest son of Judge Robert 
Wade, and was born in South Bend, Indiana, on the 28th of De- 
cember, 1839. His father died when he was quite young, and he was 
left to the charge of his mother, who reared him with all the care a 
fond, religious mother could bestow. He received his education 
in the "old seminary," in South Bend, and although he took great 
interest in athletic sports was noted for his close applica- 
tion to study. At 16 he was the readiest off-hand speaker and 
most forcible debater of his age in that city. His facility in draw- 
ing and lettering led him to learn the marble-cutting trade, but he 
followed it only a few years, as the dust affected his lungs. After 
abandoning it he went to Pike's Peak, but soon returned and began 
to read law under Judge Stanfleld. When the war broke out, he 
enlisted in the 9th Regiment. When the 73d Regiment, Indiana 
Volunteers was rendezvoused at South Bend, he joined it as Adju- 
tant, and was with it at Lexington, Chaplin Hills, in pursuit of 
Bragg to Wild Cat, and the fight at Gallatin, Tennessee. 

In the terrible fight at Stone River, Adjutant Wade's regiment 
took a prominent part. It was the first of the whole army to cross 
Stone river under the enemy's fire on the event of the first day's 
battle. Its brigade there encountered Breckenridge's whole divi- 
sion and was obliged to recross. The next day it passed in 
skirmishing, and then on the 31st of December, 1,362, it participated 
in the most terrific fighting that occurred during the whole war. 
When the right wing of our army was beaten back two miles, the 
73d was double-quicked a mile and a half to reinforce it, and taking 
a position on the extreme right engaged two rebel brigades. In 20 
minutes, fighting at close range, the regiment lost one-third of its 
entire number engaged, but checked the enemy's advance and saved 
the right wing of the army. After the fight Gen. Rosecrans com- 
plimented the regiment in person for its bravery. Through all this 
fighting Adjutant AVade was with the regiment as cool and 
collected as on dress parade. His horse was shot from under him 
and he fought on foot. In one of the attacks, when the storm of 
rebel bullets became so thick that no force could withstand them, 
and a retreat was ordered, Adjutant Wade tripped twice on his 
sword and fell. " The second time he fell," said an eye witness, 
" he got up, stopped, unbuckled his sword and walked after the 

32 



494 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

retreating regiment as collectedly as if be were going out to drill." 
When Colonel Streight organized his Independent Provisional 
Brigade to penetrate the enemy's country and cut his communica- 
tions, the 73d, which seemed to be doomed to do hard lighting, 
was assigned to it. Two days after it left Tuscnmbia, Alabama, 
1,500 strong, it was attacked by 4,000 rebel cavalry under Forrest 
and Roddy. The 73d was on the left flank, where it gallantly 
repulsed a fierce charge of the cavalry within 20 feet of its colors, 
and the enemy was eventually repulsed with the loss of two pieces 
of artillery. In another fight the same day the enemy fared no 
better. On the 2d of May the 73d bore the brunt of "the fight at 
Blount's farm, and there lost its commander, Colonel Hathaway. 
On the next day, out of ammunition, exhausted by incessant travel- 
ing and fighting, and surrounded by superior forces, the brigade 
surrendered, and Adjutant Wade, with the rest of the officers, was 
taken to Bibb}' prison, where he was confined for nearly two years, 
and received such injuries from close confinement that his naturally 
strong constitution never recovered from them. His exchange was 
finally secured through the influence of Schuyler Colfax, who had 
been his Sabbath-school teacher for many years, and who had 
always taken a great interest in him. He was promoted to Major 
and sent to take command of the 73d at Nashville, and with it 
picket a portion of the Tennessee river. As usual there was a great 
deal of fighting to do, and General Granger several times compli- 
mented Major Wade and his boys for their bravery and efficiency, 
and he was made Bieutenant-Colonel. In the latter part of 1864 
the 73d was sent to Athens, Alabama, which Forrest had captured 
a few days before with 600 men, and then abandoned it. Colonel 
Wade's orders were to hold the place, and he did it most success- 
fully. He constructed a bomb-proof of his own invention inside 
the fort. On the 1st of October Gen. Buford, with 4,000 cavalry 
and a few pieces of artillery, appeared before Athens, and a skirmish 
was kept up all that day, Col. Wade having but 500 men and two 
pieces of artillery. At six o'clock the next morning Gen. Buford 
opened a fire, but owing to the bomb-proof Col. Wade sustained 
no loss, though he managed to inflict a serious one on the enemy. 
After two hours' hard fighting Gen. Buford sent in a flag of truce 
and demanded a surrender, " to stop the effusion of blood," and 
wound up by saying that he would not be responsible for the action 
of his men if Wade did not surrender. Col. Wade replied that he 
had been ordered to hold the fort and intended to do it, and as to 
stopping the effusion of blood, there had been none among his men 
to stop. As soon as the bearer of the flag of truce reached Buford's 
lines, and before the rebel general had time to recover from his sur- 
prise at the audacity of a Yankee boy who was not afraid to fight 
4,000 trained cavalry with a handful of men, Col. Wade opened a 
fierce fire among the enemy's ranks and Buford and his men 
precipitately retreated with great loss. The loss to Colonel 
Wade's men was so slight as to attract special mention. For his 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 495 

gallantry at Athens Lieutenant-Col. Wade was promoted to the 
Colonelcy of the 73d, which was the only Indiana regiment which 
went through the war with but two Colonels. On his muster out 
with the regiment, he went to Ann Arbor and graduated; then 
returned to South Bend and opened a law office and practiced his 
profession until the accession of Grant to the Presidency, when he 
was appointed postmaster. He was re-appointed in 1873. 

Colonel Wade was a member of the Presbyterian Church. His 
mother, who was a member of that Church from its organization, 
named him after its first minister, Rev. Alfred Bryant. 

In the fall of the same year that he was mustered out of the ser- 
vice (1865) he was married to Miss Jennie Bond, of Niles, Michi- 
gan. The union was a very happy one, and was blessed by four 
children. 

On Tuesday morning, Feb. 27, 1877, Colonel Wade left South 
Bend for Crum's Point, about ten miles distant, to hunt ducks. He 
went alone, taking with him his dog, gun, sachel, pail of provi- 
sions, and a light metal boat built in two sections. On arriving at 
the Point he left his horse and wagon in charge of Christian 
Haller, launched his boat and started on the hunt. About four or 
five o'clock the same afternoon the dog returned to Haller's, but 
nothing strange was thought uf the matter. On Wednesdav. while 
two men who were trapping along the river were examining their 
traps, they came across Col. Wade's boat, opposite the farm of 
Henry Burden. It had apparently drifted down stream until it 
lodged in the grass and bulrushes a short distance from the shore. 
They pulled it in, and also secured a buffalo robe a short distance 
below, floating on the water. On the seat of the boat lay the 
Colonel's gun case; close beside it was his breech-loading gun. The 
alarm was immediate]}' given, and some fifteen or twenty men 
engaged in the search for the body and continued until compelled 
to abandon it on account of the darkness. Early the next morning 
the search was resumed, and the body of the Colonel was found 
about three-fourths of a mile above where the boat was found. The 
theory of the drowning was that he was sitting in the boat eating 
his dinner, when he was seized with one of his dizzy spells, which 
had been troubling him for some time, and falling to one side, 
careened the boat sufficiently to throw him out into the river; that 
the water revived him and he struck out for the shore, but failed 
to reach it, though an excellent swimmer, on account of the icy 
coldness of the water chilling him into a state of numbness. His 
body was at once taken to South Bend, where an inquest was held 
with the verdict of "accidental drowning." His funeral was' con- 
ducted under the auspices of the South Bend Commandery, No. 
13, K. T., and Crusade Lodge No. 14, K. of P. 

HORATIO CHAPIN. 

Horatio Chapin was born in Bernardstown, Mass., in 1803. In 
1822 he moved to Detroit, Michigan, and in 1831 to South Bend, 



496 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Indiana, then consisting of about a dozen log cabins. In this same 
year he called on the different professors of religion in South Bend 
with reference to the necessity of establishing a Sabbath-school. A 
meeting was held and a union Sabbath-school organized. This 
school afterward, being suspended for a time, was by a similar 
effort re-organized in 1833. At both organizations Mr. Chapin was 
elected superintendent. By old settlers Mr. Chapin was termed 
the " Pioneer of Sabbath-schools in St. Joseph county." In 1835 
separate Sabbath-schools were organized in connection with the 
Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches. On the organi- 
zation of the Presbyterian Church in 1834, Mr. Chapin was one of 
the first members received, and was one of its officers from that 
time until his death. In 1838 the South Bend branch of the State 
Bank of Indiana was established and Mr. Chapin became its cash- 
ier, which office he filled for over twenty years. In 1862 he became 
connected with, and manager of, the private banking house of 
Chapin, Wheeler & Co., in Chicago. Two or three years after he 
retired from the business, and returned to South Bend. 

Mr. Chapin was a man of considerable culture, being more or less 
thoroughly acquainted with several branches of knowledge, such as 
medicine, theology, finance, horticulture and natural science. He 
was a man of great strength and decision of character. With Puri- 
tan firmness he stood fast by his convictions and principles. In 
his character was illustrated the rugged strength of the oak. From 
the day he came to South Bend his influence was continuously 
exerted on behalf of morality, intelligence and religion. In his 
long career as a business man, those who knew him most thor- 
oughly testify to his life-long integrity. During the last years of 
his life, he seemed to ripen fast for the kingdom of heaven. Unceas- 
ingly he gave his dying testimony as to the preciousness of the 
Lord Jesus Christ as his only and all-sufficient Savior, in whom 
alone he trusted for salvation, or acceptance with God. He was 
called to his final home on the thirteenth day of May, 1871. 

SAMUEL BYEKLY. 

Samuel Byerly was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1796. His 
father was a partner and relative of Josiah Wedgewood, the great 
pottery manufacturer, and inventor of the " queensware " which is 
now used everywhere throughout the civilized world. But in the days 
of the Wedgewood-Byerly partnership this ware had not acquired 
much celebrity, and before the firm became wealthy Mr. Byerly 
died, leaving his family in limited circumstances. Samuel was then 
thirteen years old, and had received only a limited education, but 
Staffordshire sends no drones out into the world, and young Byerly 
left to his own reasources did not long remain idle, but applied 
himself diligently to acquiring an education and securing a living. 
His aptitude for learning, untiring industry and strength of char- 
acter soon attracted attention, his amenity of manners made him. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 497 

very popular, and before he was of age lie found himself on the 
highway to wealth, position and influence. He was a close student, 
and although self-educated, could speak seven different languages; 
was as conversant with the French, Italian, German, Spanish, 
Latin and Greek, as with his native tongue. 

During the Napoleonic wars Mr. Byerly was chosen as dispatch 
carrier to Russia, a position of great importance, but surrounded 
with innumerable dangers. . Once his route took him across one 
arm of the Baltic sea. He was obliged to make the crossing, some 
three or four hundred miles, in an open boat. It was in winter, 
and the sea was filled with floating ice. The trip was made, but 
nearly all his companions were frozen. At the close of the wars 
he traveled pretty much all over Europe, visiting among other 
places Norway, Sweden, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, Greece, 
Turkey and Turkey in Asia, He finally settled in Trieste and 
became a partner in a large commercial house. While there he 
became acquainted with and married the lady who survived him. 
She is a native of Tyrol, a niece of Andrew flofer, the Wallace of 
Tyrol, commander of theTyrolese insurrection in 1S09, during the 
war between France and Austria. Hofer, whom the Tyrolese fairly 
worshiped, was betrayed and shot, but his brave and chivalrous deeds 
are still the wonder and talk in the mountains and valleys of Tyrol. 

In 1S3^ Mr. Byerly severed his connection with the firm in 
Trieste and came to the United States. His administrative and 
executive ability, his rare business qualifications and linguistic 
powers soon attracted the attention of Howell & Aspinwall, of New 
York, then one of the largest mercantile and shipping firms in the 
United States. He was admitted to the firm and soon took entire 
charge of the vast commercial and shipping interests. The firm 
had ships on every ocean; their trade extended to every quarter of 
the globe. Many New Yorkers yet remember Samuel Byerly as 
the business prodigy of that city, laboring unceasingly, for years, 
twenty hours out of the twenty-four, and dispatching business with 
a celerity and accuracy of which few men are capable. Ten years of 
such life had their effect on even as robust a life as Mr. Byerly 
possessed, and in 1843, then fifty years old, he retired from busi- 
ness and came West seeking a home where he might pass the rest 
of his time with his family, in quiet. Struck with the beauty of 
South Bend and its surroundings, he settled here, built him a 
country house and passed the remainder of his days in horticultural 
pursuits and with his books, for he was an unwearied, untiring 
student to the close of his life. 

Mr. Byerly was noted for his kindness of heart and generosity 
of character. He scattered his bounties with an unstinted hand, 
hardly stopping to inquire if the objects of his beneficence were 
worthy or not; in short, he was generous to his own pecuniary 
injury. He was not less remarkable for his buoyancy and bright- 
ness and his delight to labor over whatever work he had in hand. 
This was also characteristic of his brothers, several of whom held 



49S HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

important civil or military positions in England, and of his sister, 
Mrs. Catherine Thompson, a well-known English historian and 
romancist. 

Mr. Byerly was a member of the Catholic Church. His death 
occurred Saturday, March 10, 1870. His remains were deposited 
in the cemetery at Notre Dame. 

ELISHA EGBERT. 

Elisha Egbert was born in New Jersey in 1806. At an early day 
his father moved to Lebanon, Ohio, where his boyhood days were 
spent. He studied law with Hon. Thomas Corwin, then a rising 
young lawyer. He removed to South Bend in 1829, and soon after 
engaged in teaching school. He was among the first teachers in 
the county. He was present at the organization of the first courts 
in Elkhart, St. Joseph and La Porte counties, and at the time of 
his decease was the last of the first members of the Bar of Northern 
Indiana. He was said to be the first admitted to practice in the 
courts north of the Wabash river, and was plaintiff in the third suit 
on the records of St. Joseph county. In 1834 he was appointed 
probate judge. With the exception of one term, which time he 
spent in farming, he continued to hold that position until the office 
was abolished in 1852, when he was elected common pleas judge, 
which position he held for 18 years, up to the time of his death. 
Many were the changes in political parties in the'course of his long, 
judicial career, but so fully did he have the confidence of his fellow 
citizens that his election seemed to follow as a matter of course. 
On the 4th day of November, 1S70, he was called to his reward 
above. Judge Egbert was a member of the Masonic order and was 
buried by the members of the order in South Bend. The South 
Bend Commandery, in their resolutions of respect thus speaks of 
him. "In paying an appropriate tribute to the memory of our 
deceased Brother and Companion, it is eminently proper to state 
that during along life, nearly all of which has been spent in our 
midst, he has been the one to whom the sorrowing of earth could go 
and have their grief assuaged; that for more than a quarter of a 
century he has been a faithful Mason, in early life having presided 
over St. Joseph lodge, of which he was so long an acceptable mem- 
ber; that he has filled highly honorable and responsible positions 
in the chapter in which he belonged, and feeling, as he often said, 
that he had a desire to travel the full length of the Masonic road, a 
few months since he presented his application for the orders of 
Knighthood, and but quite recently passed through these solemn 
ceremonies, exhibiting as he did his goodness of heart, when receiv- 
ing the crowing glory of Masonry. He expressed a desire that he 
should be buried by the order. Judge Egbert was the courteous 
gentleman, the warm-hearted friend, devoted companion, affection- 
ate parent and true Mason.'' 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 499 

A local writer thus speaks of Judge Egbert: "He studied law 
in the office of Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Ohio. That generous old 
Roman took him into his family, hoarded him, and treated him as 
one of their number. When the }'oung student got through his 
studies, and was admitted to the Bar. he was, like most other 
Western students of law, without money and without clients. His 
old preceptor said to him: ' Now Lishe, you owe me three or four 
hundred dollars, and it does not make much difference whether you 
can pay it or not, but I advise you to strike out into some new 
country and begin for yourself.' He did so, and pitched his tent 
amongst us. In eight or ten years afterward, Corwin was broken 
up by endorsement for friends. The grateful student, though pushed 
with debts himself, did not forget his benefactor. As soon as 
he heard of his misfortune, he sent him six or seven hundred dol- 
lars. I saw Corwin's reply. It was a warm and sympathetic reply, 
characteristic of the great and good man. For the first year or so 
after Judge Egbert settled here there was very little litigation in 
the country. The people did not have time to dispute much. All 
were intent on getting a home, and honest, hard work was considered 
the most legitimate way of accomplishing that end. Our young 
lawyer had to look to some other avocation for a living, in connec- 
tion with his profession. One of the first houses built in the new 
town was a log school-house. I think it was four logs high, and 
16 by 20 feet square, The logs were hewed, and not less than two 
feet wide. This was the common meeting-house for all religious 
purposes for several years. Mr. Egbert opened a school in this 
house in the summer of 1831 and taught for several quarters, at the 
same time practicing law and speculating a little. In 1834 he was 
commissioned probate judge and held the office until 1838, when 
he was elected a member of the Legislature over Captain Anthony 
Defrees. Both candidates were Whigs. In that day nobody 
regarded the politics of a candidate for the Legislature on national 
questions. A Whig would vote for a Democrat for the Legislature 
as quick as he would for one of his own political faith, and Demo- 
crats would as soon vote for a Whig under the same circumstances. 
The party lines were never drawn until 1840. 

" After the Judge had got fairly on his feet, and feeling confident 
of his strength, he began to launch out in trade and speculation. 
In July, 1834, he laid out the town of Portage, on the river about 
two miles below South Bend. It was just below a very sharp bend 
in the river, now cut off as an island. But this bend suggested 
another name for the town, by which it has always been known — 
' Pin Hook.' Under the Judge's fostering care, Portage began to 
thrive and grow. It soon had two taverns, two dry-goods stores, 
two physicians and a public ferry across the river, and quite a col- 
lection of new houses. In a year or so it became quite a snug, 
thriving little village. While the Judge's town was growing and 
everything looked prosperous, he branched out in a variety of enter- 
prises, such as merchandising, milling and land speculations. When 



500 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

the hard times of 1837-'8 struck the country, he found himself, like 
all the enterprising men, carrying a heavier load than he was able 
to bear, and finally did come out about where he started in, and his 
town of Portage did about the same thing. In 1S52 Judge Egbert 
was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court, and held the office 
nearly 20 years, up to the time of his death, discharging all its 
duties as an impartial and upright judge." 

DWIGHT DEMING. 

Dwight Deming was one of the best known business men in 
Northern Indiana. He came to this county at an early day in its 
history from Castleton, Vermont, where he was born on the 16th 
of February, 1824. lie settled with his parents, the late Judge 
John J. Deming and wife, at Mishawaka in 1834. His father was 
one of the leading spirits of Mishawaka at that time. With Col. 
John II. Orr, J. E. Hollister and Philo Hurd he organized the same 
year he settled there the St. Joseph Iron Company, for the manu- 
facture of iron from bog ore, which existed in large quantities in 
the vicinity of Mishawaka. Later in life Judge Deming was 
elected probate judge, and continued to reside in Mishawaka until 
1856, when he removed to California, where his son, Theodore, and 
his daughter, Mrs. Chas. Crocker, had preceded him, and he lived 
there until his death. 

When 22 years old Dwight Deming was married to Miss Cor- 
nelia L. Nicar, daughter of the late Robert B. Nicar, who was 
treasurer of this county from 1851 to 1S56. The ceremony took 
place June 10, 1846, and was one of the great social events of 
Mishawaka, where the young couple were well known and very 
popular. Mr. Deming taught school for awhile, and then removed 
to this place, and went inro the drug business. He bought A. B. 
Merritt'sdrug store on Michigan street, about where the horse-shoe 
store now is. He added books to the stock and did a very success- 
ful business. Elated by his success he purchased a building lot on 
Lafayette street in rear of the old jail and there erected, in 1851-'2, 
the largest, as well as the most costly, house there was in the city 
at that time. It was built of brick and was elegantly furnished 
throughout. The house stands to-day almost as lie built it. He 
failed in business partly on account of this expenditure, and A. G. 
Cushing became the owner of the drug and book store, while the 
residence became the property of Hon. William Miller, whose 
widow still occupies it. 

After his failure, Mr. Deming went to Minnesota and staid nearly 
a year, but he had great faith in the future of South Bend, and in 
1857 he returned here and engaged in the hardware business with 
his father-in-law, R. B. Nicar, the firm being R. B. Nicar & Co. 
The business was carried on in the corner now occupied by Peck's 
clothing store, and prospered finely. At the close of the war, on 
the return of Capt. Ed. Nicar, his father-in-law retired, disposing 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 501 

of his interest to Capt. Nicar and his brother Virginius, and the 
business continued under the name of Nicar, Deming & Co. After 
a few years Virginius retired to go into the stove and tinware 
business, and the firm was changed to Deming & Nicar. In 1874 
Mr. Deming retired from the firm, which then became E. Nicar & 
Co. When Capt. Nicar was elected County Clerk, he disposed of 
his interest to A. B. France. 

While in the hardware business, Mr. Deming, who had by his 
untiring devotion to business acquired a competence, bought the 
" old Exchange " property, on the corner of Michigan and Water 
streets, and refitted it for a hotel. He expended large sums of 
money in adding to it, bought the property directly opposite and 
erected an immense stable, and opened the hotel as the Dwight 
House. He made these improvements in 1865-'6 and ran the hotel 
himself. Under his management it became the leading hotel in the 
city. 

In 1871 he became owner, with David Warner, of the M. Stover 
lot on Michigan street, and in connection with Mr. Warner erected 
the most imposing business block on that street. It was 165 feet 
deep, about 00 feet wide and three stories high. It was christened 
" Lincoln Block." Mr. Deming owned the north half of it and 
built its lower story for the model hardware store of the State. The 
block cost an immense amount of money, and together with his 
Dwight House and other improvements and speculations involved 
him badly in debt; and when the panic of 1873 struck the country 
it found him in bad shape for such a blow, and with thousands of 
other good men he was obliged to succumb. 

Such a blow would have crushed most men, yet while it touched 
Mr. Deming's pride it could not shake his energy. He went to 
California at the special request of his brother-in-law, Charles 
Crocker, the famous Pacific railroad millionaire, who made him the 
most inviting proposals to come to the Pacific slope and engage in 
business. But Mr. Deming liked no place so well as South Bend. 
He returned here and opened a coal and wood yard, a business 
which he had been engaged in along with his other ventures. He 
showed his great energy and business capacity by building up a 
large and profitable trade in coal, wood, lime, etc., with no capital but 
his energy and pluck to start on. At the time of his death his 
business was in a prosperous condition, and he was looking forward 
to buying and building a home for his family in which to spend the 
remainder of his days. 

Mr. Deming was one of the most active politicians in the county. 
Originally a Whig, as his father was before him, he identified himself 
with the Republican party when it was organized, and was an active 
member of that party up to 1874, when he joined the Liberals and 
finally became a Democrat and was a member of that party when 
he died. He was first elected to office by the Republicans in 
1872 as County Commissioner, and held the office continually 
up to the time of his death. His present term to which he was 



502 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

elected by Democrats would not have expired until 1882. He also 
held the office of councilman from the fourth ward in our city gov- 
ernment, and was once candidate for Mayor, but was defeated by 
Prof. Tong. On Sunday evening, Sept. 26, 1880, between six and 
seven o'clock, Mr. Deming brought his wife from their residence in 
the fourth ward to the home of her mother, Mrs. Nicar, on the 
corner of Lafayette and Market streets, promising to call for her 
with the carriage at nine o'clock, and then went to the office con- 
nected with his coal and wood yard, on Michigan street, near the iron 
bridge. As he did not return at nine o'clock, Mrs. Deming became 
uneasy, and her brother, Capt. E. Nicar, went to the office, where 
he found him lying on the floor in front of his desk. Dr. McGill 
was called in but life was extinct, he having died of valvular disease 
of the heart, or apoplexy. That his death was very sudden was 
indicated by the surroundings. He had fallen prone upon the floor 
from his chair, which stood in front of his desk. On the desk were 
liis eye-glasses and a pamphlet he had been reading. 

JOHN A. HENRICKS. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Pendleton county, Ken- 
tucky, Aug. 10, 1811. While quite young his parents moved to 
Champaign county, Ohio, where he lived with them on a farm until 
he was sixteen, attending at intervals the common schools of that 
day. At the age of sixteen he left the farm and studied medicine, 
in Urbana, with Dr. Carter, and afterward graduated at the Cincin- 
nati Medical College, and in 1832 removed to South Bend and en- 
tered upon the practice of medicine with Dr. Ilardman. He was 
the second physician who settled in the place, Dr. Hardman being 
the first. 

In 1S36 Dr. Henricks was married to Miss Comparet, a half sister 
of Mrs. Alexis Coquillard, and abandoned the practice of medicine 
to accept the proposition of Mr. Coquillard to engage in the dry- 
goods trade. The store was opened in the old red brick on the 
corner of Michigan and Market streets, and conducted for three 
years, when failure followed. Afterward Dr. Henricks and John 
Rush formed a partnership and purchased a stock of goods of Mr. 
Coquillard and for a time did a very heavy business, when financial 
reverses again came and they went under. His wife and two 
children were taken from him by death, which, with his business 
reverses, was enough to have discouraged a less indomitable person. 

A few years after he married Miss Sanger, and a third time 
entered the dry-goods business with one of the Sanger boys, and 
again in the old red brick. In connection with other business 
enterprises he built a mill, using it for a time for a warehouse 
from which to ship wheat. In 1849 he, in company with "William 
Miller and others, went to California. After their return they 
engaged in the milling bnsiness together, and also in the contract 
for building the State Prison at^Joliet, Illinois. In 1863 Dr. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 503 

Henricks disposed of his share in the mill to Mr. Miller, and gave 
his whole attention to the prison contract, from which he realized 
a handsome competence. "When the First National Bank, of South 
Bend, was organized, he became the president, a position he held 
for many years. 

In 1854 Dr. Plenricks was married for the third time to Miss 
Julia Appleby (his second wife having died), who survives him. 

Dr. Henricks always took a prominent part in politics, and his 
popularity always made him a desirable candidate for his party, he 
being almost invariably successful. During his first term in the 
Legislature, in which he served several terms, he was the means of 
having a branch of the State Bank located in South Bend. He was 
a fluent, pleasing, and argumentative speaker, quick at repartee, 
slow to anger, and with a personal magnetism that easily swayed 
his audience and made him a powerful opponent. His last appear- 
ance in political life was as the Liberal candidate for Congress. 

Dr. Henricks was called to his reward Saturday, Feb. 19, 1876. 

MRS. FRANCES C. COQOTLLARD. 

Mrs. Coquillard was the most remarkable person in the history 
of St. Joseph county, sharing as she did the duties, the privations 
and honors of her remarkable husband. Her maiden name was 
Frances C. Comparet, and she was born in Detroit, April 9, 1805. 
In 1824, at the age of nineteen, she was married in Fort "Wayne to 
Alexis Coquillard and soon afterward came with him to the site of 
the present city of South Bend, where he had established a trad- 
ing post. Being a woman of strong mind, active temperament, 
indomitable courage and shrewdness remarkable in a woman, she 
proved a strong aid to her husband in his dealings with the Indians. 
She accompanied him on his long, fatiguing journeys or remained 
to take charge of the post and cope single-handed with the Indian 
traders. The aid she was enabled to render her husband in his 
business was largely due to the strong influence she was not long 
in obtaining over the Indians, which was frequently manifested in 
councils, when a few words from her would restore good feeling and 
avert a threatened danger. She was to the poor, untutored Indians 
of that day a veritable Good Samaritan. She nursed them in their 
sickness, sympathized with them in their sorrows and troubles, and 
in every way made them feel that she was their true friend. That 
they learned to love her it is needless to state, and to the few 
Indians who remain, the announcement of her death will be sor- 
rowful news. They frequently made visits to her during her life, 
and always looked up to her as a guiding genius. 

The Indians were not alone, however, in being the recipients of 
her kind attentions and bounty. Like her noble husband she was 
of an open, frank, charitable and generous nature, and the suffer- 
ings and sorrows of others never appealed in vain to her sensitive 
heart. To the women who came after her and settled with their 



504 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

husbands and families around her cabin she was frequently a friend 
in need, teaching how best to provide against the hardships of 
pioneer lite and rendering them every assistance that could be 
suggested to a kind and charitable nature. Mrs. Coquillard was 
the first woman who dared the dangers and endured the privations 
of pioneer life when the spot on which the city is located was a 
howling wilderness, inhabited only by Indians and wild beasts; the 
first woman to bring among the savages of this section the refining 
influences of civilized and Christian life, and through whose 
exertions and services the germ of civilization was deposited here. 
Death called her away Monday, Oct. 11, 1SS0. 

JOHN M. STOVER. 

John M. Stover was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, in the 
year 1833, but while yet a boy his parents moved with him to this 
county. Pie received a fair education, and having a desire for the 
medical profession, shortly after attaining his majority he com- 
menced the study of medicine with Dr. Van Tuyl, then a leading 
physician of South Bend. lie afterward entered the Jefferson 
Medical College, at Philadelphia, and graduated in 1S5S in the 
regular course. He then opened an office in South Bend, and 
built up a large practice, which he retained until failing health 
admonished him his time had come. Dr. Stover was possessed of 
a clear, vigorous mind, great energy of character, and entered upon 
the duties of his profession with a zeal that proved too much for 
his bodily strength. As a physician he stood high in the com- 
munity, and by his geniality and pleasant manners, attached to 
himself many and warm friends. In politics he was steadfast in 
the teachings of his youth, upholding with firmness and pertinacity 
the doctrines of the Democratic party. He was a member of the 
Baptist Church, and died in the full assurance of hope, Nov. 15, 
1869. 

JOHN T. LINDSEY. 

John T. Lindsey came to this county when a mere lad, and was 
partially raised in the family of T. W. Bray. In 1S37 Mr. Bray 
was elected County Clerk, and young Lindsey showing great apti- 
tnde for business, was made his deputy. In 1844, Mr. Lindsey 
was a candidate for the same office, was elected, and served until 
1851. In 1856 he was appointed teller in the South Bend branch 
of the State Bank of Indiana, and held the position until the 
organization of the First National Bank of South Bend, when he 
was tendered the position of cashier, which he accepted. Through 
the course of a long and useful life, it was the good fortune of Mr. 
Lindsey to Becure the confidence of every one with whom he had 
relations. It is not too much to say of him that he never knew 
how to follow a devious or dishonest course, and his name became 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 505 

to those having dealings with him the synonym of integrity. Mr. 
Lindsey was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and also of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He died, loved and respected 
by all, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1869. 

ISAAC EATON. 

Isaac Eaton was born in Loudon county, Va., in 1775, but was 
raised in Maryland, in the vicinity of Antietam and South Moun- 
tain, a locality made historic by the events of the late Rebellion. 
In the second war with Great Britain, Mr. Eaton enlisted and 
served to its close. In 1830 he moved to this county, then an 
almost unbroken wilderness. In his younger days he was a man of 
great strength, a lithe, wiry body, under medium size, and in the 
numerous personal encounters, quite common in that early day, 
became quite famous for never having "met his match." Many 
are the anecdotes related of him concerning these trials of strength. 
In the war of 1812, Eaton served with the Virginia Militia, under 
the command of Gen. Mason, a Virginian, born in the same county 
with Eaton, about twelve years his junior, and the most popular 
man in the army. It is more than probable that military discipline 
was very lax in those times, and one day at a general review, 
Mason rode up and down the lines proclaiming that he had a man 
in his command who could whip anything in the entire army. 
This challenge, several times repeated, was at last responded to 
by a perfect giant of a fellow from a Pennsylvania regiment, who 
came stalking down the lines and asked Gen. Mason to bring out 
his man. The General ordered Eaton out of the rauks. He was 
eyed by the Pennsylvanian with about as much scorn as Goliath 
was supposed to have looked upon David. Word was given to 
begin the battle, and there, before the whole American army, 
formed in a hollow square, the two men stripped to the waist and 
engaged in combat, but in less time than it takes to tell it, Eaton 
lifted his herculean opponent from the ground, and twirling him 
over with apparently as much ease as a dandy would a cane, held 
him up before the whole army in this inverted position, until the 
giant Pennsylvanian begged for quarter. At another time, in 
Kentucky, Eaton was forced to accept a challenge to fight, and on 
the first encounter threw his opponent to the ground with such 
force as to break nearly all his ribs. Mr. Eaton died, in Clay 
township, Dec. 25, 1869, aged 95 years. 

JUDGE JOHNSON. 

Peter Johnson was born in Pennsylvania in 178S. In earky years 
he followed boating on the Monongahela, Ohio, Mississipi and Red 
rivers, making trips with keel boats from Pittsburg to New Orleans, 
and up the Red river, which frequently occupied an en tire year. It 
was upon one of these trips that he saw the first steamer that ever 



506 HISTORY OF 6T. JOSEPH COUNTr. 

ran upon the Mississippi river. In 1812 be was married to Miss 
Chalfant. Two years after his marriage lie moved to Ohio, and 
after living there four years, moved to Wayne county, in this State, 
where he resided until 1828, when he went to Logansport, and two 
years after he moved to South Bend. 

Peter Johnson was just the man for a new place. Industrious, 
energetic, enterpi ising, he soon made his presence felt in that town, 
then struggling hard for an existence. In less than nine months 
after his arrival, with no saw-mills nearer than Elkhart, and labor- 
ing under the geatest disadvantages, he, with the assistance of his 
two sons, Evan and Lee, built " Michigan tavern," the first frame 
house erected in South Bend. It stood on the site where Coonley 
& Co.'s drug store now stands, and was known in later days as 
the "Old American." Transportation was then so difficult, and sawed 
lumber so hard to get, that the studding, rafters and joists were 
split from oak trees and afterward hewed into shape. The same 
year he built the keel boat "Fair Play," which made trips several 
years between South Bend and the mouth of the river. The next 
year, 1832, he built the "Comet," the "Hoosier" in 1811, and a 
fourth in 1842. He also built a steam saw-mill, and was at one 
time engaged in the mercantile business. He was one of the first 
County Commissioners, was a Justice of the Peace, and was also 
appointed associate judge, and served in that capacity several years. 

Judge Johnson lived 57 } r ears of married life and raised nine 
children. He was a member of the Masonic order fpr 51 years, 
and all his sons, five in number, are now members of the same 
order. Death called him home Thursday, March 10, 1870, aged 
82 years. 

CHARLES il. TCTT 

"Was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, Feb. 7, 1808, and died in 
South Bend, Indiana, Nov. 6, 1870. Mr. Tutt moved to the latter 
place in 1832, and was elected Sheriff of the county in 1838, and 
re-elected in 1840. In 1849 he went to California where he 
remained six years, and returned to South Bend. At the time of 
his death Mr. Tutt was Justice of the Peace, which office he had 
held fo two years. 

ARCHIBALD DEFREES 

Was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, October, 1792. He 
moved from Virginia to Shelby Co., Ohio, in 1810, and thence to this 
county in 1835. He purchased a farm about six miles west ot 
South Bend and followed farming as an occupation until 1849, 
when he moved to the latter place, where he resided until his death, 
serving most of the time as Justice of the Peace. He also served 
as County Treasurer one year. Mr. Defrees was an upright, moral 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 507 

and exemplary citizen, deeply respected by a large circle of acquaint- 
ances. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 
over 45 years. His death took place March 3, 1869. 

J. G. BAETLETT 

Was born in Newington, New Hampshire, July 2, 1815, and came 
to South Bend in 1837. Here he opened a bakery and grocery 
store in a building that stood on No. 68 Washington street. Sub- 
sequently he removed his business to Michigan street. Mr. Bartlett 
was twice married; was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and 
of the Odd Fellows. He was a most estimable citizen, scrupulously 
honest in all his dealings, and in matters involving principle was 
as unyielding as the granite hills of his native State. 

JAMES A. IRELAND 

Was born near New Paris, Preble county, Ohio, Jan. 1, 1812. He 
came to this county in 1829 and first settled in Pleasant Valley; 
then in 1830 went to South Bend, but afterward returned to 
Pleasant Valley, and lived there a few years, and again to South 
Bend, where he resided until his death, Aug. 21, 1873. His first 
business in South Bend was teaming, which he followed for ten 
years, when he opened a livery stable, which business he carried on 
for 20 consecutive years, disposing of it in the spring of 1S73. He 
was twice married. Mr. Ireland's business gave him an extensive 
acquaintance throughout this and adjoining States, and he was 
noted among all who had transactions with him, for his honesty 
and fair dealing. Generous to a fault, a warm sympathizer with 
those in distress, he chose the part of a Good Samaritan in this 
life. 

HENRY STULL. 

In 1829, when there were but two houses where is now the thriv- 
ing city of South Bend, Henry Stall came here and entered what 
has long been known as the Stnll farm, about one mile south of 
the city limits. Returning to his old home in Jennings county, he 
gathered together his goods and chattels and moved here the follow- 
ing year, remaining upon the old farm until death called him away, 
which sad event occurred March 25, 1875. In his early days here, 
before his boys became old enough to help him, Mr. Stnll worked 
hard clearing his farm, which was the first one opened south of the 
town. At that date the Michigan road had not been surveyed, or 
even thought of, and when it was located it ran directly through 
his farm and greatly increased its value. In early life Mr. Stull 
and his wife became earnest, faithful members of the Methodist 
Church, and remained so through life. Mr. Stall's religion was 
not of the Sunday kind, but carried itself into his every-day life. 



50S 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTr. 



Indeed, there never was a more upright and conscientious man, and 
his example had its effect on the community. One of his rules 
was never to go in debt, and it is said he never in his life bought 
an article, large or small, but he paid for it at the time. If he was 
unable to buy an article he desired, he was content to wait until he 
was able, and to that rule can be attributed his success in obtaining 
a competency. Mr. and Mrs. Stull were married over 60 years, 
and had 11 children, 8 of whom survived him. 




<fpP 



CHAPTER X. 

REMINISCENCES. 
BY JUDGE STANFIELD. 

My name is Thomas Stilwell Stanfield. I was born in Logan 
county, Ohio, on the 17th day of October, 1816. My father's name 
was William; my mother's, Mary Stilwell. He was born in Greene 
county, Tennessee; she in Grayson county, Virginia. They emi- 
grated to Ohio in 1805, before they were married. At the time they 
settled in Logan county it was a wilderness; they were on the 
extreme frontier; it was almost an unbroken Indian country to 
Lake Erie. The Indians occupied it as their great hunting grounds. 

Logan county settled up slowly; the emigration was almost 
entirely from the Southern and Southwestern States, many of them 
Quakers from Tennessee and North Carolina. All of the people 
were comparatively poor and uneducated; their highest hopes were 
to get a small piece of land and make a home for their families. 
The land in that country was generally heavily timbered, and 
the timber of no value. It required years of close economy and 
hard labor of the whole family to make a living. No time or 
opportunity was allowed for social improvement. They raised their 
food and made all their clothing; every house had its loom and 
spinning wheel ; every woman was a weaver, tailor and milliner. This 
industry and skill afforded them enough to eat and to wear, and 
that was about all. There was no time for the cultivation of their 
minds or the education of their children. They lived in log cabins, 
generally eating and sleeping in the same room. Under such cir- 
cumstances delicacy and refinement, so beautiful and lovely in the 
household, must be of slow growth. Good houses comfortably 
furnished areas necessary to the cultivation of gentlemanly manners 
and womanly graces amongst the children as a comfortable school- 
house for the cultivation of their intellects. 

When I became old enough to go to school a faint attempt 
was made to start one. The house for our school was a little larger 
than usual. It was built for a Quaker meeting-house, and must 
have been about eighteen feet square, a low, one-story log cabin, 
the cracks filled up with clay, covered with a clapboard roof held 
down by weight poles, floored with puncheons split from an ash tree, 
lighted by greased-paper windows, a stick chimney and huge lire- 
place. This will give a general idea of the house. The only furniture 
was a writing desk made by driving four long pins slantingly up 
into a log in the wall, with a board laid on them and puncheon 
33 (509) 



510 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

benches. Many a weary hour the little children suffered humped 
up upon those benches without backs, or resting places for their 
feet. It never seemed to have occurred to the old Quakers that the 
children's legs were not as long as theirs. I only mention this to 
show how little was thought in those days of what we now consider 
so important to the physical and mental education of our children. 
Is it any wonder that it required a liberal use of the rod to make 
those children forget the tortures of such a seat and study their 
lessons? "To read, write and cipher " was generally thought to 
be all that it was necessary for common people to learn, and that 
any body possessed of so much learning was fit for a schoolmaster. 
In the fall some old fellow would come around who was too old or 
too lazy to work, and secure employment to teach the school for the 
coming winter. All the education I received under fourteen was 
in such schools. 

We moved from Ohio to this county in November, 1830, first 
settling for the winter near Young's Prairie, Cass county, Michigan. 
That winter was remarkably severe, and during the first week in 
December the snow fell to the depth of two feet and was shortly 
increased to three, and so remained until the 1st of April. The cold 
weather was incessant, never let up till late in the spring. About 
the middle of the winter there was almost a total eclipse of the sun; 
many attributed the cold weather to that fact. 

About the middle of April we moved down to Harris's Prairie with 
the intention of entering land there and becoming farmers, but my 
father being unable to raise money enough to enter 80 acres, and 
having a trade, he concluded to settle in South Bend. We did so 
in June, 1831, and it has been my home ever since. Young as I 
was, I was charmed with the natural beauty of this country. It was 
distinguished as oak openings, thick woods and prairie. At this 
time hardly a furrow had been turned upon the prairie; a few cabins 
were scattered around in the oak openings bordering the prairies. 
I remember well that in 1831, and I think in 1832, the route traveled 
from here to Terre Coupee Prairie was across Portage Prairie, enter- 
ing it on the farm now owned by John Smith, then owned by 
Pleasant Harris, and thence across the Prairie by way of a little 
grove near the land then owned by Samuel Jones, then through 
the barrens to the oldDetroit & Chicago road crossing the north 
end of Terre Coupee Prairie. I do not think there was a fence in 
the way before the spring of 1833. The country between the two 
prairies had but a few families living in it. You could then stand 
on the ridges in these barrens and see the country for a mile off on 
either side of you about as plainly as on the prairies. Where now 
the timber has grown up so thick that one can hardly get through 
it, was then almost as bare as the prairie, and covered with a most 
luxuriant growth of grass, making rich and magnificent pasture for 
cattle. This, indeed, was the character of all the oak openings. 
About the only timber that grew in these barrens was white oak, 
black oak, burr oak and black hickory. The burr oak and hickory 



UISTOEY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 511 

land was considered much the best, and I think experience has for 
all purposes proved it to be even better than the prairie. I remem- 
ber that it was commonly considered at that early period that the 
white and black oak barrens of Clay and Harris townships were 
hardly worth buying from the Government; that three or four crops 
would exhaust the soil, and the land become worthless; and the first 
few years of cultivation did seem to have that effect, but the intro- 
duction and use of land plaster and cultivation of clover has not 
only restored these lands to their original fertility, but I think 
made them better; and it is now a question among good farmers, 
taking into consideration the difference in cost of tillage, whether 
these lands are not as profitable as the prairie lands. 

There were fifteen or twenty families living here when we came ; of 
them there are still remaining here: Peter Johnson, Sr., and his wife; 
their sons, Evan Lee, Pierce Johnson, and daughter Mary Taylor; 
Samuel L. Cothall and his wife; Henry Painter. Mrs. Alexis (Joquil- 
lard, Alexis Coquillard, son of Benjamin Coquillard, Mrs. Matilda 
Shirland, Lathrop M. Taylor, Edmund P.Taylor, Riley Stilson. 

At this time there had been hardly a tree cut upon the town plat 
except in places where houses were built. Shortly after this the 
Michigan road was laid out through town on Michigan and Water 
streets, and the streets cleared as a part of that road. Along 
Maine and Lafayette streets, and indeed on most of the original 
plat, grew beautiful, burr-oak groves thirty or forty feet high. Most 
of them along the streets and on the public grounds might have 
been preserved and become the pride and ornament of this city. 
To my notion there are no more beautiful shade trees growing in this 
latitude than the burr oak. Its smooth, clean, bright, peculiar leaf 
was always very attractive to me. These trees are the most remark- 
able objects of attraction about Kalamazoo, Valparaiso and other 
towns where the people had the taste and good sense to preserve 
them, but unfortunately for us we were heedless vandals, without 
any appreciation of beauty or comfort, and regardless of the interests 
or taste of those to follow us. It was a wicked waste that I have 
never ceased to regret, and one that never can be repaired. 

The openings around South Bend were like those I have already 
described, only not quite so free from trees, but still open enough 
to go anywhere with a wagon, and all covered with the same luxu- 
riant growth of grass and scattered over with the same varieties of 
beautiful flowers. The grass grows so thick and high between 
here and the Kankakee marsh that it was cut and put up for hay. 
The undergrowth of brush and timber that has since sprung up has 
entirely destroyed this native growth of grass; it is now scarcely ever 
seen where it once grew so luxuriantly and afforded such nutritious 
pasture for cattle. I have often wondered why the early settlers 
did not keep down this undergrowth of brush and preserve their 
natural pasture. 

The first school I attended in South Bend was taught by Judge 
Egbert, then a new beginner at the practice of the law; it was in the 



512 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

summer and fall of 1831, in a log school-house with glass windows 
instead of greased-paper windows. I thought the house and teacher 
a little ahead of anything I had seen before. The old house has 
been demolished and forgotten, but not so with the teacher; he still 
survives, an honored friend and deserving citizen. 

BY DE. JACOB HAEDMAN. 

It is written of me that I, Jacob Hardman, was born on Sunday 
morning, April 29, 1801, in Harrison county, West Virginia; 
moved thence with my father, Peter Hardman, and family to 
Greene county, Ohio, in October, 1808, where I was bred a practi- 
cal farmer. By an unfortunate grapple with a young stallion, after 
matured years, was crippled in my right arm. Without any aid or 
assistance of money or friends, commenced and proceeded, as best I 
could, to educate mjself for the study and practice of medicine, 
which preparatory education, some teaching, and a term of medical 
studies, consumed a term of seven years. My studies and instruc- 
tion in medicine were accomplished with Messrs. Ambrose Blount 
and Harvey Humphreys. 

At the end of three years' reading and study in Springfield, Ohio, 
overshadowed with debts, being thus hedged up, and without means 
to attend medical lectures, I went before the censors of the Second 
Medical District of Ohio, at the cit}' of Dayton (a provision by 
statute law in said State, for the benefit of indigent pupils), was 
there examined, pronounced competent in all the branches of the 
profession, receiving a certificate to that effect, and a license to 
practice medicine in all its branches wheresoever I desired. 

The next year thereafter I emigrated to South Bend, arriving 
Aug. 9, 1831. I was the first of my profession to locate in the 
county. Having arrived at three and a half o'clock in the after- 
noon with letters of introduction to two of the most prominent 
citizens of the place, with some vouchers, I made myself known 
and was given a warm welcome. After some hesitation I unfor- 
tunately decided to stay and grapple as with hooks of steel, with 
any and all of the vicissitudes and grim wants of coming life, which 
decision has made me next thing to a pauper, now in the days of 
my longevity. Thus, I continued in the practice of my profession 
with varied success, as did my competitors, up to a period of thirty 
years. 

At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, I was, by the Gov- 
ernor of the State, O. P. Morton, appointed Assistant Surgeon in 
the 9th Ind. Vol., which position in -15 days I resigned. In May, 
1864, I presented myself before the Examining Medical Board of 
Surgeons, of the United States, at the city of Nashville, Tennessee; 
was received as a competent Surgeon and was assigned to duty at 
Hospital No. 2, at College Hill, where I continued with accepta- 
bility until by failing health, in March, 1865, I was compelled to 
resign my position and return home; from which time, owing to 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 513 

continued debility, I never have opened an office and offered my 
professional services to the public, although compelled in the mean- 
time to prescribe, advise, and to some extent visit among some of 
the old patrons and their descendants. 

Now to return. April 26, 1S32, I returned to Fairfield, and 
married Miss Sarah Woodward, a finely educated lady, of German 
and Scottish descent, born Dec. 10, 1806, at Williamsport, Pa. We 
have had four sons and three daughters, four of whom died in early 
life and one died in the army in the South. My wife died May 20, 
1870. I am now keeping house with my only (and eldest) daugh- 
ter, Julia Margaret. 

In early life I joined the M. E. Church, and was long connected 
with the pioneer Sunday-school of South Bend. 

The heads of families in South Bend when I arrived here were: 
Alexis Coqnillard, Benjamin Coquillard, Peter Johnson, Frederick 
Bainter, Thomas B. Johnson, Samuel L. Cottrell, Benjamin Potter, 
Samuel Newman, Charles Ousterhouse, Peter Nido, Hannah Skin- 
ner (widow), Hiram Dayton, Solomon Parsons, Louis St. Comb, 
Calvin Lilley, Solomon Barkdoll, Andrew Mack, Sam'l Martin, 
Wm. Stanfield, David Gillum, Benjamin Cushman, Oliver Bennet, 
Joseph Nichols and John A. Cane. 

The young and unmarried ladies of the village included in fami- 
lies were: Matilda Newell, Keziah Cartwright, Polly Holt, Maria 
Stilson, Maria Skinner, Eliza Stilson, Lydia Skinner and Mary 
Gillum, making eight. The young gentlemen over twenty-one 
years old were: Horatio Chapin. Elisha Egbert, John D. Lasley, 
Win. Creviston, Levi F. Arnold, John B. Ozia, Horace Wood, Wm. 
Cartwright, John Becraft, Joseph Aljoe, Lowry Dayton, Lathrop 
M. Tayior, Edmund P. Taylor, James Thompson, Eeuben Hildreth, 
Peter D. Shaw, James DeGrote, Christian Wolf, Simeon Mason, 
Zina Skinner, John D. Defrees and myself, making in all a pop- 
ulation of 163 in the village proper. 

The first winter we formed a debating society, a mock legislative 
body, and had fun generally. In the meantime we formed a 
temperance society, and in one sense it was unfortunate for me that 
I was made president, which position I continued to occupy up to 
lS3S-'9, I think. 

In 1837 I was candidate for County Eecorder, but was defeated by 
Wm. H. Patterson on account of my temperance principles. I was 
Coroner one year, however, and Justice of the Peace one term ; was 
also appointed in 1834 Major of the 79th Ind. Militia. 

[In the history of Dr. Hardman's ancestry are many interesting 
passages, especially in connection with their early settlement in 
Kentucky, their blood-curdling experiences with the savage Indians, 
etc., all of which we would gladly give space to if we possibly 
could.] 



514 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

BY THOMAS P. BULLA. 

To begiu at this time of life to give even a concise outline 
biography of myself, it is not to be assumed that I can give dates 
entirely correct. 

My father was of the early settlers of Pennsylvania. My grand- 
father, Thomas Bulla, emigrated from Nantucket about the year 
1770, settled in Chester county of said State. My father was born in 
that county Feb. 10, 1777, lived there till 1791; then the family 
emigrated to Guilford county, N. C, where, as a farmer and inn- 
keeper, my grandfather lived and raised a family of eight boys and 
two girls. He owned two slaves (women); their work was in the 
kitchen; were treated as Quakers of that time generally treated 
servants of that grade. My mother's maiden name was Hoover, 
and was (as the name imports) of German nationality; my parents 
were married in Randolph county, of the last-named State, then, 
after a few years, emigrated to Montgomery county, O., near the 
site of the city of Dayton. At this time two daughters, Anna and 
Elizabeth, were the increase of this union. The writer of this was 
the next as additional; subsequently six other boys and two more 
girls were the make-up of the family circle. My eldest brother, 
Andrew, and myself were born on Twin creek, Montgomery county, 
O. All the younger children were natives of Wayne county, Ind., 
one mile north of the present city of Richmond, James, next 
younger, then William, David, Daniel, Esther, Sarah and John; of 
these Anna Chalfant, late of St. Joseph, Elizabeth Burgess and 
Andrew (who was an editor with Septimus Smith in Centreville; 
the paper published was the first issued there, and was called the 
Western Times)die6 in Wayne; James, a millwright, and William 
F., farmer, both of St. Joseph, died at their homes in said county. 
David died at Louisville, Kentucky. As to the origin of the 
name (Bulla) it is of Gallic origin and its orthography was 
Bouillon, pronounced Boolong, yet the paternal ancestry were 
of Irish nationality. 

JS'ow, in a detailed recital of the incidents of my life I find that 
the identity of circumstances are so blended with my existence that 
to relate that only which appertains to myself is not possible. My 
father was a farmer, but like many of the pioneers of 60 years ago, 
he made all the implements he needed for agricultural purposes, 
tanned leather, and made the shoes for the family, did his own 
coopering and masonry, and was somewhat of the Nimrod in the 
general make-up. The women of that period, besides presiding in 
the kitchen, made the fabric and the apparel for the family. All the 
material resources of the community in general were self-sustain- 
ing; nothing but salt and iron required the expenditure of money; 
coffee and tea were not then and there in general use. Sunday morn- 
ing we had coffee, hence we knew when that day came round. There 
were no available educational resources then, and a school was gotten 
up by subscription, male teachers were employed, and their wages 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 515 

per mouth about ten dollars; hickory oil was freely used iu the 
schools then, and parents and teachers in general relied more on its 
• use and proper application as an incentive to literary progress than 
anything else. 

I made my second trip to the St. Joseph valley afoot as usual; 
helped to build a saw-mil! for Elijah Lacey at the mouth of Wag- 
giac; returned to Richmond and taught school another quarter, then 
made tracks for Niles, Mich.; was employed to attend the saw-mill 
aforesaid, at $17.00 per month; returned to my old home; then I 
was employed for about nine months at millwright work, then for 
three months as carpenter. And now a final exodus from my 
primitive home, in company with Evan Chalfants' family ; we started 
for South Bend, Oct. 1, 1832. Were I to detail all the incidents of 
this campaign (for campaign it was, since camping out was the 
order), it would add several pages more and would not, perhaps, 
interest but few, except those yet living, who were en route with us; 
suffice it to say that through thick and thin (thick and thin mud), 
we arrived at our destination the 1st of November, 1S32. General 
Jackson was then President. 

Having secured a quarter section of land I made such prep- 
aration to build a house as best I could, and helped E. Chalfant 
to rear a cabin on his land that winter, and having no means to 
have help I hawed logs and erected the first hewn log house, 
shingle roof and brick chimney in Clay township; my neighbors 
regarded it as a rather aristocratic structure. 

In the winter of '33 and '34 I had a school in South Bend, which 
in number of students was rather more than one man could man- 
age. So the services of a Mr. Cadmus Johnson was secured as 
assistant. The school now went on for some time; at length Christ- 
mas was reached; that morning when I came to the door I founda 
barricade of benches against it, and a number of stalwart, beardless 
boys had made a citadel of the house. I took in the situation at 
once and demanded admittance, which was denied; thereupon I 
assumed an indifference whether I was out or in, and started home. 
They now opened the door and called me back and 10 come in, 
which I did. No sooner in than half a dozen bipeds were using 
their muscles to control my locomotion, and to aid them in this 
cords and ligatures were fastened about my limbs. At this juncture 
my assistant came in, and seeing my condition he at once exclaimed, 
" I surrender." I, too, now surrendered at discretion, demanded 
what they wanted, to which they replied no school till the 26th, 
and that the teachers treat to one bushel of apples and three gallons 
of cider. To this we acceded; they now untied me and I gave them 
a lecture on their perfidy in calling me back. Order was now 
restored, the treat procured, and the day passed in relaxation. Next 
day I resumed my duties and the school went on; the behavior 
thereafter in general was good, and the term expired with no other 
incident of note. A short time before the termination the follow- 
ing notice was posted up iu tin' most conspicuous places in South 



516 HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Bend: "There will be an exhibition of live men and boys at the 
court-house in Southbrook, where will be recited speeches, dialogues 
and farcical representations." This passed off as per programme, 
and was the first of the kind here. By this time the missiles of 
Cupid had made some impression, and as a result a matrimonial 
alliance was concluded and consummated Jan. 15, 1835. 

I was then a teacher in my own house on my farm in Clay town- 
ship, near the now Notre Dame University, being now 30 years old. 
This connubial state and the State of Ind., have ever since been my 
home. On this farm by hard labor we made out to live, my now 
better half aiding me in all efforts, and having no resources only our 
labor we were impelled to economize in every way. Without a team 
and no cow the situation was not encouraging, but persevering 
industry and the little I made by surveying enabled us to use some 
groceries; yet we often had domestic coffee or sassafras tea minus 
the sugar and cream. Our first meal was roasted potatoes and salt. 
Our household goods were a table of rustic style, one poplar bedstead, 
one chair of the old style, a few stools, a crane in the fire-place for 
the dinner -pot. By raising flax ray wife was enabled to weave linen 
for shirts, etc., for our use, andjto spin sewing thread, which at that 
time was sold to Mr. Brownfield, a merchant then and now of South 
Bend. The few acres then cleared were cultivated with a hired or 
borrowed team. A nursery was planted, but the prices were low, as 
that branch of industry was overdone here, and was not remunerative. 
After a few years I bought a horse; with this I did my plowing. 
My first crop of wheat (about four acres) brought 50 cents per 
bushel; harvest wages per day were 50 cents or one bushel of wheat. 
About this time some surveying brought me some lucre, and an 
occasional call from the County Board to locate a road gave some 
employment. Circuit Court gave now and then an appointment to 
make partition of real estate amongst heirs, but most of my time 
was devoted to enlarging my farm and making such improvements 
as I could. One year after our nuptials an addition to our family 
appeared in the person of Win. D. Bulla. 

I wrote the first total abstinence pledge in St. Joseph county; this 
was about the year 1839. It is in no vaunting mood that I make 
this record; and not to make any digression, my sympathies ever 
were against oppression of every kind, physical and mental. I have 
lived to witness the removal of one of the darkest stains on our 
character as a nation, and though a moredegradingoppression, like 
a deadly sirocco, is destroying many thousands every year, a hope is 
yet indulged that this, too, may be removed before another centen- 
nial rolls around; if not, then as effects of a prevailing cause our once 
great republic will cease to be, as a like cause invariably is succeeded 
by a like consequence; so, to avert the consequence the cause must 
be removed. But to resume the intent of this writing. In the year 
183S I was appointed County Surveyor by the Commissioners' 
Court, which position I held till the year 1856. At this period we 
had increased in numbers in the family circle, four more — Milton 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 517 

V., Mary E., Minerva A. and Tliomas II. All these are as yet of 
irreproachable character, and their training was not compulsory but 
persuasive. The rod had no place as a moral motive power (nor 
should a resort to its use ever be general; although Solomon says, 
spare the rod and spoil the child, that adage was only adapted to 
that age, when brute force was deemed more available than moral 
suasion). At this period of my life a prevailing torpitude exists 
in our country, and to account for it, the late Rebellion is a prolific 
source; tho' out of this Rebellion a retribution is awarded to its 
instigators, yet from the means used to remove one great national 
evil another was produced, and to remove this a revolution in our 
jurisprudence must be produced; hence as means to an end, all the 
moral resources must be brought to bear. In the reformatory 
institutions of our land all are equally interested; hence none are 
exempt from duty where aid for the general good is demanded. 

BY DR. E. W. H. ELLIS. 

At the close of a hot summer's day, Aug. 7, 1836, after a weary 
ride in a lumber wagon from Edwardsburg, Michigan, through 
an oak-barren wilderness, without roads or inhabitants, guided only 
by the points of the compass, the writer arrived at the north bank of 
the St. Joseph river, opposite Mishawaka, and, with good exercise 
of lungs, succeeded in arousing the ferryman. He was safely con- 
ducted over the river, and made his way to the Mishawaka Hotel, 
kept by that prince of landlords and good fellows, Orlando Hurd. 

A few days' residence enabled him to take in the general features 
of the place. He was one of a colony of emigrants from Brock- 
port, New York, who numbered in all some 30 persons, embracing 
the families of Ma jor H. Smith , Richmond Tuttle, Albert Hudson, 
Stephen II. JndKins, John Ham, Gilman and Samuel Towles, 
James Clark, George Bellinger and Albert Brinsmade, who had 
been induced hither by the somewhat extravagant stories of the 
St. Joseph region. The town had just shed the name of St. 
Joseph Iron Works, and was entering upon a high career of pros- 
perity. The swift water at that point, it is said, gave it the Indian 
name of Mishawaka, and the stream was already utilized by the 
construction ofadamand mill race, upon which were erected the 
St. Joseph Iron Works, and a flouring mill known as Taylor's Mill, 
erected by a citizen then deceased. Besides the store of the Iron 
Company there was another near by owned by a citizen of Niles, 
Michigan, and the grocery store of Russ & Pomeroy, in the com- 
pany's warehouse. To these were soon added the drug and grocery 
store of Smith & Clark, and in the eastern part of the town, known 
as Barbee-town, another store of the Meed brothers, from New 
York. The hotels were the Mishawaka Hotel, already mentioned, 
and Kellogg's Hotel, in Barbee-town. These were filled with the 
new settlers and passing immigrants. The village had an air of 
thrift and enterprise. Many of the dwellings were comfortable 



518 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

structures, of creditable styles of architecture, some of which are 
still standing, mementoes of the early settlement. The population 
was possibly some 500. 

Even at this early date the town had its contentions and neigh- 
borhood jealousies. The leading spirit on one hand was A. M. 
Hurd, President of the Iron Company, and on the other his name- 
sake of the hotel. A. M. Hurd was a strenuous advocate of 
temperance and the moralities, while the views of the hotel pro- 
prietor and his friends had a strong leaning toward what was called 
liberality. Two Churches were already organized, the Presbyterian 
and the Methodist. Over the first presided Rev. A. Kellogg, a 
most excellent man, who for a score of years afterward worthily 
filled the position of pastor. The Methodist preacher in charge was 
Rev. H. B. Beers, a man of strong mind and the requisite essentials 
for a pioneer preacher, who has now gone to his reward. " Don't 
you think he preaches well, considering his being only six months 
from the Bench?" inquired m}' friend Hudson. A vision of judi- 
cial ermine, cast aside for the branches of palm and olive of the 
Gospel of Peace passed before my eyes, as I eagerly asked, " What 
bench?" " Why, the shoemaker's bench," was the earnest and 
truthful reply; and I really thought he preached well under the cir- 
cumstances. Neat and commodious buildings were erected during 
the season for these denominations, and all took pride in assisting 
at their raising. 

Among the citizens whose names I recall, in addition to those 
from Brockport, were John H. Orr, a member of the Iron Company, 
William Sisson, their estimable book-keeper, Dr. G. W. R. Fowler, 
whose widow afterward became the wife of the reverend poet, John 
Pierpont, Mr. Bancroft, Alonzo Delano, Nathan Russ, C. W. Pom- 
eroy, J. E. Hollister. Judge Demin<r, Dr. J. A. Stiles, D.J. Coolev, 
Dr. Mallett, H. E. Hurlbnt, A. M.^Wing, Mr. Childs, Samuel B. 
Romaine, Philo Hurd, Monroe and John Sherman, E. A. Sher- 
wood, a bright boy even then anticipating his future blindness, 
Frank Taylor, Nicar, Goldsmith and Wilson. 

The election just terminated returned to the Legislature Jona- 
than II. Liston as Senator, and Thomas D. Baird as Representative, 
both prominent leaders of the Whig party. Conventions and 
party caucuses were then unknown. If a candidate had no friend 
to announce him for office, he did the next best thing, which was 
to nominate himself. Coming from a land of caucuses and con- 
ventions, the writer endeavored, through the columns of the South 
Bend Free Press, to persuade the native Hoosiers of the excellen- 
cies of the system, but for quite a period these efforts were 
unavailing. Party lines were not closely drawn, and, under the 
system in vogue, not unfrequently a dozen candidates ran for the 
same office, and a small minority of votes was sufficient to elect. 

My first visit to South Bend was early in the fall of 1836, when 
curiosity attracted me to the court-house, a plain, square-built 
structure of brick, of the original value of $1,000, said to be alike 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 519 

as two peas to the court-house " in yonder, by Dayton." Court 
was in session, an important trial being on hand, in which His 
Honor, Judge Samuel C. Sample, was interested, and his place was 
therefore temporarily occupied by some disinterested member of 
the Bar. The court was in tumult, an important paper in the case 
having disappeared, which was more than suspected to be in pos- 
session of Hon. J. A. Liston, one of the attorneys. After much 
wrangling, Judge Sample ascended the bench, called the court to 
order, and addressing Mr. Liston very emphatically, told him he 
must produce the missing paper or be committed to jail for con- 
tempt. Whereupon Mr. Liston very promptly produced the 
document from his pocket, with a request to the opposing attorneys 
to hereafter take care of their own papers, and the case proceeded. 

In the spring of 1837 the writer became a resident of South 
Bend, and entered into business in the practice of medicine with 
his father, Dr. W. 11. Ellis. Other physicians in the town were 
Dr. Samuel Finley, a man of fine reputation and an elder in the 
Presbyterian Church, of the utmost rigidity; and Dr. Jacob Hard- 
man, also an eminent physician of much worth and integrity. To 
these members of the faculty were added during the year Dr. Har- 
vey Humphreys, a man of splendid abilities and acquirements, 
whose untimely death occurred 13 months after his arrival; and 
Dr. E. S. Sheffield and Dr. George B,ex, who soon after returned to 
his home in the East. With Dr. Humphreys came his brother, 
Louis Humphreys, who soon afterward entered the profession, and 
whose ability as a physician, and whose worth as a citizen have 
done honor to the place of his adoption. Dr. Daniel Dayton 
resided at that time at Portage Point, or " Pin Hook," as it was 
popularly termed, as did also that popular and eccentric Presby- 
terian divine, Rev. Abner Morse. 

South Bend at this time had a population of perhaps 800. The 
principal merchants were A. R. & J. H. Harper, whose first invoice 
of goods had been shipwrecked, but who were now doing a flourish- 
ing business; John Brownfield, a careful, methodical business man; 
Lathrop M. Taylor, a substantial citizen who had dealt largely with 
the Indian tribes; L. P. Sawyer, who occupied the old brick store 
erected by A. Coquillard; and Horatio Ghapin, whose store-room 
was nearly opposite the Dwight House; Christopher Einrick had 
his bakery and beer house; Christian Wolf dispensed fire-water to 
the thirsty. 

The town possessed two modest frame buildings known as the 
Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Mr. Bryant, an eloquent and 
able man, officiated in the furmer, having for his ruling elders Dr. 
Finley and Horatio Chapin; at the Methodist church about this 
period, preached the well and widely known Elder Hargrave. 

BY JOHN D. DKFEEES. 

About the middle of an afternoon of a bright day in August, 
1831, nearly fifty years ago, two young gentlemen might have been 



520 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

seen riding up to the door of the only house of entertainment in 
the then village, now city, of South Bend. The gentleman who, 
at that early day, was the only landlord in the place, was Peter 
Johnson, Esq., who continued to reside here until a few years ago, 
when he died, much regretted by all who knew him. One of these 
young gentlemen referred to was Dr. Jacob Hardman, and the 
other was the writer. The Doctor had been a resident of Spring- 
field, and I, of Piqua, Ohio. Each determining to settle in South 
Bend, we accidentally met on the route without having any previous 
acquaintance. 

If in what 1 should say in this place there is a seeming egotism in 
a frequent reference to myself, I beg that it be overlooked, as I 
cannot see well how to avoid it. 

On my arrival here I immediately set about getting subscribers 
for the Northwestern Pioneer, a weekly newspaper of super-royal 
size, proposed to be published by my brother Joseph (who now 
resides at Goshen) and myself. I had preceded him several weeks, 
he coming with the ox-team that brought the printing materials 
and a supply of paper, from Cincinnati, Ohio. At that time there 
was no newspaper published in this State or in Michigan, north of 
the Wabash river, or west of Detroit. We thus had a wide field, 
so far at least as territory was coucerned, but it was sparsely 
populated. 

The prairies were first selected for cultivation, and, when it was 
possible, the log cabins of the pioneers were erected in the adjoin- 
ing woods. 

The press and type arrived, and my brother and I got out the 
first number of our paper on the 16th day of November, 1831, 
doing all the work, mailing and delivering the paper to town sub- 
scribers. The office was in a small, one-story brick house, belonging 
to Mr. Ooquillard, on Michigan street (now corner of Main and 
Water streets), near where the Exchange Hotel was afterward built, 
and was, I believe, the first brick house erected in this place. We 
afterward occupied the upper story of a log house on the corner of 
St. Joseph and Pearl streets. 

Since then a wonderful improvement has been made in the print- 
ing press. At that time the ink was put on the type by means of 
two balls, made of buckskin and stuffed with wool. Two hundred 
sheets per hour were all that could be printed on a hand press, and 
there were no power presses in use. Now, S,000 copies of a paper 
of the size of the Pioneer can be printed on a Bullock press in 
less than an hour. 

To refresh my memory, I recently looked over a file of the Pio- 
neer, and found it very interesting. It brought to my recollection 
many occurrences which I had forgotten. 

That the present receipts and expenditures of St. Joseph county 
may be compared with what they were in that early day, I present 
the following table of receipts and expenditures from January 1, 
1832, to November 1,1832, as published in the Pioneer: 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 521 

RECEIPTS. 

For balance in treasury $ 4 66 

Received for license to sell merchandise : 47 70 

Grocery permits 1 00 

Duplicate of taxes 287 13 

Donations for county seat 973 00 

Total $1,313 48 

EXPENDITURES. 

By amount paid premiums on wolf-scalps $ 12 00 

" " " associate judges 4 00 

" " " Hiram Dayton for assessing 25 00 

" J. D. & J. H. Defrees for advertising 13 00 

Total .$54 00 

Dec. 5, 1831, a meeting was held at Lilley's Hotel (the second 
house of entertainment just opened), for the purpose of asking 
Congress to establish a land office at this place. Anthony Defrees 
was called to the chair, and Elisha Egbert was elected secretary. A 
committee, composed of Pleasant Harris, L. M. Taylor, H. Chapin, 
J. P. Antrim and John D. Defrees, was appointed to memorialize 
Congress on the subject. As a result of this effort, a bill passed the 
United States Senate, at the instance of Senator Tipton, establish- 
ing a land office here, but it failed in the House. Afterward the 
land office for the sale of lands in the northern part of the State 
was established at La Porte. 

Col. Taylor was then the postmaster, and if he did not carry the 
letters in his hat he might have done so, as but few letters were 
received or sent. The following list of letters not taken from the 
postoffice was advertised in the Pioneer Dec. 31, 1832: Henry 
Augustine, Joseph Boel, Jacob Chord, Alexander Plain, Jacob 
Bowman, Joseph Brown, Daniel Bennett, John Bailey, Peter 
Kiffer, Jacob Putter and Scott "West. There may be some of these 
persons yet living, but r7Jb~TIot''l[now it. 

In the fall of 1831 a debating society was formed by a few 
gentlemen who had political aspirations, for the purpose of showing 
their speaking ability. It met in the second story of Mr. Lilley's 
Hotel. 

May 23, 1S32, an express rider from Chicago to Detroit passed 
through South Bend giving the information that the Indians, under 
Black Hawk, were committing murders on Rock river, Illinois. A 
few days afterward it was rumored that these Indians had deter- 
mined to make their way to Canada. As South Bend would be on 
their direct route, many of our people became alarmed and immedi- 
ately commenced building a fort for protection. The panic, 
however, subsided before any considerable amount of work had 
been done. Noah Noble, at that time Governor of Indiana, was 
applied to for aid against the supposed danger. In response to his 
call, a regiment of 300 men were raised in Marion and adjoining 



522 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

counties. The regiment, under command of Col. Russell, of 
Indianapolis, marched to Chicago. When it arrived there, Gen. 
Atkinson was at Dixon's Ferry, on Rock river, awaiting reinforce- 
ments before attacking Black Hawk. Col. Whistler had a company 
of regulars at Chicago, and proposed to Col. Russell to join his 
command and march to the aid of Gen. Atkinson. A council of 
war was held, and as a majority of the officers under Col. Russell 
were candidates for Congress in the District, and as they wished to 
vaunt their patriotism, it was determined to decline the offer, and 
to return to Indianapolis by way of South Bend. This retrogade 
movement was criticised by the Pioneer, published on the morning 
of the arrival of the regiment here. The article gave great offense 
to a portion of the regiment, who had been indulging pretty freely 
in whisky. On going into the street I was surrounded by an 
excited mob, who threatened personal chastisement; but it was 
finally thought best to retire without putting the threat into execu- 
tion. In the next number of the Pioneer the regiment was called 
the "bloody three hundred," in derision of their exploits, and they 
retained the appellation for many years. Black Hawk was soon 
afterward captured and the country became quiet. 

During the excitement some amusement was occasioned by 
Esquire Haney, a German, who then resided here. At a meeting 
held to consider the condition of the county, some one remarked 
that an Indian chief by the name of Pokagon, who was known to 
be friendly to the settlers, and who lived opposite Niles, had deter- 
mined to remain neutral. The 'Squire, not understanding the 
meaning of the word " neutral," thought it had reference to an 
Indian chief of that name, and remarked: "Damn old Neutral! I 
believe he is mit Black Hawk now! " The boys afterward had a 
good deal of fun with the 'Squire about his mistake. 

No one apprehended any danger of the Fottawatomies of 
Indiana and Michigan, as they had, ever since the treaty of Green- 
ville, been the friends of the white man. Many of them fought 
for us in the war of 1812. Among the number was John B. 
Chaudonis, a half-breed (well-known to the early settlers of this 
town), who distinguished himself by killing his uncle, who was a 
British officer, during an engagement somewhere in Michigan. 

Emigration, which had ceased in consequence of the alarm from 
the Indian war, again commenced; or, as announced in a grand- 
iloquent article in a number of the Pioneer which read as follows: 

" As a breaking forth of a mighty river which had long been 

?ent-up, does the emigration now pour into the St. Joseph country, 
'rom present appearance, emigrants seem determined to make up 
for the time lost from having the fear of Black Hawk before their 
eyes. One day this week nine wagons and sixty persons passed 
through this place for Sumption's Prairie, six miles south; and not 
a day passes that does not bring emigrants with farming utensils 
and stock, wending their way to different parts of the beautiful St. 
Joseph country." 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 523 

In May, 1832, we changed the name of onr paper from the 
Northwestern Pioneer to the St. Joseph Beacon, considering it 
more appropriate, as better indicating the country in which it was 
published. Much space in the paper was devoted to giving infor- 
mation in relation to the advantage of this country, so as to induce 
emigrants. The richness of the soil and the facility with which 
farms could be made were weekly themes. 

Feb. 13, 1833, a number of citizens met at the school-house to 
form a society under the 11th commandment, which reads: "Every 
.one must attend to his own affairs and not interfere with the 
affairs of his neighbor." So read the call for the meeting. The 
society was called ''The Anti-Tattling Society." Peter Johnson 
'was president and Jonathan A. Liston, secretary. Mr. Liston 
delivered an address making several columns of the Beacon. The 
society did not long exist, having been gotten up more for amuse- 
ment than anything else. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Rev. P- Dillon, the second President of the University of Notre 
Dame, was born in the county of Galway, Ireland, Jan. 1, 1832. 
Immediately after his birth he was dedicated in a special manner, 
by his mother, to the service of God, and entered upon his studies 
for the sacred ministry, while yet a mere boy. After the removal 
of his family to America he continued his studies at St. Mary's 
College, Chicago, Illinois. He entered Notre Dame in 1856, com- 
pleted his studies and was ordained priest in 1858. Even before his 
ordination he was appointed steward of the university, and gained 
the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He was subse- 
quently appointed president of St. Mary's College, Chicago, and 
gave still further proof of his adminstrative talent. From St. 
Mary's he was recalled to Notre Dame, where he discharged the 
important duties of vice-president of the university and principal 
of the Commercial Department for nearly three years. In May, 
1865, he was duly appointed President of the university and local 
superior at Notre Dame. During his presidency the college 
buildings were entirely remodeled and enlarged, and improvements 
made to the value of nearly $100,000. In August, 1866, he was 
summoned to France to attend a General Chapter of the Congrega- 
tion of the Holy Cross, and, as his fame had preceded him, he was 
appointed secretary and assistant to the Superior General, the best 
evidence that could have been given of the esteem in which he was 
held by his religious associates. In August, 1868, he returned 
with Very Rev. Father Sorin, who had just been appointed Superior 
General of the Congregation. Filial duty, which at first appeared 
to require but a temporary absence, eventually rendered it necessary 
for him to seek a dispensation from his obligations as a member of 
the Congregation of the Holy Cross, in order to attend more freely 
to the sacred duties which nature herself imposed upon him. The 



524 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

dispensation was given, though with, much reluctance, by the Very 
Rev. Superior General, and Father Dillon immediately assumed 
the responsibilities of pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Chicago. But 
a disease which had several times previously threatened his life ; 
returned with renewed violence, and on Sunday evening, Nov. 15, 
1868, he breathed his last, regretted by all who knew him, and 
sincerely mourned by a wide circle of personal friends. 

Rev. William Corby, the third President, was born at De- 
troit, Mich., Oct. 2, 1833. Up to 1849 he received all the 
educational advantages afforded by the common schools of that 
time. From 1S49 to 1853 he was occupied with his father in busi- 
ness, and ouring that time, under his father's experienced training, 
laid the foundation of that self-control and forbearance which have 
enabled him to fill the important positions he has since held. In 
1853 he was sent by his father to Notre Dame, with two younger 
brothers, to continue their education. In 1854 he entered the 
Congregation of the Holy Cross and prosecuted his studies with 
vigor, under the direction of experienced teachers, till 1858, when 
he made his religious profession as a member of the congregation, 
and was appointed prefect of discipline in the university. In 
addition to the duties thus imposed upon him, he continued to 
6tndy theology with perservering euergy till 1S60, when he was 
raised to the dignity of priesthood. He was then employed as a 
professor in the university till July of the following year, when 
he was appointed director of the Manuil Labor School at Notre 
Dame, with the additional duty of attending the mission of South 
Bend, at that time too small to have a resident pastor. Was Chap- 
lain of a New York regiment during the war, and returned to his 
little mission at South Bend; and finding the congregation in debt, 
contracted while building St. Patrick's church, he went vigorously 
to work, and in a few months collected money enough, not only to 
free the congregation from liabilities, but also to erect a neat pas- 
toral residence close to the church. This done, he was about to 
take some rest, and enjoy, with his little congregation, some of the 
fruits of his zealous labors, when he was elected vice president 
and director of studies in the university. This new office he 
undertook with the same cheerfulness and determination that he 
had manifested on all previous occasions, and continued to discharge 
its duties until August, 1866, when he was raised to the position 
of president. 

Very Rev. Alexis Granger, the first who occupied the position 
of vice president of the University of Notre Dame, was born at 
Daon, France, June 19, 1817. He received his primary education 
at home, and even had made some progress in the study of Latin 
before his 15th year, the age at which he entered the College of 
Chateau Goutier. Here he remained rive years, during which time, 
by diligence and the aid of superior talent, be completed his col- 
legiate course. He then entered the theological seminary at 
Maus, France, in his 20th year. After four years of earnest 



HISTORY OF ST. J08EPH COUNTY. 525 

application to the study of theology, he was admitted to the Holy 
Orders Dec. 19, 1S40. The next two years he was pastor of a 
congregation in the diocese of Mans, and, if judged by the zeal 
which he has always manifested for the spiritual welfare of others 
since he has been at Notre Dame, his congregation lost a treasure, 
when in October, 1843, he entered the Congregation of the Holy 
Cross, at Maus, where the Mother House of the congregation was 
then located. After a short experience in the religious life, during 
which time he had proved himself worthy of the confidence of his 
Superiors, Father Granger, in 1844, was sent to Notre Dame, 
while this institution was yet in its infancy, where he was appointed 
assistant superior and vice president of the college. The latter 
office he occupied until 1851. The former he retained until Father 
Sorin became provincial, when he was also promoted to the office 
of vice provincial. From 1851 to 1861 Father Granger was, with 
one or two brief interruptions, director of the novitiate for the 
ecclesiastical portion of the congregation, and pastor of the Church 
at Notre Dame. In 1867 he was removed from the novitiate and 
appointed prefect of religion in the college, still retaining the 
pastorship of the Church. In August, 1868, after the election of 
Father Sorin to the office of superior general, Father Granger was 
elected provincial of the congregation in America. 

Rev. Francis Cointef, the second who filled the office of vice 
president of the university, was born at La Roc, France, Feb. 26, 
1816. At the age of about ten years he was sent by his parents to 
the College of Chateau Goutier, then the best educational institu- 
tion in the diocese to which he belonged. Having completed his 
collegiate studies, he entered the theological seminary at Maus, 
in September, 1834. After five years of studious application to 
the great questions of theology, he was ordained priest in 1839, by 
Right Rev. Dr. Bouvier, Bishop of Maus, and was appointed 
assistant pastor in Chatillon, one of the most important parishes 
in the diocese. While at this place he accidentally saw the first 
letter written by his former intimate friend, and associate, Father 
Sorin, from Notre Dame, and the desire arose in his heart to 
emigrate to America and here labor for the spiritual welfare of 
his fellow-beings. Accordingly in 1843 he offered himself to Very 
Rev. Father Moreau, at that time superior general of the Congre- 
gation of the Holy Cross, as a candidate for the American mission, 
and in July of that same year arrived at Notre Dame. After one 
year spent at the novitiate, he made his religious profession as a 
member of the congregation, and from that moment gave himself 
up without reserve to the great work which he had undertaken. 
After five years of earnest labor as a missionary, Father Cointet 
in 1849, was sent to New Orleans as local superior of a branch 
establishment of the order in that city. During the two years 
which he spent in that capacity, the establishment flourished. In 
1851 he was recalled by his superior to Notre Dame, and appointed 
vice president of the college. He occupied that position, however, 

34 



526 • HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

but for a short time; his heart yearned for the missions, and his 
Superior, yielding to his wishes, gave him charge of five different 
missions, at that time under the care of the congregation, — Goshen 
and La Porte, Ind., and Milan, Berrien and Bertrand, Mich. For 
three years more he gave himself up to this charitable labor, but at 
last his constitution gave way. In September, 1854, he returned 
one day from one of his missions, weary and sick; every care that 
love and affection could suggest was bestowed upon him, but to no 
purpose; and on the 19th he passed from the scenes of his self- 
sacrificing labors to the mansions of eternal happiness. 

Rev. Richard Shortis, the third who filled the post of vice 
president, was born at St. Nicholas, Ireland, March 21, 1815. Of 
his early history little is known. In 1849, after passing a credit- 
able examination, though not a student proper in the college, he 
received the degree of B. A. at Notre Dame in company with Eev. 
N. H. Gillespie. It may be interesting to note, that these were 
the first degrees conferred by the university, five years after having 
been granted its charter. Soon after graduation Mr. Shortis 
entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and 
while pursuing his theological studies, discharged the duties of 
professor of the English language and literature in the univer- 
sity. In 1S50 he made his religious profession as a member of 
the Congregation, and was ordained priest. Immediately after 
hi6 ordination, Father Shortis entered upon the laborious life of 
a missionary, and continued until 1852, when he was recalled and 
appointed vice president of the college. From 1853 to 1856, he 
discharged the duties of general secretary of the university and 
professor. In 1S56 he was sent to take charge of the mission at 
La Porte, Ind., and continued until 1858. He was then recalled to 
Notre Dame, and subsequently, in i860, was sent to New Orleans. 
Rev.N. H. Gillespie, was the fourth vice president of the univer- 
sity. A sketch of him will be found under the heading of li Some 
of the Illustrious Dead ol St. Joseph County," page 483. 

Rev. James Dillon, the fifth vice president at Notre Dame, 
was born in the county of Galway, Ireland, Nov. 18, 1833. He 
be^an his studies for the sacred ministry in the land of his nativity, 
while yet very young, continued them in the city of Chicago, after 
the removal of his family to this country, and finally completed 
them at Notre Dame. He entered the novitiate of the Congrega- 
tion of the Holy Cross in October, 1853, and after a full course of 
theology was ordained priest in 1858, on the same day with his 
brother, Rev. Patrick Dillon. In 1859, Father James, as he was 
familiarly called, was appointed to the office of vice president, in 
which position he gave evidence of that energy which was to the 
end one of his most striking characteristics. In 1860 he was ap- 
pointed president of St. Mary's College, Chicago. In 1861 he 
was recalled to Notre Dame, and appointed one of a band of mis- 
sionaries which the superior contemplated organizing that year, 
but the war at the South commenced, and he went as Chaplain ; but 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 527 

contracting consumption, he obtained a furlough, and was sent by 
his Superior to travel in Europe for his health. The trip seemed 
to have accomplished the end sought, and he returned to take his 
post amid the armed- battalions but the disease only slept, and 
soon compelled him to retire. He was then sent to California by 
his Superior, with a view to revive his health. While there his 
zeal for the spiritual good of others made him forget his own weak 
condition, and instead of regaining health, he gradually sank under 
the influence of his disease. Finding that a longer stay from home 
would be useless, he returned to Notre Dame to await the final call 
of his Creator. AVhen his brother, Father Patrick, retired from 
the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Father James would not re- 
main inactive, but, with the requisite dispensation, accompanied 
him, to bear his part in the work to which duty called him. But 
the effort was too great, and the death of his brother, to whom he 
was almost passionately attached, gave the final blow to his already 
enfeebled constitution, and he calmly departed this life, Dec. 17, 
1868, just one month and two days after his brother. 

Rev. Augustus Lejnonnier, the eighth vice president, was born 
in France, in 1839. (See sketch under heading of ''Some of the 
Illustrious Dead of St. Joseph County, page 4S2..") 

Rev. Michael B. Brown was born near Plattsburg, New York, 
Sept. 20, 1840, and tip to the age of 12 lived in the happy freedom 
of childhood ou his lather's farm and not far from the shores of 
the celebrated Lake Champlain. At the age of 12 he removed 
with his parents to Sandusky, Ohio, where he remained for five 
years, attending school during the winter, and working with his 
father during the summer. In 1857 he entered St. Mary's Prepar- 
atory Seminary at Cleveland, Ohio, with a view to preparing 
himself for the sacred ministry, for which he had manifested a 
decided inclination, even while yet a child. He remained in Cleve- 
land two years, applying himself earnestly to the study of Latin, 
English and mathematics. In 1859 he entered the University of 
Notre Dame; early in I860 he was received into the novitiate of 
the Congregation of the Holy Cross, in March of the same year; 
continued to prosecute his studies with vigor, and also began his 
career as a teacher. In June, IS 62, he received the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, and in the following September began his theologi- 
cal studies, which he continued till June 10, 1S67. when he was 
ordained priest. Before his ordination Father Brown taught 
different branches in the university, especiall}' Greek, Latin and 
logic, continuing in this work until September, 1868, when he was 
appointed to the professorship of moral and mental philosophy. 

Prof. Joseph Aloysius Lyons is the youngest of 13 children. 
He was born Nov. 7, 1838, in Utica, N. Y. In 1817 his parents 
moved West, and settled in the vicinity of Niles, Mich. Young 
Lyons now determined to enter the University of Notre Dame as a 
student, but his father dying about this time changed his prospects 
in this respect. Finding he could not then enter college, he 



528 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

entered an office in Niles to learn the art of printing. Not liking 
the persons he had to deal with, he became dissatisfied with his 
position and applied to Father Sorin for admission into the Manual 
Labor School at Notre Dame. Father Sorin,- seeing in the bright 
boy the future man of energy and usefulness, dispensed with the 
ordinary conditions of admission, and admitted him as an appren- 
tice shoemaker. But the taste of the youth did not incline him to 
the last, yet he worked well and intelligently, and after a short time 
succeeded in making a fair pair of boots, which won the premium at 
the county fair, though many older workmen competed for it. Not- 
withstanding this devotedness to trade, the young man improved 
every opportunity* of cultivating his mind and even began the 
B'udy it Latin; went to St. Aloysius' Seminary, where he was soon 
appointed to take charge of the studies at the Manual Labor School 
and teach some of the classes there. 

In 1858, having completed his classical studies and attended the 
class of philosophy for some time, he was appointed director of 
the junior and minim department of the university. For two 
years he had charge of the discipline of these two departments, 
taught various classes and established two societies — the Philoma- 
thean and Holy Angels' Societies. In 1S60 he was 6ent with 
Father James Dillon to St. Mary's of the Lake, in Chicago, where 
he filled the office of prefect of discipline, and at the same time 
taught Latin with brilliant success, for one year. On his return 
to Kotre Dame, in 1861, he was then engaged as a regular professor 
of the university. Beginning with the lower classes, he advanced 
by degrees to the head of the Latin department. In 1862, having 
studied some branches of the collegiate course to which he had not 
previously given special attention, Prof. Lyons received the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, and two years later that of Master of Arts. 

EEV. D. J. SPILLARD. 

Daniel J. Spillard, the eldest of 13 children, was born in the city 
of Cork, Ireland, Nov. 8, 1839. In 1843 his parents removed to 
the United States and resided for the subsequent ten years in 
Rochester, N. Y., where young Spillard attended first the public 
schools, and afterward the Catholic select school, opened at St. 
Mary's church. He also attended the Academy of the Sacred 
Heart. In 1853 he removed with his parents to Erie, Fa., where 
lie remained about one year. In 1854 the family removed to Elgin, 
111., where the son attended both the public and private schools 
successively, and passed two years in the Elgin Academ}-. He 
entered the University of Notre Dame in February, 1862; two years 
completed the studies prescribed in the collegiate course, and in 
June, 1864, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. On that 
occasion he was chosen to deliver the valedictory oration, which he 
did in an effective manner. He likewise bore away with him the 
premium of honor for that year. Some months after his graduation 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 529 

he entered the novitiate of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, at 
Notre Dame, and, after the prescribed term of probation, made his 
profession as a member of the Congregation in September, 186(5. 
He continued his theological studies until August, 18(38, when he 
was ordained priest. Previous to his ordination, Father Spillard 
had been engaged in teaching Greek and Latin in the college, but 
after his ordination he was appointed prefect of discipline. 

Prof. Michael A. J. Baasen was born in Luxembourg, Ger- 
many, June 2, 1844. When he reached the age of six years his 
father was appointed Consul to the United States, and accordingly 
removed to this country with his family. After being relieved 
from the duties of his office, he settled in Milwaukee, Wis. He 
entered college when quite young, and with occasional brief inter- 
missions, continued to prosecute his studies in different institutions, 
and finally came to the University of Notre Dame, in 1802, where 
he completed his collegiate studies, in 186-1, receiving, at the annual 
commencement of the year the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After 
graduating he commenced teaching ancient and modern languages 
at Notre Dame. 

Prof. Michael T. Corby was born at Detroit, Mich., Feb. 20, 
1844, and received his primary education in the schools of that 
place. However he entered the University of Notre Dame when 
quite young, but his studies were interrupted for a period of time. 
Subsequently he studied at two different colleges in Kentucky, 
whence returning in 1860, he entered Bryant & Stratton's Com- 
mercial College in Detroit, where he graduated in the commercial 
course July, 1862. In 1863 he returned to Notre Dame to com- 
plete his classical studies and pursue the study of music. He 
continued this course vigorously for two years, and at the com- 
mencement in June, 1S65, received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 
Returning the following year, Prof. Corby began his career as a 
teacher, and continued to apply himself assiduously to the theoreti- 
cal and practical study of music. His progress was truly wonderful, 
and in 1868 he was requested to take charge of the vocal musical 
department in the university, which he did, his services being 
highly appreciated by both faculty and students. 

Prof. William Ivers was born in New Haven, Conn., Nov. 13, 
1839. While yet an infant he was taken by his parents to New 
Orleans, where his father soon after died. Three years subse- 
quently his mother formed a second matrimonial alliance, and the 
family then removed to Iowa, and young Ivers received his first 
education at the school attached to the Cathedral at Dubuque. 
Afterward he attended the district school near where his mother 
resided. In 1851 his mother died and he was taken by an uncle to 
New Orleans, where he attended school till 1853. In 1853 he was 
placed by his uncle in Notre Dame. For three years he applied 
himself eagerly to study; then entered the Congregation of the Holy 
Cross. He soon began to doubt his vocation and left Notre Dame 
for New Orleans, but returned in 1859 and engaged in teaching. 



530 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

After teaching at Notre Dame, Chicago and Philadelphia, in 1865 
he made another trip to New Orleans, and in December returned 
to Notre Dame and engaged in teaching mathematics. He then 
read up on some studies in June, 1S66, and received the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. 

Rev- Joseph (Jelestine Currier was born July 14, 1833, at St. 
Joire, a small town in France, near the confines of Switzerland, and 
the beautiful city of Geneva. He was the youngest of ten children. 
His education was commenced at home, and conducted from his 
tourth to his ninth year under the care of a private tutor, who 
taught him the elements of Latin. He afterward spent six years in 
theCollege of Belley (Ain) and stood high in all his classes. The 
French Revolution in 1848 found him in rhetoric. Eighteen months 
later, at the age of 17, he accepted the professorship of physics 
(natural philosophy) in a small college near Geneva, at Ferney, a 
village well known in history as the residence of Voltaire. During 
the autumn vacation of 1850 he traveled through Italy and Switzer- 
land. In 1855 he crossed the Atlantic to America; studied 
divinity; in 1860 he came to Notre Dame, and in the following year 
made his profession in the Order of the Holy Cross, and was 
ordained priest. Since then he has filled several functions, — pre- 
fect of religion, professor of Latin and Greek, pastor of South Bend, 
Chaplain of the Sixth Missouri Regiment, master of Josephite 
novices, and professor of natural sciences. 

Lucius G. Tong, LL. B., the eldest of a family of 5 children, 
was born in Carroll, Fairfield Co., Ohio, Aug. 1, 1S42; was sent 
early to college, and to the age of 21 spent his time between school 
and assisting his father in business; he became a convert to the 
Catholic religion, and is now a zealous and devoted member of that 
Church. In 1863, after having engaged in business in Columbus, 
Ohio, for a short time, he began teaching at Notre Dame, which 
position soon terminated in a regular professorship, which has been 
held ever since. 

In 1873 he was married in Lafayette, Ind., to Miss B. C. Ball, 
eldest daughter of James Ball, of that city. About this time he 
located permanently in South Bend, commencing the business of 
law and insurance. 

In 1878 Prof. Tong received the Republican nomination for 
Mayor of the city of South Bend, and he was elected by a good 
majority. During his term he gave satisfaction to all parties, and 
so popular was his administration that the Democratic paper of that 
city proposed his reuomination in very hearty terms. But party 
lines were drawn and Mayor Tong was defeated. Prof. Tong is a 
thorough Republican and a temperance advocate. He holds several 
important positions in the various associations with which he is 
connected. He is a smooth and ready writer, and has in manuscript, 
and is putting to a practical test in the school-room to perfect every 
detail, a new system of bookkeeping, which has met with the 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 531 

approval and will probably be brought out by one of the largest 
book firms in the United States. 

Rev. J. A. Zahm was born near^New Lexington, Perry county, 
Ohio, June 14, 1S51. Lived there until the fall of 1S63, when he 
removed with his parents to Huntington, Ind. During his youth 
he spent most of his time at school, always having had a special 
taste for study. Entered Notre Dame University as a student, 
Dec. 2, 1S67. Took up the studies of the classical and scientific 
courses, graduating in the former June, 1871, and in September 
entered the novitiate, and made his religious profession as a mem- 
ber of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Nov. 1 of the following 
year. In the autumn of 1S72 he was appointed assistant professor 
of physical science and curator of the museum, an appointment 
which he did not relish at first as his tastes were rather for lan- 
guage and philology than science. In the fall of 187-4 he was 
appointed superior of the scholasticate and at the same time cur- 
ator of the museum, and professor of physics and chemistry. 
June 4, 1875, he was raised to the priesthood, having been ordained 
deacon two days previously, and snbdeacon the fall before. Sep- 
tember, 1876, he was appointed vice-president and director of 
studies, still retaining his old position as curator of the museum 
and professor of physical science. His Superiors seeing he had 
more than he was able to attend to, relieved him at the end of the 
year of the vice-presidency, in order that he might devote his 
entire time to the development of the scientific department. In 
the summer of 1S77 he visited the principal colleges of Canada and 
of the Eastern States with a view of studying the methods of teach- 
ing science adopted in those institutions, and in the following year 
went to Europe with the same end in view, visiting the chief uni- 
versities. Here on his return home he was expecting to carry out 
a large programme, but his plans were soon frustrated by the burn- 
ing of the college, and with it, of the large and valuable museum 
in which he was beginning to take some pride. He was among 
those who put their shoulder to the wheel in the rebuilding of the 
college, and still occupies his old position as curator of the muse- 
um and professor of the physical sciences. All his energies are 
now directed toward replacing the old museum and making it, as 
well as the laboratory and physical cabinet, of which also he has 
charge, more extensive and valuable than ever. With the assist- 
ance of kind friends he lives in hope of one day seeing a large and 
spacious building for the exclusive use of thescientificdepartment, 
the development of which will in future engage his attention more 
than ever before. 

Mrs. Flora L. Stanfield, writer and poetess, was born in Cleve- 
land, O., in October, 1848. the daughter of T. G. and Laura O. 
Turner; exhibited the talents of an authoress at a very early age; 
when 13 years of age she indited a very fine poem; has contributed 
to the N. Y. Independent; many of her articles have appeared 
over the nomde phnne of " Malcolm Duncan;" and she was chiefly 




532 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

instrumental in founding both the Pleiades and the Women's Lit- 
erary Clubs. 

Prof. T. E. Howard, author, was born near Ann Arbor, Mich., 
Jan. 27, 1837, reared as a farmer; taught school; completed his 
education at Notre Dame University; served in the war, receiving 
a bullet wound in the neck, at the battle of Shiloh; was appointed 

6rofessor of rhetoric and English literature in Notre Dame 
'niversity; is author of "A Grammar of the English Lan- 
guage," for beginners; of "Excelsior, or Essays on Politeness and 
Education," and "Uncle Edward's Stories," a small volume of 
moral tales for the young. He has also written many excellent 
poems. Politically, Prof. Howard is a Democrat. 

Daniel Kotz, painter, was born March 21, 1848, in Clay town- 
ship, this county, and is the son of J. C. and Christina Kotz, 
natives of Wirtemberg, Germany, from which place they emigrated 
to America in 1840, settling in Mishawaka in 18-16, and the next 
year in Clay township. At 16 years of age Mr. Kotz made his 
first attempt at painting; he was at work in the studio of H. F. 
Spread in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, when the great fire of 
1871 broke out; he then attended college two and a half years at 
Naperville, 111.; in 1874 he opened a studio in South Bend; eight 
months subsequently he retnrned to Chicago, entering the studio 
of H. A. Elkins; at the end of 11 months he opened a studio for 
himself again at 108 Dearborn street; while there he painted the 
"Trapper's Last Camping Ground " and "October Woods," two 
excellent pictures. In 187S he opened an art school in Grand 
Rapids, Mich., where he painted the " Wayside Spring," from a 
sketch he made near Mackinaw; but his best and largest painting 
is the " Monarch of the Meadows," now in possession of P. E. 
Studebaker. In the summer of 1879 Schuyler Colfax gave him a 
commission to paint a special scene, — the St. Joseph River and the 
Road to Mishawaka. which lie had executed by the middle of No- 
vember following. At present Mr. Kotz is a resident of Chicago. 

Prof. Buij>i Gregori, from Rome, Italy, 6pent about five years 
at Notre Dame, where he executed some of the finest paintings in 
the country, among which are portraits of Father Sorin and Judge 
Stanfield. 

Alfred Bryant Miller, poet, was born in South Bend in Feb- 
ruary, 1845; educated principally in the old county seminary; 
served in the war, where he was promoted Lieutenant; afterward 
was editor-in-chief of the South Bend Register, and managing edi- 
tor of the South Bend Tribune. Mr. Miller is a graceful writer, 
and he has been a regular correspondent of, or contributor to, 
several of the most prominent newspapers of the United States. 

E. Burke Fisher, journalist, was born in Philadelphia; contrib- 
d to several periodicals before he was 15 years of age; clerked 
in the office of the Saturday Evening Post; associated with 
Horace Greeley on The New Yorker; edited and published the 
Saturday Evening Visitor at Pittsburg, and The Literary 



HISTORY OF ST JOSEPH COUNTY. 



533 



Examiner and Monthly Review; practiced law in Cleveland, O.; 
in 1853 he located in South Bend, continuing the practice of law, 
and died in that city April 12, 1863. 

Among other authors worthy of special mention is Prof. J. A. 
Lyon, author of the "Silver Jubilee," and "Lyon's Elocution;" 
T. G. Turner, author of " Gazeteer of the St. Joseph Valley" and 
other works; Rev. A. Y. Moore, author of the "Life of Schuyler 
Colfax," John D. Defrees, Rev. N. H. Gillespie, Rev. M. B. Brown, 
Rev. J. C. Carrier, Prof. A. J. Stace and Mrs. E. Kingsley. 




CHAPTER XI. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. — NAVIGATION OF THE ST. JOSEPH RIVER. 

MARRIAGE LICENSES.— A COUNTERFEITING REMINISCENCE. STILL- 
BORN VILLAGES. — FLOOD. GOLD HUNTERS. 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 

Court-house. — This building is on the corner of Main and 
Washington streets. The following description is from the St. 
Joseph Valley Register, April 27, 1854: 

" In size the new court-house is 6l£ x 91^ feet, including the 
portico; two stories high, the lower one 12£ feet in height clear of 
the joists, and the upper one 20 feet; surmounted by a cupola 50 
feet. The stone foundation extends 33 inches below the ground and 
is carried above three feet. The lower story contains all the offices. 
Entering by the portico, which is on the eastern front, and supported 
by six pillars, you pass into a spacious hall 14 feet wide and 81 feet 
long, on each side of which are situated the various offices. From 
the front of the hall stairs rise on both sides to the second story, 
meeting above in a lobby 13 X 27 feet, from which a spacious court- 
room 57*50 and 20 feet high is entered by a door in the center. 
About the middle of the court-room a semi-circular bar separates 
the officers, attorneys, suitors and witnesses from the audience. 
Inside of the bar are the lawyers' tables, pleading table, officers' 
desk and witness' stand. Still further back in the western extreme 
of the court-room is the judges' bench, with the grand and petit 
jury box on either side, in the shape of an L. In the rear of the 
court-room are three rooms, one immediately behind the judge's 
bench, for a witness' room, 17 x 12, and on each 6ide a jury room 
20 x 13, so that juries can retire, from a door opening from their 
seats, into their consultation room, without having to pass through 
the audience. The building is of brick and stone, the inner walls 
of the former material and the outer walls of the latter. The 
cupola is surmounted by a town clock." 

In March, 1873, Judge Stanfield issued the following order, which 
was duly carried out: 

It is ordered by the court that the court-room be re-arranged by moving the 
west partition east to the west side of the west windows ; that the three west rooms 
be enlarged and finished up in a good workmanlike manner, with a door from 
the court-room entering into each one. That an additional room be added to the 
Clerk's office by taking away the south stairway, and enclose a room by extend- 
ing a wall from the north wall of the Clerk'9 office across the space now used for 
the stairway ; and that there also be a room of the same size constructed above 
the room last aforesaid, with a door into the courtroom. That a stairway be 
made from the Judge's desk in the court-room, as re-arranged, down into the 
Clerk's office, and that the court-room be re-arranged so as to place the Judge's 

(534. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 535 

bench on the south side of the court-room ; and the Bar occupy the portion of 
the court-room south of the general entrance to said room, and the portion north 
of said entrance be prepared for the occupation of suitors, witnesses and spectators ; 
and it is further ordered that the Clerk's office and court-room be heated by hot- 
air furnaces. All of said work to be completed, finished and painted in a good 
workmanlike manner; and George W.Matthews, Dwight Deming, and Thomas 
S. Stanneld are hereby appointed a committee with full authority to cause said 
work to be done, and also to furnish and carpet said court-room, and that said 
committee shall audit all accounts for said work and materials and certify the 
same to the Count}- Auditors for allowance and payment. It is further ordered 
that a certified copy of this order be transmitted to the Board doing county busi- 
ness. Ttiomas S. Stakfield, 

Circuit Judge. 

The entire cost of the court-house as originally built was about 
$35,000. A. B. Ellsworth superintended its construction, by order 
of the Board of County Commissioners. 

Jail. — In 1860 the county built a large, handsome and substan- 
tial jail, including jailor's residence, at a cost of $35,000. 

NAVIGATION OF THE ST. JOSEPH RIVER. 

The first attempt at navigation of the St. Joseph river was in 
1830, by two men named Masters and Tipsorf, who made several 
successful trips from the mouth of the river to South Bend, with a 
keel boat. The first attempt to run a steamboat on the river was 
in 1831. It was the " Newburyport," built at Presque Isle. It 
was not adapted to the navigation of the river and was therefore 
unsuccessful. It made but one trip and only succeeded in reaching 
Berrien. In 1833 the "Matilda Barney" and "David Crocket," 
two stern- wheel boats of light draft, commenced running and were 
very successful. They made trips as far up as the Mishawaka rapids, 
but were not able to pass them on account of the swiftness of the 
current. From 1833 until after the completion of the Lake Shore 
railroad boats continued to ply the river. Many attempts were 
made to procure aid from the Government for making the river 
navigable for larger boats than were put upon it, but without avail. 

The Legislature of the State, at its annual sessions of 1845 and 
1846, passed resolutions urging upon Congress the claims of the 
St. Joseph river to appropriations for its improvement. To these 
appeals no response was made. To show the importance of the 
river a local writer in 1847 says: " We have here a river coursing 
through two States, and passing through, and in the vicinity of, an 
agricultural body of land without a superior in the West. For one 
hundred and seventy-five miles by the river distance, namely from 
Union City to St. Joseph, steamboats can navigate its waters and 
have done so — a length of steamboat navigation greater even than 
the Hudson. Four steamboats now ply upon it, and no one, we 
believe, has counted the numerous keel boats and arks which annu- 
ally find busy employment in its commerce. In the spring and 
fall one can hardly look upon this beautiful stream without seeing 
a boat of some character, deeply laden, sailing toward its mouth. 



536 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



The manufactories of iron, wool, oil, leather and other articles, 
which line its shores and the banks of its tributaries, and whose 
number is every year increasing with last accelerating rapidity, 
together with the eighty run of stone for the grinding of flour, 
already at work or being put in operation the present season, throws 
upon its waters an amount of exports which would surprise those 
who have have not closely scanned the statistics of this fertile 
valley." 

A river and harbor convention was called at Chicago to be held 
July 5, 1847. A large number of delegates were appointed by the 
citizens of St. Joseph county to represent the interests of St. 
Joseph river; but no fa vorable result was ever reached so far as 
this river was concerned. 

MARRIAGE LICENSES. 

As illustrating the work of Cupid, the following table is appended 
showing the number of marriage licenses issued from 1830 to 1S79, 
inclusive: 



1830 


.... 3 


1843 


.... 70 


1831 


.... 6 


1844 


.... 85 


1832 


.... 8 


1845 


.... 04 


1833 


23 


1846 

1847 


85 


1834 


. . . . 27 


.... 00 


1835 


.... 49 


1848 


.... 98 


1836 


.... 51 


1849 


. .. 72 


1837 


68 
. . . . 53 


1850 


77 


1838 


1851 


103 


1839 


. . . . 70 


.... 103 


1840 


. . . . 73 


1853 


.... 120 


1841 


. . . . 58 


1854 


.... 123 


1843 


. . . . 72 


1855 


.... 123 



1856. 
1857. 

1858. 
[S.V.I. 
I860. 
1801. 
1802. 
1803. 
1864. 
1865. 
18G0. 
1867. 



154 
174 
175 
147 
163 
136 
119 
121 
104 
200 
224 
210 



1868. 
1869. 

1870. 
1871. 
1872. 
1873. 
1874. 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 



233 
181 
216 
247 
265 
289 
247 
235 
212 
191 
222 
232 



The effects of climate, hard times and the war will be observed 
by carefully observing the foregoing table. It will be noticed there 
was an annual increase up to the year 1838, the year of the great 
malarial epidemic, while the year following an increase was observ- 
able. This continued with the exception of one year, till the war, 
when there was a perceptible falling off of licenses issued. 
Again, in 1865, the year the war was brought to a close, an increase 
is seen, the number being almost double either the year 1862 or 
1863, and nearly 60 per cent, more than 1861. From 1865 to 1873 
there was a steady increase, with the exception of one year. In 
1874, when the hard times began to be felt, there was a falling off, 
which continued until 187S when there was a slight increase, 
which continued in 1879, and at a greater ratio for the first eight 
months in 1880. 

A COUNTERFEITING REMINISCENCE. 



About the year 1837 there lived south of this city, in Centre 
township, on the farm now occupied by James Dice, an old man 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 537 

James Odle. He was apparently a harmless, simple old man, who 
did very little farming, and ostensibly made a living by selling 
" cakes and beer," as announced by a sign over the door. In those 
early days it was an out-of-the-way place, and M. Stover, now of 
South Bend, who owned a farm in that neighborhood, had his suspi- 
cions aroused by seeing so many well-dressed men hanging around old 
Odle's humble premises, that counterfeiting was carried on there. 
He communicated his suspicions to the authorities, and Odle, his 
son-in-law, Foskit, Van Amburgh, Cumnius, Dixon, Clark and 
others were arrested, brought to town and confined in the old log 
jail. Odle's premises were searched and the officers found the dies 
and press for making bogus dollars, a quantity of copper, and fifteen 
pounds of arsenic; also a few pieces of the base coin read}' for the 
dies. These were brought to the old red court-house. Odle was 
told what was found, and an offer made to clear him if he would 
turn State's evidence. The old man accepted and told where they 
would find a quantity of the metal ready for stamping — some 250 
pieces — buried under a tree. These were brought in, and with the 
press and dies taken into the presence of the grand jury, where old 
Odle showed how the milling and stamping was done, and explained 
the mystery of the arsenic. The metal in the dollar pieces he said 
was nothing but copper melted in the crucible and whitened with 
the arsenic. The grand jurors each took one of the pieces as a 
memento of the first counterfeiting in this county. After Odle's 
confession, the men, with the exception of Odle and Foskit, were 
remanded to jail for trial. They boasted that they would not stay 
there any longer than it suited them, and made their escape in broad 
daylight. The citizens turned out to hunt them, but they all escaped 
except Van Amburgh, who was too feeble to travel fast. He was 
not tried on account of some informality in the indictment. 

About twelve pounds of the arsenic was sold to Dr. Rey, a drug- 
gist, and three or four pounds were carried to the garret of the 
court-house. Here, six or seven years afterward, it was found by 
some boy who was rummaging in the garret, and, supposing it to be 
chalk, lie took it down where the Baptist church now stands, and 
where the carpenters were then hewing timber for that building. 
From there it was carried off by different boys, who still supposed 
it was chalk. The only harm that resulted from this promiscuous 
distribution of poison, was in a piece nearly as large as a hen's egg, 
which was taken home by Robert Miller. Two of Mrs. Eliza 
Owen's daughters, who were at the house playing, ate of it, believ- 
ing it to be chalk; but they ate so much that with proper attention 
their lives were saved. Notice was publicly given that it was ar- 
senic, and finally it was all got together and buried. 

STILL-BORN VILLAGES. 

Portage. — In July, 1S34, Elisha Egbert laid off a town about two 
miles below South Bend, to which he gave the name of Portage. 



538 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

It was just below a very sharp bend in the river, now cut off as an 
island; but this'bend suggested another name for the town, by which 
it has always been known—" Pin Hook." It is needless to say the 
proprietor objected to the appellation. Under the fostering care of 
Mr. Egbert the town grew quite rapidly for awhile and its future 
seemed filled with promise. It soon had two taverns, two dry -goods 
stores, two physicians and other business suited to the wants of a 
young community. A public ferry was established and quite a 
collection of houses built. In a year or so it became quite a snug, 
thriving little village. Among the noted early settlers of Portage 
was Rev. Abner Morse, a man of learning and eloquence, but cer- 
tain pe iliarities. He proposed to build a college at the new town. 
A charter was procured. He was to be the president. A part of 
the professors had been selected and a college bell brought on the 
ground, but that was all that ever came of the prospective college. 
Dr. Dayton was one of the early settlers of the place, as was also Dr. 
Hunt. Both resided there several years; then T>r. Hunt moved into 
La Porte county, and after residing there a number of years, and rep- 
resenting that county several sessions in the Legislature, settled in 
Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Dayton moved to South Bend, and is 
well and favorably known. While the town was growing and every- 
thing looked prosperous, the proprietor branched out in a variety 
of enterprises, such as merchandising, milling and land speculations, 
and when the hard times of 1837-'8 struck the country he found 
himself with a load he was unable to carry. His reverses had its 
effect upon the town ; the motive power that had been pushing and 
keeping every enterprise in motion that tended to build up and 
strengthen the new town was now withdrawn, and death followed. 
One by one the settlers retired to other and more inviting fields, 
and where once stood a thriving little village, the hand of the hus- 
bandman gathers the golden grain. 

St. Joseph. — The original county seat of St. Joseph county. The 
plat of this town covered portions of sections 34, 35 and 27, in 
German township, two miles and a half from South Bend. The 
re-location of the county seat at South Bend was the death of this 
place. 

Palestine. — This village was laid out on portions of sections 29, 
30, 32 and 36, township 38 north, of range east, on Terre Coupee 
Prairie, Dec. 4, 1834. 

Williamsport. — Laid out Dec. 13, 1834, on the southeast quar- 
ter of the northeast quarter of section 9, township 37 north, of 
range 4 east. 

Greensburg. — On section 25, township 37 north, of range 4 east, 
was laid out a town by this name, Dec. 10, 1835. 

Canton was laid out on section 6, township 37 north, of range 4 
east, Dec. 14, 1835. 

Mount Pleasant was laid out on sections 31 and 32, township 38 
north, of range 2, Aug. 19, 1836. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 539 

FLOOD. 

On Friday, Jan. 15, 1847, there was a sudden and disastrous rise 
in the St. Joseph river. The ice darning up the river caused it to 
back water, and large quantities of ice coming down at the same 
time soon raised it to a fearful height. As soon as the danger was 
noticed nearly every citizen of South Bend was down on the semi- 
circular flat where centered all the interests of the manufacturing 
company, and all worked in right good earnest and with a hearty 
good will to avert the danger that was threatening. At one time, in 
about fifteen minutes, the water ran fully three feet, and then nearly 
all despaired of saving anything. It was then at least twe. e feet 
above the usual water mark and flooded the second stories of several 
of the buildings. Everything portended a complete sweeping oft 
of the banks of the race and the valuable buildings and factories 
built between it and the river. The ice ran so thickly and impetu- 
ously in the river and came booming with so much force against 
the bridge that it seemed almost impossible for it to be saved. 
Says a local writer: "At this moment it was a gloomy scene indeed, 
but yet the citizens labored through, 'hoping against hope.' 
Finally the ice choked up in the river, and at least the head gates 
of the race were strengthened; the force of the current seemed to 
be thrown more and more against the other side of the river, and 
the danger was materially lessened." 

About the middle of June, 1855, there was a great fall of rain, 
which swelled the river with great rapidity, so much so that on 
Sunday night, the 17th of that month, the danger became so immi- 
nent that a number turned out, and worked all night on or about 
the dam at South Bend. The river still rose, reaching the highest 
mark it had ever attained, and still continued its upward course, 
increasing the danger at every hour. At about 9 a. m., Monday 
morning, when citizens of the town were still fighting the waters, 
which had risen to a point about two feet above its previous high- 
water mark, the head-gates of the race gave way, and the torrent 
poured through, with all the drift logs and other debris that it had 
accumulated. First it swept off the woolen factory's dye house, 
then spent its severest force on Mr. Matthews' oil mill and Rose & 
Kimball's veneering mill, until at last, having torn out the river 
bank of the race, it converted what was intended as the race into a 
portion of the river, leaving the mills and other buildings above 
and below the bridge as islands in the stream. After this work of 
destruction, the water did not rise any higher, but Monday night part 
of the bridge which crossed the river was washed away, cutting off 
communication with Lowell and the northeastern part of the county. 
Fortunately no lives were lost, though Silas De Camp had a narrow 
escape from being drowned. When the head-gates gave way, he 
was, with many others, at work on " the point," and was swallowed 
up, as the ground under him gave way, by the torrent, and swept 
under the tons of drift that were rushing along on its surface, 



540 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

but fortunately came up below the drift, and coolly swam ashore. 
The damage done the manufacturing interests was immense and 
quite discouraging to those who had their all invested. 

GOLD HUNTERS. 

On the discovery of gold in California in 1S49, a large number 
of citizens of this county determined to seek at once the new El- 
dorado. A joint-stock company was organized at South Bend, 
which on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1849, set out for the gold region. The 
Register of the 24th of February had the following to say of this 
enterprise: 

" Tuesday was an eventful day in the history of our town, long to 
be remembered — we hope happily, though our fears struggle with 
our hopes. For a time everything else was forgotten. Business 
was neglected, and with good reason, for we were all about to bid 
a long farewell to friends and brethren. The streets were filled with 
our population, all deeply interested in the success of the adven- 
turers who were just ready to turn their faces westward. At last 
the line of wagons was formed in Washington street; the band dis- 
coursed some of its sweetest music; a brief farewell address was 
delivered in behalf of the citizens, at their call, by the writer 
(Schuyler Colfax); the notes of song were heard; the last farewell 
of those dearer than friends was over; the whips crack, the wheels 
rumble, the train moves on; the hundreds of spectators disperse; 
and our adventurous citizens, taking the last look for years upon 
the spires of our village and the homes where dwell their loved 
ones, are started in earnest upon their lengthy, but they hope, pros- 
perous, journey. 

'"The joint-stock company goes out well fitted with everything 
thej' will need; perhaps better than any other of the many over- 
land expeditions that are forming in the Northwest. They go in 
twelve wagons, all but one drawn by oxen. Their capital stock and 
outfit amounts to over $8,000. The company consists of thirty 
members besides the physician who is to join them at Chicago, as 
is understood. The gold collected is to go into a general fund, and 
to be divided equally among the members, with this wise and ex- 
cellent provision, that in case of the decease of any of them his 
share is not to cease, but his heirs are to receive his thirtieth of the 
whole profits of the expedition. Thus it organized strictly on the 
associative plan, almost bordering even on Fourierism. The Sab- 
bath is to be strictly observed, and drinking intoxicating liquors as 
a beverage is prohibited under penalty of expulsion. The officers are 
as follows: Charles M. Tutt, President; G. W. Haines, Secretary; 
C. S. Fassett, Treasurer; E. C. Johnson, A. Allen, M. A. Kidwell, 
Directors; Dr. Lillibridge, Physician. The messes are distributed 
as follows: No. 1 — J. E. Woodward, Tipton Lindsev, J. II. Miller, 
P. W. Kinsey, C. S. Fassett. No. 2— Evan C. Johnson, P. N. 
Johnson, John Day, A. Gr. Robinson, A. J. Ford. No. 3 — Charles 




■■'">'. * * ■■ 



STJOSEPH COUNTY JAIL 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 543 

M. Tutt, David Gish, W. W. Stewart, 0. W. Lewis, Charles Traver- 
No. 4 — W. G. "Whitman, C. Caldwell, Sainnel Harris, Ezra G- 
Carpenter, F. Donighne. No. 5— William Norton, A. Allen, L- 
Breset, JV1. A. Kidwell, E. Belangee. No. 6— G. W. Haines, W 
S. McCullough, S. Armstrong, G. De Graff, John Trainer." 

In addition to this company, but not a part of them, about thirty 
others went about the same time, among whom were James I. 
Horrell, Joseph White, Jr., F. Lambing, Thomas Neah Thomas 
Bockhill, David Leiper, William Good, William L. Earl, G. Fields, 
Mr. Tingler, Hiram Bush, Dr. M. Rush, I). McCoskry, Clinton 
Bush, John Kelley, W. C. Monson, T. McCartney, J. McCartney, 
B. McCartney. 

On the 22d of March, 1S49, another company, consisting of eleven 
persons, started from South Bend. They were William Miller, J. 
A. Henricks, D. W. C. Willoughby, E. S. Beynolds, W. L. Wood- 
ward, M. B. Miller, Cyrenius Johnson, W. J. Suavely, William 
Maslin, George Bierson, John Linderman. Before leaving, the 
company adopted the name of the "Dowdle Family," divided them- 
selves off into messes and painted their names and number upon 
their wagons, as follows: No. 1— Honest John; Ethan, the Daddy, 
No. 2 — Black Bill, John, the Doctor, Cyrenius Dowdle. No. 3— 
George, the Lawyer, Little Bill, Big Bill. No. 4— Tall Bill, 
Matthew, the Upright, DeWitt Dowdle. 

Among others who started about the same time were S. W". 
Hopkins, John Grant, Jr., and Adam Bair. 

In the spring of 1850 others went, to the number of one hundred 
and seventy, a very large emigration from the county. 

MAP AND ATLAS OF THE COUNTY. 

The first and only map made of this county, and issued for sale, 
was by M. W. Stokes, in 1S63. It is a large wall map showing town- 
ships and sections, with the name of the owner printed upon every 
tract. Around the borders of the map are views of some of the 
public buildings and private residences scattered throughout the 
county. «, These views add much to the general appearance of the 
map. 

"An Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Joseph County " was 
issued in 1875, by Higgins, Belden & Co., of Chicago. A well- 
executed sectional map of the county, township sectional maps, with 
names of owner upon every tract of land, historical sketches of the 
county, Notre Dame University, St. Mary's Academy, views of 
business, residence and farm houses, and portraits of the noted 
men in the county formed the leading features of the work. 



35 



CHAPTER XII. 

POLITICAL HISTOUT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. OFFICIAL ELECTION 

RETURNS. 

POLITICAL. 

In a free government the people are rulers and public officers are 
their servants. Every four years the people of the United States 
are called upon to select one who shall serve them in the highest 
office known to them, that of President of the United States. For 
the same length of time the people of Indiana select one who shall 
serve them as Governor. Annually one or more men are chosen to 
serve the people of St. Joseph county, by the qualified voters living 
within her borders, in the various positions required for good gov- 
ernment. For several years after the organization of the county, 
party caucuses were unknown. If a man desired to run for office 
and had not friends who were interested enough in him to bring him 
out as a candidate, he did the next best thing, announced himself. 
For local offices it was men, not party. Even in general elections 
none of that party clap-trap now in vogue was used. 

The first election held in the county was in August, 1830, for 
county officers — a purely local affair. 

In 183-1 Charles W. Cathcarl issued the following address: 

" Fellow Citizens: — After due consideration I have concluded 
to allow the use of my name as a candidate for the Legislature, 
and in conformity with the usual custom, and at the first oppor- 
tunity which occurred (the meeting of the Circuit Court of 
La Porte county), I mounted the stump and informed my fellow 
citizens then assembled that they might consider my services at 
their disposal. 

" Thus, having appeared before the public, it is my duty as well 
as a pleasure, to express my views upon such prominent matters 
as may be subject to Legislative action, claiming for them only 
that consideration which the honest convictions of one individual 
may entitle him to; for our whole scheme of Government has 
been founded on the principle that all our power is inherent in 
the people, and as the representative agency is made use of merely 
on account of the difficulty, indeed, even the impossibility, of the 
affairs of the public being acted upon deliberately by the people 
en masse.it is evident that the representative should suit his course 
to the wishes of his constituents, according to their views of the 
manner in which they may see proper to have their interests 
attended to, and that as near as he does this, so near will he come 

(544) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 545 

to the fulfillment of the trust reposed in him. Having thus, fel- 
low citizens, acknowledged the entire dependence of the representa- 
tive upon the instructive power of his constituents, I will give you 
my views as frankly and briefly as possible. 

"A bill, commonly called the 'ad valorem bill,' which passed 
during our last session, is, I conceive, -unjust, and partial in its 
operation, bearing with peculiar hardship upon this part of the 
State, and is but a mocking of its title, which is made use of, 
apparently, to impose a disagreeable potion under a palatable 
name; but I am convinced that a system of taxation, based upon 
the principle that every man must pay to the Government that pro- 
tects him and his in proportion to the value of his estate, is one 
which is entirely reasonable and just. 

"Another bill, commonly called the ' mammoth bill,' making vast 
and indeed unlimited appropriations to works of internal improve- 
ment, only failed during the last session, after a warm and 
protracted debate, after which a bill ' to provide for the further 
prosecution of the Wabash & Erie canal,' and for other purposes, 
and an act supplemental, passed and received the signature of 
the Governor, which provides for the survey of a vast scheme of 
canals, railroads, etc., as well as for the prosecution of the Wabash 
& Erie canal to the navigable part of the Wabash river. The 
cost cf these works, should they be completed, must over- go $29,- 
000,000; and of this sum not one cent is contemplated to bs 
expended on this side of the Wabash river; and though it is more 
than probable that but a part of these works may be expected to 
be completed, still it must be evident that many of the routes 
which were ordered to be surveyed are of comparative insignifi- 
cance, when compared with a route or routes which would have 
connected our Northern waters with a Southern thoroughfare, and 
that the neglect of the interests of the north part of this State, in 
the provisions of that bill, was a gross instance of partial Legisla- 
tion. 

"The experience of other States has demonstrated the advantages 
to be derived from a judiciously disposed system of internal 
improvements, and the policj' that would dictate the abandonment 
of such a scheme would be as fallacious as the late act is partial and 
extravagant. 

"The disposal of the 3 per cent, fund will continue to require 
the utmost attention on the part of the members from the new 
counties. It is no doubt known to all that the 3 per cent, fund 
originates from an agreement with the general Government, upon 
our entering the Union as a free and sovereign State, that the pub- 
lic lands shall not be subject to taxation, until the expiration of 
five years after they have been sold by the general Government, 
in consideration of which the United States make grants sundry to 
this State, among which are 5 per cent, upon the proceeds of the 
sales of the public lands within this State, which is to be applied 
to works of internal improvement, 3 per cent, being subject to the 



54fi HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

control of our Legislature. Now, this being the case, what plan of 
distribution among the different counties so just as to appropriate 
to each the amount accruing upon the sale of land within that 
county? 

"Thinking, fellow citizens, that we should all know at least 
enough of the law to keep clear of it, I am in hopes of seeing our 
common as well as statute law put into such a form that it may be 
more commonly diffused and known among us. Such a project has 
been in agitation before our Legislature, and, believing it would 
save half the litigation amongst us, it has my heartiest wishes for 
its success. 

"The next apportionment will also be a matter requiring the 
deepest consideration and attentive care of your representative, as, 
with an increased representation, our claims will be placed in a 
more commanding position, and we who are of the North, while we 
unite with the South in all judicious schemes of internal improve- 
ment, will be in a situation to prevent such glaring instances of 
partial legislation as our last session presented. 

" In regard to our roads, or rather want of them, it is needless to 
say much here, as so many monuments of our neglected condition, 
in that respect, present themselves, most loudly calling for legisla- 
tive interference. 

" There are many other subjects, fellow citizens, which are no 
doubt of importance, but believing I have touched, though slightly, 
those subjects most generally interesting to the citizens of this dis- 
trict, I shall detain you no longer with the enumeration of matters 
of less general interest. 

"With feelings of peculiar delicacy, I must, fellow citizens, here 
remark that as regards national politics, I have ever been the 
unwavering friend of the leading principles of the present admin- 
istration. I look upon them as the emanation of the purest patriot- 
ism; and while I disdain the low bickerings of party strife, still I 
must exercise the right of every freeman to avow his sentiments. 
This avowal, fellow citizens, I make, not with a view of enlisting 
the partiality of a single voter; I do it merely because if silent on 
this point, I may probably be charged with the want of frankness, 
— a charge I must be indulged in saying, to me, peculiarly pain- 
ful. 

" Fellow citizens, I have but to offer to your acceptance such 
common-place qualifications as a life of much vicissitude has 
engendered, and an assurance that the good of the district, the 
whole district, shall be my aim, should I be so fortunate as to gain 
your preference. But, fellow citizens, if in your better judgment 
you should prefer another, I must take this opportunity to assure 
you and him that he has my warmest wishes for his success in the 
furtherance of the welfare of this district. 

Charles W. Cathcart." 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 547 

In 1S36 Martin Van Buren received the Democratic nomination 
for President, while William Henry Harrison was the candidate 
of the Whigs. 

The year 1S40 has a place in history as one in which the political 
excitement ran high. William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was 
again pitted against Martin Van Buren, of New York. The Whigs 
determined to make a grand effort to elect "old Tippecanoe and 
Tyler too." Hard cider, log cabins, and the singing of the multi- 
tude created an excitement never before known. In St. Joseph 
county as well as elsewhere, both parties were filled with enthu- 
siasm. Harrison received in this county 1 809 votes, and Martin 
Van Buren, 444. 

" Fifty-four, forty, or fight" was the rallying cry of the Demo- 
crats in 1844, with James K. Polk as their presidential candidate. 
Henry Clay was the nominee of the Whigs, and James P. Birney, 
of the newly organized Free-Soil party. The latter polled in this 
county 33 votes, showing even at this early day a few who were 
not afraid of social ostracism on account of their opinions on slav- 
ery. Henry Clav had a majority in the countv of 180 out of a 
total of 1,579. 

In 1845 Joseph G. Marshall was the nominee of the Whig party 
for Governor, James Whitcomb, of the Democrats, and Mr. Stevens, 
of the Free-Soil or Abolitionists, as they were called. Marshall 
received a majority of 53 over Whitcomb, but Lot Day, Jr., Demo- 
crat, was elected Sheriff by a majority of 36, over John H. Harper, 
Whig. 

In 184G quite an exciting campaign was held, Whigs, Demo- 
crats and Abolitionists all having full State and county tickets in 
the field. The majority for the Whig ticket was quite small. 

In 1847 Daniel D. Pratt was the Whig, and Charles W. Cath- 
cart, the Democratic, candidate for Congress, the former receiving 
167 majority in this count}'. 

Zachary Taylor, Lewis Cass and Martin Van Buren were the 
respective candidates of the Whig, Democratic and Free-Soil par- 
ties. The contest was fought vigorously, each having State and 
county tickets in the field. A paper called the Free Democrat 
was started to advocate the election of Van Buren. Taylor received 
817 votes, Cass 667, and Van Buren 332. The Whigs elected their 
entire county ticket, with the exception of Sheriff, Lot Day, the 
Democratic candidate, receiving a majority of 275. 

In 1849 Thomas S. Stanfield, of this county, was nominated as 
the Whig candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, running ahead of his 
ticket and receiving a majority of 320, against 141 for the Whig 
candidate for Governor. 

In 1850 the Whigs were again triumphant, electing their entire 
ticket, with the exception of Sheriff. 

In 1851 local issues caused many split tickets to be voted, so that 
it is impossible to make a comparison of the political strength of 
the respective parties. For Congress Schuyler Colfax carried the 



548 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

county by 330 majority; Thomas S. Stanlield, for Representative, 
was elected by 1S6 majority. Samuel McChord, Democrat, was 
elected Sheriffby 14 majority, while the Whig candidate for Treas- 
urer, Robert B. Nicar, had a majority of 11. This was the year in 
which Schuyler Colfax was a candidate for Congress for the first 
time. The convention by which he was nominated was held at 
Plymouth on the 28th day of May. The Democrats of the district 
had met a few days previously at the same place, and nominated 
Graham N. Fitch for re-election to Congress. To show the posi- 
tion of parties on public questions at this time, here are presented 
the resolutions adopted by the two conventions. The Democratic 
convention adopted as its platform of principles the following res- 
olutions: 

Resolved, That the cardinal principles of the Democratic party are to be found 
in the resolutions of 1798, drawn by Jefferson and Madison, and re-affirmed by the 
National Conventions of 1836, 1840, 1844 and 1848; that we regard them as Ihe 
touchstones of our political faith; that we will be governed by them in our 
political action, and that we place our nominee for Congress upon the broad 
platform thus enacted. 

Resolved, That we abide by the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and that we 
will stand by each and all of its compromises, and therefore recognize the binding 
force of every clause (the delivery of fugitives from labor included), and we 
regard any action from any quarter, North or South, that tends to weaken or 
estrange our high allegiance to its solemn provisions, as equally faithless and 
treasonable. 

The Whig Convention adopted a much longer platform of prin- 
ciples. Their resolutions were as follows: 

Resolved, That the Whigs of the Ninth Congressional District, in Convention 
assembled, tender to each other their pledge of fidelity to the cause and devotion 
to the principles for which they have so long labored. 

Resolved, That our position remains unchanged; no interference 'with the 
domestic policy or peculiar institutions of sister States; no extension of slave 
territory ; no diffusion of an institution which it is believed tends to degrade labor 
and blight industry, over more of National soil than it now covers; no counte- 
nancing of disunion sentiments, whether at the North or South; but devotion, 
unfaltering and unconditional devotion, to our glorious Union, in any event, under 
all circumstances, despite all contingencies. 

Resolved, That although we may not agree upon each and every one of the 
measures passed by the last Congress, known as the compromise measures, yet we 
regard them as designed to settle the questions specified in them, and that we are 
of the opinion that the good of the country requires that the settlement should 
remain undisturbed until time and experience shall show that change or modifi- 
cation of them is necessary to avoid evasion or abuse ; and that we hold, in the 
language of Henry Clay, on making his report from the committee of thirteen, 
that Congress ought,while on the one hand securing to the owner the fair restora- 
tion of his property, effectually to guard on the other against any abuse in the 
application of the remedy, being satisfied that it is not unsafe for either individuals 
or nations to rectify wrong by the substitution of right, and that the crowning 
glory of law is its protection of the rights of the weak as well as its enforcement 
of the just claims of the strong. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Nation are due Millard Fillmore and his 
cabinet for the promptness and efficiency with which they have maintained the 
public faith, and for their determination to execute the laws at every hazard, and 
preserve unsullied the honor and integrity of the Nation, and that this adminis- 
tration deserves the confidence and support of the Whig party. 



UISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUN'IT. 549 

Resolved, That so far from the prosperity so confidently predicted by our 
opponents being realized by the working of the present tariff, we see, instead of 
the high prices for grain that were promised, a depression in rates almost unparal- 
leled; instead of anincrease in the rewards of labor, factories and mills all over 
the land stopping, and thus operatives ceasing to purchase of the farmer, compelled 
to resort to agriculture themselves, r.nd becoming rivals in producing instead of 
being consumers, thereby tending still further to depress prices by the super- 
abundance thus created ; and balance of trade against us of .$50,000,000 in a single 
year, and the shipment of over 13,000,000 per mouth of hard coin from but one 
port to Europe, saying nothing of the millions upon millions of bonds and loans 
negotiated abroad, all hereafter to be paid for in cash and nothing else, attest to 
every man willing to see, that all the avails of our hardy miners in California, 
with an amount equally large iu addition, is taken from us for the benefit of 
foreign manufacturers, who rejoice and thrive over the prostration of our indus- 
trial enterprises. 

Resolved, That Congress should, in arranging the details of a tariff, not only 
seek to raise sufficient revenue for the support of Government, but at the same 
time discriminate so judiciously in the duties upon foreign imports, as to promote 
all the industrial interests of our own country; that all legislation which tends to 
the development of our own resources, or the diversification of labor into diflerent 
pursuits, or the building up of a home market for agricultural products on our 
own soil, or the carrying out of the emphatic declaration of Jefferson that to be 
independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them for ourselves; we 
must place the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturist, is eminently benefi- 
cial in its character and conduces to the prosperity, the progress, the wealth and 
the real independence of the Nation ; and that the present tariff should be so 
modified, as recommended by President Fillmore and Secretary Corwin, as to 
make it conform to the above principles, and render it what the tariff of the 
United States should be — incidental protection to our own labor. 

Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to make liberal appropriations for the 
improvement of rivers and harbors of the "West, as well as for those of the South 
and East; that our internal commerce floating on fresh water, should have equal 
benefits and equal protection with that extended so liberally to the external, or 
salt water commerce of the country; and that no false excuses about a bill includ- 
ing worksof a local character will be any justification of the people of the West, 
for denying them that, which, though long and justly claimed, has been so often 
defeated by the vetoes of Democratic administrations, or the more recent willful 
factiousness of Democratic Senators; that this District has peculiar claims upon 
the National Legislature in this respect, being directly Interested in the harbors 
at Michigan City and St. Joseph ; and that it should send a member to represent 
their claims who can have personal influence with bis colleagues sufficient to pro- 
cure for them the vote of at least one other member of his own party from his 
own State. 

Resolved, That we deprecate all those contrivances, whether under or without 
the cover of law, which wink at the pilfering of the Government treasury under 
the pretense of constructive mileage, long mileage, Ritchie claims, and other 
kindred absorbents; that constructive mileage should be abolished totally and 
forever; the present exorbitant rate of mileage, so greatly disproportioned to the 
expense of travel, reduced at least one-half, and computed, not bj r the easiest but 
by the nearest route; and public contractors compelled to live up to their obliga- 
tions without importunate appeals to be allowed hundreds of thousand of dollars 
in addition. 

Resolved, That we are in favor of reducing letter postage to a low rate, and the 
entire abolition of the franking privilege, leaving the Government and Congress- 
men to pay their own postage the same as private citizens. 

Resolved, That as Whigs, we sympathize with the struggles of the masses now 
going forward in the old world, to throw off the shackles which have so long 
bound them, and to assert that equality and independence which we regard as 
man's birthright. 

Resolved, Unanimously, that we recommend to the voters of this Congressiona 
District Schuyler Colfax, the candidate this day nominated, with the assurance to 
all that he is honest, and would scorn to betray them, or violate pledges which he 
may make, capable, possessing talents and a zeal in their exercise which must be 
valuable to the District, and creditably to the councils of the Nation should he 



550 HISTORY OF ST. J03EPII COUNTY. 

be elected, and faithful to the constitution of the country, regarding its observance 
as the bond of our Union, the guarantee of our National welfare, and the means of 
promoting internal peace, and hushing the voice of faction and discord amongst 
our jarring members. 

The resolutions of the two parties as given exhibit the issues 
which divided them this year and also in the Presidential campaign 
that was soon to follow. 

In 1852 the State and county elections were held in October for 
the first time. The county went Democratic this year for the first 
time in its history. In October J. A. Wright, Democrat, had a 
majority over Nicholas McCarty, Whig, of 51, though the Whig 
candidate for Representative had 111 majority. Franklin Pierce, 
Winfield Scott and John P. Hale were the nominees for President 
of the Democratic, Whig and Free-Soil parties. Pierce carried the 
county by 54 majority. 

No interest was manifested in the election in 1853, there being 
but 837 votes polled in the entire county, the polling place in 
Madison township not being evsn opened. 

New questions now arose, growing out of the Know-Nothing 
excitement, and the agitation attending the passage of the Nebraska 
bill, and the repeal of the Missouri compromise. The interest in 
this county was high, and a full vote was polled at the October 
election, 1854. The opposition to the Democracy took the name 
of People's party, or Anti-Nebraska party. Schuyler Colfax was 
the nominee of this party for Congress, and Norman Eddy by the 
Democracy for the same position. Colfax's majority in the dis- 
trict was 1,765, and in this county, 01(3. Every nominee on the 
People's ticket in this countj' was elected by majorities ranging 
from 517 to C,2:>. 

In 1855 the Democrats were victorious, receiving large majori- 
ties for the various county offices to be filled, with the exception of 
Auditor. This was the first year in which the newly organized 
Republican party had a ticket in the field, and the campaign was 
run principally on the merits of the respective nominees or their 
personal popularity. 

The Republican party was first organized in 1854, but its organi- 
zation did not extend in all the various States where it was permit- 
ted an existence until 185G. In this year John C. Fremont, " the 
Pathfinder," was nominated for President against James Buchanan, 
Democrat, and Millard Fillmore, American. The anti-slavery sen- 
timent of the country became consolidated in this new Republican 
party. The larger portion of the Whigs found themselves naturally 
in the new party, most of the Free-Soilers united with it, and also 
the large anti-slavery element of the Democratic party. Oliver P. 
Morton was the nominee of the Republicans for Governor, and 
Ashbel P. Willard, of the Democrats. W. Z. Stewait was the 
Democratic candidate for Congress, and Schuyler Colfax was nomi- 
nated by the Republicans for re-election. Great interest was man- 
ifested in this election and the Republicans were victorious. The 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 551 

vote in October was the largest ever cast in the county, the total 
number being 3,250. This^was increased in November at the Pres- 
idential election to 3,327. 

The election in 1857 was only for County Commissioner, and 
John Hammond was elected without opposition. 

Political excitement became warm again in 185S. The terms 
that were heard most in the party language of the day were 
" Lecompton Constitution," " Kansas," " Border Ruffianism," 
"Freedom Shriekers," " Dred Scott Decision," "Freedom of the 
Territories," " .Non-Extension of Slavery," " Squatter Sovereignty," 
" Nigger Sovereignty." All the State officers, except Governor, 
were to be elected, a member of Congress, and county officers. The 
vote of this year was an increase over 1856, being a total of 3,655. 
Schuyler Colfax and John C. Walker were the opposing candidates 
for Congress, and the former's majority in the county was 4-81. The 
Republicans elected every county officer by majorities ranging from 
325 to 471. 

The " off year " of 1859 failed to bring out the full vote of the 
county, though some interest was manifested in the election of 
county officers. The Republicans were again victorious, electing 
their entire ticket by majorities ranging from 219 to 485. 

The country was now becoming deeply moved over questions 
which stirred the popular heart as none had ever done before. The 
storm had been gathering ever since the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise, the struggles in Kansas had deeply intensfied the feel- 
ing of the people of the North, and John Brown's attempt upon 
Harper's Ferry had been skillfully managed so as to arouse and heat 
the people of the South. That the Territories of the United States 
should be forever consecrated to freedom was the solemn determi- 
nation of a large majority of the people of the North, and that the 
boundaries of the institution of slavery should not be further 
enlarged. The South, seeking its perpetuation by means of enlarged 
political power, determined that it should not be restricted, but 
should have enlarged privileges. The questions dividing parties 
were thus chiefly sectional, and pointed directly to war. In this 
state of the public mind, the Republican party met in National 
Convention at Chicago, and nominated Abraham Lincoln for Pres- 
ident and Hannibal Hamlin for Vice-President. The Democratic 
party met at Charleston, South Carolina, and the Southern element 
broke up the Convention. The party afterward met in the city of 
Baltimore, and there the same turbulent element divided the con- 
vention, and the result was the nomination of two Democratic tick- 
ets — Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson for President 
and Vice-President on the one side, and John C. Breckenridge and 
Joseph Lane on the other. Henry S. Lane stood at the head of the 
Republican State ticket, as candidate for Governor, and Thomas A. 
Hendricks, at the head of the Democratic ticket. In the Ninth 
District, Schuyler Colfax was again the Republican candidate for 
Congress, and the Democrats pitted against him Charles W. Cath- 
cart. The position which the Republican party^maiutained on 



552 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

slavery questions may be seen in the following resolutions, found 
in the State Republican platform of that year: 

Resolved, That we are opposed to the new and dangerous doctrine advocated by 
the Democratic party, that the Federal constitution carries slavery into the public 
Territories, and that we believe slavery^cannot exist anywhere in this Government, 
unless by positive local law, and that we will oppose its extension into the Terri 
tories of the Federal Government by all the power known to the constitution of 
the United States. 

Resolved, That we are opposed to any interference with slavery where it exists 
under the sanction of State law, that the soil of every State should be protected 
from lawless invasion from every quarter, and that the citizens of every State 
should be secured from illegal arrests and search, as well as from mob violence. 

Rix^'lved, That we regard the preservation of the American Union as the highest 
object and duty of patriotism, and that it must and shall be preserved, and that 
all who advocate disunion are, and deserve the fate of, traitors. 

Other questions formed issues between the parties, but the chief 
and most important by far, the overshadowing ones, were those 
growing out of the institution of slavery and the attitude of the 
South in respect to it, and also toward the Union. Threats of 
secession in case of the election of Mr. Lincoln were freely made, 
and the leaders in the violence which characterized the proceedings 
in the South, were more deeply in earnest than the people of the 
North generally supposed. The campaign was distinguished, 
besides the usual processions and speeches, by a Republican organ- 
ization known as " Wide Awakes," which adopted a simple uniform, 
and were provided with torch lamps, fixed on poles, and thus added 
much to the interest of night meetings. Many of the companies 
of Wide- Awakes were drilled in the manner of handling their lamp 
sticks according to the manual of arms. In one year from that 
time many of the same persons were drilling with arms, preparatory 
to fighting the battles of the nation against a section of country 
which had wantonly risen in rebellion. The political pulse beat 
high in the Republican and Douglas wing of the Democratic party 
in this county; great political gatherings were frequent, and pro- 
cessions and enthusiasm filled up the days and the nights. At length 
the day of the October election came, and the Republicans were 
completely successful, the majorities on the various officers ranging 
from 679 to 892. But the great event was still to occur — the 
Presidential election in November. At this election there were 
four electoral tickets in the field, those headed by the candidates 
already named, and the Union party ticket, headed by John Bell 
and Edward Everett. Three thousand eight hundred and eighty 
votes were polled, Lincoln's majority over Douglas being 874. 

No interest whatever was manifested in the election in 1861. The 
Democrats made no nominations. Only 5S4 votes were polled. 

The election of 1S62 was a more important one, and almost a full 
vote was polled. County and State officers were to be elected, 
except Governor and Lieutenant-Governor. The opposition to the 
Democracy assumed the name of Union party. During this year 
the Union arms had met with reverses, and a somewhat gloomy 
feeling pervaded the minds of the people. When the election came 



HISTORY OF ST JOSEPH COUNTY. 553 

each party stood firmly by its candidates, for the campaign had 
aroused party feeling intensely. Schuyler Colfax and David Tnrpie 
were the candidates for Congress. They were both fine speakers 
and made a thorough canvass of the district. The Republicans 
this year carried the county by majorities ranging from 223 to 469. 

The year 1S63 was an " off year," but in 1864 the campaign was 
one of much earnestness and feeling. Abraham Lincoln was the 
Republican candidate for re-election to the Presidency, and associ- 
ated with him as candidate for Vice President was Andrew Johnson, 
the distinguished Unionist of Tennessee. Oliver P. Morton, elected 
by the Republicans Lieutenant-Governor in 1860, had become 
Governor by the election of Henry S. Lane to the United States 
Senate, and was now the Republican candidate for the office which 
he had acceptably filled. George B. McClellan and George H. Pen- 
dleton were the Democratic candidates for President and Vice- 
President, and Joseph E. McDonald for Governor. Colfax and 
Turpie were again candidates of their respective parties for Con- 
gress. The Republicans were again successful, both in the October 
and November elections. 

In 1S66 the issues which divided parties arose from the work of 
reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion. The election was 
an important one, and partv spirit once more ran high. Colfax 
and Turpie were for the third time pitted against each other by 
their respective parties as candidates for Congress, and they made 
a very thorough canvass of the district, part of the time in joint dis- 
cussion. Colfax majority in this county was 850. The Republican 
county officers were all elected by majorities ranging from 766 to 
805. 

In 1867 only county officers were to be elected. The Democracy 
placed no ticket in the field and there was no interest felt in the 
result. 

The year 1S6S brought with it another Presidential campaign. 
The Republican National Convention met in Chicago and nomi- 
nated Ulysses S. Grant, associating with him Schuyler Colfax, who 
had for so many years represented the ninth district in Congress. 
This necessitated the nomination of a man for Congress by that 
party in this district. The choice fell upon Jasper Packard, of La 
Porte county. The Democratic National Convention nominated 
Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, Jr., for President and Vice- 
President, and the District Convention of that party nominated 
Melford K. Farrand as the candidate for Congress. Each party had 
in the field a full State ticket. Conrad Baker was the Republican 
candidate for Governor, and Thomas A. Hendricks the Democratic 
candidate. The campaign was one of great activity. Each party 
was well organized and both had great hopes of success. In the 
October election for State and county officers a total of 5,149 votes 
were polled, a large increase over any previous year. The Repub- 
licans were successful in this county, the least majority received by 
any candidate being 650, and the highest 709. In November 
Grant had a majority over Seymour of 826. 



55i HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The next general election did not occur until 1870, when a full 
State ticket, except Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, candidates 
for Congress and for county officers were to be voted for. Jasper 
Packard was a candidate for Congress for re-election, and arrayed 
against him Samuel L. Anthony, Democrat. Thomas S. Stanfield, 
of South Bend, was the Republican candidate for Circuit Judge, 
and J. Bradley, the Democratic candidate. The Republican candi- 
date for Representative was elected by a majority of 458 votes, die 
lowest number received, while the candidate for Sheriff had 1,105 
majority, the highest. 

In 1872, the movement known as the Liberal Republican had a 
large influence politically, having virtually dictated the Democratic 
nomination for the Presidency, and the platform of principles on 
which the campaign against the Republican party was conducted. 
The power of the Liberal Republicans was chiefly felt in the Octo- 
ber election. At the November election, the defections among 
the Democrats were so numerous as to more than counterbalance 
the votes of the Liberal Republicans. The latter, in May, had 
nominated Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown as their candidates 
for President and Yice President, and when later, the Democracy 
met in National Convention, they adopted the nomination and 
platform of the Liberals. The Republicans re-nominated President 
Grant and associated with him Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, 
as a candidate for Vice President. The disaffection among the 
Democracy was so great that a third ticket was nominated, at the 
head of which was Charles O'Conor, the distinguished lawyer of 
New York. This third ticket had very little strength in this county 
or the State, the disaffection among the Democrats taking the form, 
at the Presidential election, of refusing to vote at all. At the Oc- 
tober election there were candidates for State and county officers, 
to be elected. The largest vote ever polled in this county was at 
this election, amounting to 6,091. The majority for the Republi- 
cans was materially reduced, ranging from 295 to 524. In Novem- 
ber Grant carried the county by 1,023, out of a total vote of 5,849. 
Taking the candidate for Governor as showing the political strength 
of the two parties, the Republicans gained in November 131 votes, 
and the Democracy lost 373. 

In 1873 a Prosecuting Attorney was to be elected, and George 
Ford, Democrat, was elected on local issues, or personal popularity. 

The election in 1874 was for State and county officers, and the 
fight was between the Democratic and Republican parties. At the 
head of the State ticket were William Curry, Republican, and John 
E. NefT, Democrat, for Secretary of State. The candidates for Con- 
gress were William H. Calkins, Republican, and William S. Ray- 
mond, Democrat. The Democracy again made a gain of a large 
number of votes, taking the votes for State officers as a test of polit- 
ical strength, the Republicans only carrying the county from 55 
to 1-14 majority. For county officers there was doubtless a great 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



555 



deal of trading, as part of both tickets were elected by large major- 
ities. Ford, Democrat, for Prosecuting Attorney, had a majority 
of 52S; J. B. Greene, .Republican, for Recorder, 701. 

The next general election was for National, State and county 
officers. Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler were the 
Republican candidates for President and Vice President, and Sam- 
uel J. Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks received the nomination 
of the Democratic party for the same office. The vote of this 
county had increased in number about 1,200 in two years, there 
being in October 7,261 votes cast. Williams, Democrat, had a ma- 
jority of three votes. This was the first time since 1852 in this 
county a Democratic candidate for Governor had received a ma- 
jority of votes. For county officers, as in 1874, there were many 
split tickets, some of the candidates on each receiving a majority. 

In 1878 there was a complete revolution in political affairs in 
this county, every candidate on the Democratic ticket receiving a 
large and overwhelming majority, with the exception of Surveyor. 
George Ford, for Prosecuting Attorney, had a majority of 960, and 
Dougherty, for Sheriff, 203. 

Another Presidential campaign occurred in 18S0, which was 
conducted with more zeal and energy than any since 1860. James 
A. Garfield was the Republican candidate for President, Winfield 
S. Hancock the Democratic, and James B. Weaver the Greenback. 
The State election occnrred on the 12th of October, the canvass 
being opened in this county about the 20th of July and pushed 
with vigor by the Republicans and Democrats, the Greenbackers 
not making so strong an effort. The Republicans were uniformly 
successful, electing every man on their ticket. 

The following is theofficial vote of every general election, records 
of which were accessible: 



ELECTION RETURNS. 

President— 1832. 

Andrew Jackson, clem 121 

Henry Clay, whig 123 

President— 1836 . 
Martin Van Buren, dem. . . . 
Wm. Henry Harrison, whig. 

President— 1S40. 

Martin Van Buren, dem 444 

Wm. Henry Harrison, whig. 809 

President — 1844. 

James K. Polk, dem 683 

Henry Clay, whig 863 

James G. Birney, free soil.. 33 

ELECTION 1845. 

Governor. 

Joseph G. Marshall, whig.. . 755 

James Whitcomh, dem 702 

Stevens, ab 76 



365 



180 



58 



Sheriff. 

John II. Harper, whig 712 

Lot Day, Jr., dem 748 36 

Wm. F. Bulla, ab 54 

Probate Judge. 

Edward F. Dibble, whig 925 670 

John J. Deming, dem 245 

ELECTION 1847. 
Congress. 

D. D. Pratt, whig 759 167 

Charles W. Cathcart, dem ... 592 
Stewart, ab 40 

Representative, 

William Miller, whig 694 48 

Norman Eddy, dem 646 

Harris, ab 42 

Assessor. 

Stephen H. Judkins, whig. . 706 110 

John Rush, dem 596 

Green, ab. ...-••.. . 49 



556 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Treasurer. 

Albert Monson, whig 802 809 

Willis Bugbee, ab. 53 

ELECTION 1848. 
President. 

Zachary Taylor, whig 817 150 

Lewis Cass, dem 667 

Martin Van Buren, free soil. 332 
Representative. 

William Miller, whig 834 32 

Abel A. Whitlock, dem 702 

Sheriff. 

Eber Woolman, whig 677 

Lot Day, Jr., dem 952 275 

Assessor. 

S. I. H. Ireland, whig 826 66 

Edmund Byrket, dem 760 

ELECTION 1849. 
Governor. 

John A. Matson, whig 908 141 

J. A. Wright, dem 767 

JamesH. Cravens, free soil. 123 

Lieutenant-Governor. 
Thomas S Stanfield, whig.. 1015 320 

James H. Lane, dem 695 

J . W. Wright, free-soil 68 

Congress. 

W. Wright, whig 924 108 

Graham N. Fitch, dem 816 

Norman Eddy, free-soil. ... 84 
Representative. 

Mark Whinery, whig 972 157 

Lot Day, 815 

ELECTION 1850. 
Representative. 

John Reynolds, whig 940 236 

Abner A. Whitlock, dem . . . 704 

Wilson, free soil 73 

Sheriff. 

Nelson Ferris, whig 828 

Ralph Staples, dem 859 31 

William F. Bulla, free soil . . 29 

Auditor. 
Aaron B. Ellsworth, whig. . 871 37 

Wright, dem 834 

Treasurer. 

Albert Monson. whig 997 281 

Alden, dem 716 

Assessor. 

Michael Hupp, whig 853 45 

Eaton, dem 808 

ELECTION 1851. 

Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, whig 1118 330 

Graham N. Fitch, dem 788 



Representative. 
Thomas S. Stanfield, whig. . 1033 186 

John Brownfield, dem 847 

Clerk. 

John T. Lindsey, whig 940 

Samuel Chord, dem 954 14 

Treasurer. 

Robert B. Nicar, whig 944 11 

Robert S. Alden, dem 933 

Recorder. 
Thomas C. Hackney, whig. . 861 

Lot Day, Jr., dem 1039 168 

County Commissioner. 

Edwin Pickett, whig 991 97 

John Green, dem 894 

ELECTION 1852. 

Governor. 
Nicholas McCarty, whig. ... 928 

Joseph A. Wright, dem 979 51 

John L. Robinson, free soil . . 122 

Congress. 
Horace P. Biddle, whig ... .953 

Norman Eddy, dem 1053 100 

Representative. 

J. H. Service, whig 1006 111 

David Stover, dem 895 

Sheriff. 
Benjamin F. Miller, whig. .1022 23 

Ralph Staples, dem 999 

State Auditor. 
Douglass Maguire, whig ... 977 

John P. Dunn, dem 979 2 

M. C. White, free soil 78 

President. 

Franklin Pierce, dem 1052 54 

Winfield Scott, whig 998 

John P. Hale, free soil 174 

ELECTION 1853. 
County Commissioner. 

John Hammond, whig 486 194 

Elmer Rose, dem 292 

William Bugbee, free soil. . . 59 
Reporter of Supreme Court. 

J. W. Gordon, whig 443 71 

Albert G. Porter, dem 372 

ELECTION 1854. 

Secretary of State. 
Erasmus B. Collins, people . 1469 567 
Nehemiah Hayden, dem. ... 902 
Congress 

Schuyler Colfax, people 1485 616 

Norman Eddy, dem 869 

Representative. 
George C. Merrifield, people.1454 575 
Reuben Pierce, dem 879 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



557 



Sheriff. 
Benjamin F. Miller, people.,1481 593 

Barnett Byrkett, deni 888 

Treasurer. 

Robert B. Nicar, people 1492 625 

Henry Nunamaker, deni. . . 867 

Coroner. 
Aaron A. Webster, people. ..1463 569 

Allen Bassett, deni 894 

Surveyor. 

Thomas P. Bulla, people 1432 517 

John Hooper, dem 915 

ELECTION 1855. 

Clerk. 
Samuel M. Chord, dem. . . . 1312 303 

President Whitten rep 1009 

Recorder. 

Lot Day, Jr., dem 1306 292 

Elisha Sumption, rep. . .. 1014 
Auditor. 

Barnet Byrket, dem 819 

Aaron B. Ellsworth, rep. . . 1500 681 
{Commissioner. 

John Druliuer, dem 1236 158 

John Grannis, rep 1078 

ELECTION 1856. 
Governor. 

Oliver P. Morton, rep 1789 329 

Ashbel P. Willard, dem 1460 

Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, rep 1816 382 

W. Z. Stuart, dem 1434 

Representative. 
George C. Merrifield, rep . . . 1740 266 

Albert G. Deavitt, dem 1474 

Sheriff. 

E. C. Johnson, rep 1797 359 

John H. Dice, dem 1438 

Treasurer. 

Solomon Miller, rep 1813 387 

Joseph H. Masscy, dem 1426 

Surveyor. 

M. W. Stokes, rep 1804 372 

John Hooper, dem 1432 

President- 
James Buchanan, dem 1509 

John C. Fremont, rep 1812 303 

Millard Fidmore, Amer 6 

ELECTION 1857. 
County Commissioner. 
John Hammond, elected without oppo- 
sition. 



ELECTION 1858. 
Secretary of State. 

William A. Pelle, rep 2024 393 

Daniel McClure, dem 1631 

Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, rep 2067 481 

John C. Walker, dem 1586 

Representative. 

Thos. S. Stanfleld, rep 2055 467 

Samuel L. Cottrell, dem. . . .1588 
Treas urer. 

Solomon Miller, rep 1977 325 

Joseph H, Massey, dem 1652 

Sheriff. 

Evan C. Johnson, rep 2054 471 

Henry C. Hart wick, dem.. . .1583 

Coroner. 

A. H. Long, rep 2023 395 

S. L. Rush, dem 1628 

ELECTION 1859. 
Clerk. 

Elias V. Clark, rep 1625 249 

William Mack, dem 1376 

Recorder. 
Reese J. Chestnutwood, reo..l664 329 
John Groff, dem ". . 1335 

Auditor. 

Woolman J. Holloway, rep. 1742 485 

Michael M. Shultz, dem 1257 

Commissioner. 

William F. Bulla, rep 1657 341 

Harlow Dodge, dem 1316 

ELECTION 1860. 
Governor. 

Henry S. Lane, rep 2253 719 

Thomas A. Hendricks, dem. 1534 
Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, rep. 2300 818 

Charles W. Cathcart, dem. . . 1482 
Sheriff. 

Nelson Ferris, rep 2218 689 

John Treanor, dem 1529 

Treasurer. 

John H. Harper, rep 2326 892 

George Entzler, dem 1434 

Representative. 

John A. Henricks, rep 2265 755 

A.E. Drapier, dem 1510 

Commissioner. 

Francis R. Tutt, rep 2236 711 

John M. Studebaker, dem. .1525 
Surveyor . 

M. W. Stokes, rep 2247 723 

J. D. Barbour, dem 1524 



558 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Coroner. 

A. H. Long, rep 2220 679 

Allen Bassett, dem 1541 

President. 

Abraham Lincoln, rep 2363 874 

Stephen A. Douglas, dem . . .1489 
John C. Breckenridge, dem. 23 
John Bell, union 5 

ELECTION 1861. 
State Senator. 

John Reynolds, union rep . . 563 542 
Scattering 21 

Commissioner. 
J. C. Williams, union rep. . . 563 546 
Scattering 17 

ELECTION 1862. 

Secretary of State. 

William A. Peelle, union 1995 316 

James S. AthOD, dem 1679 

Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, union 2006 354 

David Turpie, union 1652 

Sheriff. 

Nelson Ferris, union 2059 469 

John Shank, dem 1590 

Treasurer. 
John H. Harper, union . . .2039 415 

David Stover, dem 1624 

Representative. 
Andrew Anderson, union . . . 1935 222 
Samuel M. Chord, dem 1713 

Coroner. 

Andrew II. Long, union 1982 307 

John Treanor, dem 1675 

ELECTION 1863. 

Clerk. 

Elias V. Clark, union 2006 609 

Benjamin F. Dunn, dem 1397 

Auditor. 

Woolman J.Holloway,union-2031 706 
Lot Day, Jr., dem 1325 

Recorder. 

Reese J.Chestnutwood,union2024 649 
Lewis Fink, dem 1375 

ELECTION 1864. 
President. 

Abraham Lincoln, rep 2188 630 

George B. McClellan, dem. .1558 

ELECTION 1866. 
Congress. 

Schuyler Colfax, rep 2743 850 

David Turpie, dem 1898 



Sheriff. 
Solomon W. Palmer, rep. . .2711 766 
John Hay, dem 1945 

Treasurer. 

Ezekiel Greene, rep 2731 799 

Albert D. Jaquith, dem 1932 

Coroner. 

Andrew II. Long, rep 2733 805 

Charles C. Staples, dem 1928 

Representative. 

Nelsou Ferris, rep 2728 800 

John Treanor, dem 1928 

Surveyor. 
William M. Whitten, rep. . .2786 810 
Matthias Stover, dem 1926 

Commissioner 

John C. Knoblock, rep 2731 806 

Robert Myler, dem 1925 

ELECTION 1867. 
Auditor. 

Alfred Wheeler, rep 905 861 

Charles E. Drapier, dem 36 

Clerk. 

George W. Matthews 1014 946 

Volney Bingham 68 

Recorder. 

Alexander N. Thomas 868 804 

John Mack 64 

Commissioner . 

Nathaniel Frame, rep 875 769 

— Wade, dem 106 

ELECTION, 1868. 

Governor. 

Conrad Baker, rep 2920 691 

Thomas A. Hendricks, dem . .2229 

Congress. 

Jasper Packard, rep 2912 675 

Milford K. Farrand, dem 2237 

Representative. 

J. C. Williams, rep 2928 709 

John Rush, dem 2219 

Sheriff. 

George B. Glover, rep 2885 650 

Alexander Staples, dem 2235 

Treasurer. 

Hiram Miller, rep 2901 670 

John Hooper, dem 2231 

Coroner. 

Andrew H. Long, rep 2906 673 

Stover, dem 2236 

Surveyor. 

Milton V. Bulla, rep 2916 696 

Matthias Stover, dem 2223 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CODNTT. 



559 



President. 

Ulysses S. Grant, rep 3075 826 

Horatio Seymour, dem 3249 

ELECTION 1870. 
State Auditor. 

John D. Evans, rep 2721 700 

John C. Shoemaker, dem. . . .1961 
Congress. 

Jasper Packard, rep 2701 735 

Samuel L. Anthouy, dem. . . .1966 

Judge Circuit Court. 
Thomas S. Stanfield, rep ....2779 905 

James Bradley, dem 1874 

State Senator. 

Lucius Hubbard, rep 2751 829 

Jas. F. Van Valkenberg, dem . 1 922 
Representative. 

W. W. Butterwortb, rep 2512 458 

Aaron Jones, dem 2054 

Auditor. 

Alfred Wheeler, rep 2760 1010 

EliasV. Clark, clem 1750 

Sheriff. 

George V. Glover, rep 2847 1105 

Evan C. Johnson, dem 1742 

Treasurer. 

Hiram Miller, rep 2851 1092 

John Ham, dem 1759 

Recorder. 
Alexander N . Thomas, rep . . 2753 862 
John Hay, dem 1891 

ELECTION 1872. 
Governor. 

Thomas M. Browne, rep 3295 499 

Thomas A. Hendricks, dem.. 2796 
Secretary of State. 

William W. Curry, rep 3284 483 

Owen M. Eddy, dem 2801 

Congress. 

Jasper Packard, rep 3279 477 

John A. Henricks, dem 2802 

Representative. 
William W.Bulimvoith rep.3178 336 

O. H. Brusie, dem 2842 

Sheriff. 

Joseph Turnock, rep 3224 396 

Charles H. Hilton, dem. . . ...2828_ 

Treasurer. 

David B. Creviston, rep 3177 295 

Eli Wade, dem 2882 

Coroner. 

Andrew H. Long, rep 3302 537 

J. S. Sack dem 2765 

36 



Surveyor. 

William M. Whittcn, rep 3305 524 

John Hooper, dem 2781 

President. 

U. S. Grant, rep 3426 1023 

Horace Greeley, lib 2403 

Charles O'Conor, dem 20 

ELECTION 1874. 
Secretary of State. 

William W. Curry, rep 2951 

John E. Neff, dem 3095 144 

Congress. 

William H. Calkins, rep 2990 

Haymond, dem. . .3045 55 

Prosecuting Attorney. 

James A. Crawley, rep 2756 

George H. Ford, dem 3284 528 

Representative. 

Hiram E. Jackson, rep 2825 

David R. Leeper, dem 3204 379 

Clerk. 

A. N. Deacon, rep 2878 

Edwin Nicar, dem 3116 238 

Sheriff. 

Joseph Turnock, rep 3186 345 

George H. Stover, dem 2841 

Auditor. 

Alfred Hall, rep 2819 

William E. Smith, dem 3205 386 

Treasurer. 

David V. Creviston, rep 3137 275 

Aaron N. Miller, dem 2862 

Recorder. 

J. B. Greene, rep 2556 

John Groff, dem 3357 701 

Coroner. 

Andrew H. Long, rep 2839 

Daniel Dayton, dem 3151 312 

Surveyor. 

William M. Whitten, rep 2909 

Andrew J. Stace, dem 3125 216 

ELECTION 1876. 
President. 

Rutherford B Haves, rep 3540 72 

Samuel J.Tildeu.'dem 3468 

Governor. 
Benjamin H. Harrison, rep.. 3521 

James D. Williams, dem 3524 3 

Congress. 

William H. Calkins, rep 3543 9 

Haymond, dem. 3534 

Sheriff. 

Robert Hardy, rep 3561 58 

John H. Quigg, dem 3508 



560 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Treasurer. 

C. Henry Sheerer, rep 3657 78 

John N.Lederer, deni 3479 

Representative. 

David R. Leeper, dem 3586 92 

William H. Deacon, rep 3494 

Surveyor. 

A. J. Stace, dem 3748 235 

William M. Whitten, rep 3513 

Coroner. 

Israel Underwood, rep 3570 106 

Daniel Dayton, dem 3464 

ELECTION 1878. 

Secretary of State. 

Isaac S. Moore, rep 2913 

John G. Shanklin, dem 3358 445 

James, greenback .... 523 

Congress. 

W. H. Calkins, rep 2995 

Morgan H. Weir, dem 3271 276 

John N. Skinner, gr 521 

Prosecuting Attorney. 

G. H. Ford, dem 3679 960 

Elias M. Lowe, rep 2719 

Representative. 

Thomas S. Stanfield, rep 2900 

Henry Ginz, dem 3314 414 

Israel C. Sweet, gr 573 

Clerk. 

Edwin Nicar, rep 2962 

Timothv E. Howard, dem. . .3326 364 

Edwin Curtis, gr 443 

Sherif. 

Robert Hardy, rep 3047 

James Dougherty, dem 3250 203 

Jeremiah Hildebrand, gr. . . . 509 



Auditor. 

David F. Spain, rep 2806 

William D. Smith, dem 3537 731 

Harlow Dodge, gr 417 

Treasurer. 

C. Henry Sheerer, rep 3041 

John Hay, dem 3256 215 

John F. Ullery, gr 483 

Recorder. 

J. Ham Greene, rep 2927 

Harrison G. Benier, dem 3347 420 

Charles W. Moon, gr 472 

Coroner. 

Israel Underwood, rep 2817 

John C. Miller, dem 3355 538 

William Flory, gr 621 

Surveyor. 

A. J. Stace, dem 3324 17 

W. M. Whitten, rep 3307 

ELECTION 1880. 
Governor. 

Albert G. Porter, rep 4031 210 

Franklin Landers, dem 3821 

Congress. 

William H. Calkins, rep 4117 343 

Daniel McDonald, dem 3774 

Treasurer. 

Frederick Langs, rep 4014 171 

John Hay, dem 3843 

Surveyor. 

William M. Whitten, rep 4378 561 

A. J. Stace, dem 387 



CHAPTER XIII. 

AGRICULTURE IN ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.— 

RATE OF TAXATION AND TAXABLE VALUATION OF BEAL AND PER- 
SONAL PROPERTY FOR 1879-'S0 . AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF 

1880. — COUNTY EXPENDITURES. OFFICIAL CENSU8. — AGED PERSONS. 

AGRICULTURE IN ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

St. Joseph county boasts, and truthfully too, of being one of the 
best agricultural counties in the State, and not only in the State, 
but in the entire Union. In the fifty years of its organized exist- 
ence, there has not been a total failure of crops, and but one total 
failure of the wheat crop. In 1835, in the early part of June, when 
wheat was in full bloom, there came a heavy frost which totally 
destroyed the crop. All products of the earth that can be raised 
in this latitude thrive in St. Joseph county and the industrious 
farmer can each year make his calculations as to the amount of prod- 
ucts he will raise. In 1879 there were threshed S41,037 bushels 
of wheat, 143,791 bushels of oats, and 829,554 bushels of corn. 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 

The value of a public display of the products of the county and 
the encouragement that should be offered to those engaged in agri- 
cultural and mechanical pursuits, were realized by the early settlers of 
this county. Agreeably to an act passed by the State Legislature, Feb. 
19, 1838, a notice was published in the Sonth Bend Free Press for 
three consecutive weeks for a public meeting to be held in the town of 
South Bend for the purpose of organizing an Agricultural and Me- 
chanical Society. This meeting was held June 12, 1841, and there 
were present George Sumption, David Hoover, Israel DeCamp, 
Charles Sumption, Matthew B. Hammond, William S. Vail, Aaron 
M. Parker, Sr., John J. Deming, Evan Chalfant, Samuel Brooks, 
James Stuckey, Charles "W. Pomeroy, Francis R. Tutt, T. P. Bulla, 
TyraW. Brav, Hiram Doolittle, William Milliken, Samuel Witter, 
Thomas D. Baird, Charles M. Tutt, William H. Patteson, E. S. 
Sheffield, Joel Garst, Albert Monson, William Cosgrove, Samuel 
C. Sample, Elisha Egbert and John Gilmore. Of these there are 
still living William Cosgrove, F. R. Tutt, T. P. Bulla, William S. 
Vail, Joel Garst, William Milliken, Samuel Witter and William 
H. Patteson. 

The meeting was opened by electing Samuel C. Sample Presi- 
dent and F. R. Tutt Secretary. All those whose names are recorded 
above voted to incorporate under the State law, and taxed them- 
selves one dollar each per year. They then proceeded to the elec- 

(561) 



562 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

tion of permanent officers of the society with the following result: 
John J. Deming, President; Thomas D. Baird, Vice President; 
Tyra W. Bray, Secretary, F. R. Tutt, Treasurer. T. P. Bulla, 
George Sumption, Hiram boolittle, M. B. Hammond, Jonathan 
A. Liston, Samuel Brooks and Israel DeCamp were elected Direc- 
tors for the year. Judge Deming was appointed to deliver an 
address at the autumnal meeting. The premium list for that year 
contained but twenty-three articles fur which premiums were 
offered. Among these were premiums for the best ten yards of 
jeans; best ten yards of flannel; best ten yards linen; best sample 
of sewing silk; best cheese, not less than ten pounds; best specimen 
of beet sugar, not less than ten pounds; best half acre of ruta-bagas; 
best five acres of tame grass; and best cultivated farm of not less 
than thirty acres. 

This society did not have but one annual exhibition, the county 
at that time being too thinly settled, and money too scarce to make 
such an institution profitable. The fair was held upon the second 
Monday in October, 1841. 

A number of citizens friendly to the re-organization of the society 
met at the courtJiouse on Saturday, April 10, 1851, when George 
C. Merrifield was elected Chairman, and Schuyler Colfax, Secretary. 
A constitution, framed in conformity with a legislative enactment 
upon the subject of agricultural societies, was reported by Schuyler 
Colfax, from a committee on that subject, and adopted. The 
meeting selected the following named officers: Powers Greene, 
President; P. Dunn and G. Towle, Vice-Presidents; Schuyler Col- 
fax and George C. Merrifield, Secretaries; William Miller, Treas- 
urer. George C. Merrifield was requested to deliver an address at 
the next meeting. 

On the 17th of May the society met agreeable to adjournment. 
Mr. Merrifield delivered an address on the subject of agriculture, 
horticulture and floriculture. At this meeting the number of mem- 
bers were reported to be one hundred and thiry-two. J. L. Jerne- 
gan was selected a delegate to attend a meeting of the State Board 
of Agriculture. 

On the 14th of June Mr. Jernegan made a verbal report to the 
society of the proceedings of the State Board. The Society then 
entered upon a conversational discussion of the best mode of culti- 
vatingcorn, which was participated in by M. B. Hammond, William 
Miller, J . D. Robertson. A. E. Drapier, Thomas P. Bulla and others. 
A list of premiums was adopted to be awarded at the time of hold- 
ing the annual fair. 

On the 2Sth of June another meeting of the society was held, 
the subject of conversation being "Insects injurious to trees." 
An order of the society, adopted at this meeting, inviting Ariel 
E. Drapier to deliver an address on the interests of agriculture was 
fulfilled on the 16th of August. 

On the 30th of August another election of officers was held with 
the following result: Powers Greene, President; John J. Deming, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 563 

Vice President; John M. Veasey, Secretary; William Miller, 
Treasurer. A director from each township was chosen, as follows: 
Olive, A. A. Whitlock; Warren, Reynolds Dunn; German, Samuel 
Witter; Greene, M. B. Hammond; Portage, Elmer Rose; Penn, 
George C. Merrifield; Centre. Alexander Foote; Clay, Thomas P. 
Bulla; Union, Edwin Pickets. 

In order to work up a membership for the society, a committee 
of three was appointed in each township to solicit, and Elmer Rose, 
Daniel Hatch, M. Rupp and John Ham for the county at large. 
The township committees were: 

Olive — Lot Vail, John Reynolds and J. Druliner. 
Warren — R. Dunn, W. W. Brick and Isaac Frame. 
German— S. Witter, William Miller and James Good. 
Clay— E. Chalfant, S. R. Jennings and William P. Bulla. 
Harris— E. M. Irviu, John Metzger and R. Kennedy. 
Penn— G. Towle, J. J. Doming and H. Doolittle. 
Portage — Schuyler Colfax, Lester Webster and Collins Adams. 
Centre — N. Rose, J. Farneman and Alexis Foote. 
Greene— D. Barrett, J. Rudduck and T. L. Holloway. 
Union — A. Mills, H. Henderson and WJLRobinson. 
Liberty — S. G. Williams, J. Cole and JohnTTup'eTT 
Madison — T. Longley, P. Bennett and J. Stuart. 

At a meeting of the president and directors, Sept. 6, 1851, it 
was resolved that the first annual fair of this society be held in 
South Bend, on Thursday, the 16th day of October, 1851. 

This very creditable exhibition was accordinglj' held in the 
court-house } T ard on that day. The following is an exhibit of busi- 
ness done: receipts, $185.00; exnenses, $116. OS; balance in treasury, 
$68.92. 

Jan. 3, 1852, a meeting of the society was held for general busi- 
ness. The following named are the officers elected for this year: 
Powers Greene, President; John J. Deming, Vice President; J. 
M. Veasey, Secretary; William Miller, Treasurer. One Director 
from each township, as follows: Penn, G. C. Merrifield; Portage, 
E. F. Dibble; Clay, Thomas P. Bulla; German, Samuel Witter; 
Centre, Alexis Foote; Union, E. Pickett; Greene, J. D. Robertson; 
Warren, Orson Marble; Olive, Lot Vail; Liberty, Franklin Pearce; 
Harris, E. Irvin; Madison, Philo Bennett. 

At this meeting an order was adopted appropriating five dollars 
per year as salary for the secretary. 

On the 5th of June it was decided to hold the fair for that year 
at Mishavvaka, and a list of premiums was made out and ordered 
published. 

The fair for the second year of the society was therefore held in 
Mishawaka, the good citizens of that place paying all the expenses 
thereof. The annual address was delivered by John B. Niles, of 
La Porte. 

No account of the current receipts and expenditures of the 
society appears on the records for the years 1852, 1853 and 1854. 
The secretary was allowed ten dollars for his services for the year 



56-i HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

1852. The Mishawaka Fair was a very satisfactory exhibition for 
that day, and the members of the society were well pleased with 
their efforts. 

On the 8th of January, 1S53, the annual election of officers of the 
society was held. John J. Deming was elected President; E. F. 
Dibble, Secretary; Thomas P. Bulla, Treasurer. Directors: S. C. 
Sample, Portage; William Miller, German; Reynolds Dunn, 
Warren; Harmel Reid, Olive; Franklin Pearce, Liberty; J. D. 
Robertson, Greene; William Robertson, Union; William Clugston, 
Madison; Evan Ohalfant, Clay; Elias Smith, Penn ; Alexis Foote, 
Centre; E. M. Irvin, Harris. 

On the 16th of July, the list of preminms for 1853 was adopted, 
and it was agreed to hold the fair this year at South Bend. 

The third annual fair was held at South Bend on the 4th and 5th 
days of October, 1853. Two acres of land on Washington street, 
three blocks west of the court-house, were leased and fitted up for 
that purpose. The same land afterward became the property of the 
society. The South Bend Forum, published at the time of the 
fair, had the following comment upon it: 

(i Those who can remember and compare things, affirm that this 
exhibition was inferior to that of last year at Mishawaka, in all 
respects, except the stock and pomological departments." 

The amount distributed in premiums at this lair was $198.50. 

On the 7th of January the society held its annual meeting for 
the election of officers. J. D. Robertson was chosen President; E. 
F. Dibble, Secretary; John T. Lindsey, Treasurer. 

Directors — Elmer Rose, Aaron Miller, John Druliner, Samuel 
Loring, Daniel Green, Christopher Hellinger, Thomas P. Bulla, 
Elias Smith, Alexis Foote, E. M. Irvin. 

Executive ( '■omniittt.'e .Idm M. Veasey, Daniel Matthews, John 
H. Harper. 

The society this year paid out in premiums $228.50, awarded at 
the fair held on the 19th and 20th of October. A vote of thanks 
was tendered Mr. Dibble for the efficient manner in which he dis- 
charged the duties of secretary. E. Burke Fisher for a time was 
secretary pro tern, during this year, and by his suggestion a plan 
of voluntary donations was adopted of money to the society's 
treasury, which afforded material aid in time of need, and so its 
officers were enabled to report a steady annual increase of entries 
and specimens. 

The society met Jan. 5, 1S55, and elected the following officers: 
Elmer Rose, President; William G. George, Secretary (before the 
year expired Mi. George resigned and R. Burroughs was selected to 
fill the vacancy; Mr. Burroughs likewise resigning, Dwight Dem- 
ing was chosen^; D. Matthews, Treasurer. Directors — Minor T. 
Graham, E. M. Irvin, W. F. Bulla, M. W. Miller, M. Tibbitt, 
Thomas M. Holloway, Benjamin Rupel, Lot Vail, Stephen Fields, 
Alexis Foote, Squire Rush, Joel Garst. Executive Committee — 
W. G. Whitman. B. F. Price. T. S. Cowles. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 565 

This year was inaugurated the plan of connecting agricultural 
books with the premiums and diplomas. The number of articles 
entered for premiums was largely increased, amounting to 402. 
The total receipts was also largely increased, amounting to $470.51, 
including memberships. Of this amount $196.68 was paid out for 
premiums. Other expenses this year were in excess of any previous 
year, the register of orders paid, including premiums, was $580.93, 
leaving a balance of only $5.43. Elmer Rose was sent as a dele- 
gate from the society to the meeting of the State Board of 
Agriculture. 

The sixth annual election for officers of the society was held 
Jan. 5, 1856. The following officers were elected: John II . Harper, 
President; Dwight Deming, Secretary; Daniel Matthews, Treas- 
urer. Directors — E. Rose, H. Myers, D. D. Jewell, John H. 
Kingery, Frank Kinney, T. L. Holloway, Alexis Foote, Thomas R. 
TutC Samuel Witter, M. Hupp. 

Samuel Witter, Thomas L. Holloway, William F. Bulla, under 
appointment of the society, submitted at this meeting the list of 
premiums for the year, which were awarded at the close of a very 
brilliant fair held the 7th, 8th and 9th of October. The pay of 
officers is recorded this year as follows: E. Rose, delegate to State 
Board, $25; D. Deming, Secretary, $25; D. Matthews, Treasurer, 
two years, $30; N. T. Townsend, of the Ohio Agricultural College, 
Cleveland, for annual address, $15. The amount paid the secretary 
and treasurer was that fixed for annual compensation. The total 
receipts this year were $675.62; expenditures, $655.15; leaving a 
balance in the treasury of $20.53. 

On the 6th day of January, the seventh annual election of the 
officers of the society was held, resulting as follows: Samuel Wit- 
ter, President; Jonn M. Veasey, Secretary; Daniel Matthews, 
Treasurer. Directors — H. Doolittle, George Milburn, Jacob 
Snyder, Joseph Miller, Jacob Shimp, T. L. Holloway, Isaiah Rose- 
berry, Peter Stambaugh, John Metzger, Samuel R. Jennings, 
Powers Greene, W. H. Robertson. 

Delegate to the State Board of Agriculture — John H. Robert- 
son. 

The treasurer's report this year gives the total receipts $889.27; 
expenditures, $654.59; balance in the treasury and subject to draft, 
$344.68. 

THIRD ORGANIZATION. 

The society this year was reorganized, and lots number 19, 20, 
21, 25 and 26, in the State Bank's first addition to the town of 
South Bend, were purchased and improved for a third organization 
under a new constitution, conformably to the amended statute for 
the encouragement of agriculture, approved Feb. 17, 1852, and 
the regulations of the State Board of Agriculture. 

March 15, 1858, at a special meeting of the society held for that 
purpose, on motion of Elmer Rose it was resolved unanimously to 
reorganize the body and to adopt a constitution. 



566 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



Under the new constitution the following -were elected officers: 
John Druliner, President; William F. Bulla, Vice-President; 
William Miller, Treasurer; Milton W. Stokes, Secretary. Direc- 
tors — Elmer Rose, G. C. Merritield, Jacob Snyder, John Kingery, 
Jacob Rush, Jeremiah White, John Smith,.. P. S. Stambaugh, E. 
M. Irvin, Thomas R. Tutt, John F. Ullery and John Moore. 

Subsequently, under formal and appropriate legal orders of the 
society, the old grounds were abandoned and sold, and new grounds 
purchased as already stated. The new fair grounds embraced seven 
and one-half acres, all within the corporate limits of South Bend. 
The whole was enclosed by a tight board fence, seven feet high. 
In the inclosure, the native trees were all left standing. An office 
building, 10x20 feet, was erected on the eastern extremity of the 
grounds; and on either side were gate-ways for the ingress or 
egress of persons on foot. Near the center of the ground was a 
building erected for a floral hall, 24x48 feet, enclosed; two large 
folding doors at each end, and four windows on each side. 

The eighth annual exhibition was held in the new grounds Sep- 
tember 28, 29 and 30, 1858, and was well attended. 

The ninth exhibition was held three days of the last week in Sep- 
tember, 1859. Bad weather interfered with the success, but there 
was a fine display of articles, and a very large attendance. 

The society now seemed to be in a flourishing condition, and for 
several years it was quite prosperous, but misfortune finally over- 
ook it, and suspension followed. The last annual fair was held 
September 16-20, 1872. The next year, in connection with the 
Northern Indiana Fair, an exhibition was held, since which time it 
has not had an organized existence. 



AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY FOR 1880. 





03 






DQ 


DQ 

<D 

O 


DQ 


6 
Pm2 




















-a 






J 




I_ 


3 




£ 


Q 


O 


O 


o 

PL, 


O 




Olive , 


4878 
3078 


1466 

1617 


988 
301 


276 

238 


64 
112 


3887 
:i::02 


115 




284 




8409 


1910 


328 


264 


46 


3008 


295 


Clay 


2926 

2490 
6777 
1893 


1509 
1386 
3945 
1012 


319 

361 

1570 

296 


265 

202 
786 
184 


126 

100 

254 

64 


2296 
3329 
5028 
2244 


178 




162 




481 




216 




2064 


1220 


364 


230 


46 


1320 


78 




3406 


1904 


389 


303 


35 


1807 


35 




3839 
4406 
3545 


2449 
2S14 
8778 


1205 
1097 
1318 


407 
444 
520 


183 

68 

168 


1779 
3522 
1546 


183 




110 




175 




2327 


1205 


277 


159 


80 


1948 


155 


T.of New Carlisle 
















T. of Misbawaka 


3011 


315 


117 


28 


7 


509 


13 


T. of Walkerton . 


118 


66 




8 


2 


36 


2 


City of So. Bend . 


190 


45 




7 


1 


89 


1 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



367 



RATE OP TAXATION AND TAXABLE VALUATION OF REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY 

FOR 1879 AND 1880. 



Township, City or 


ftgd 


Real Estate 


Personal Property 


Taxable 
Polls. 


Town. 


1879 


1880 


1879 | 1880 


1879 


1880 


German " 

Clay " 

Harris " 

Portag " 

Greene " 

Mishawaka 


1 04 

1 05 

1 06 

95 

83 

1 00 

86 

1 00 

1 07 

1 04 

1 04 

1 14 

1 35 

2 02 
U 4 
1 66 

61 

Total 


778,630 

3 88,925 

44 3,080 

3 0,155 

-< 3 7,480 

1 3,690 

5 1,500 

1,390 

7,570 

7,035 

5,615 

i 8,865 

1 5,710 

7 0,235 

64 5,765 

6 9 400 

3,15 ,725 


814,850 
448,600 
458,465 
427,710 
318,920 

1,302,190 
001,890 
409,100 
403,850 
555,310 
417,835 
453,090 
249,940 
80,580 
535,415 
88,000 

3,180,960 


249,920 

113,445 

119,100 

76,865 

80,010 

265,330 

92,600 

111,180 

158,770 

153,505 

137,775 

101,015 

48,840 

50,075 

240,735 

51,010 

,721,554 


250,320 

116,890 

158,245 

89,680 

88,440 

254,950 

111,630 

135,340 

157,080 

180,000 

159,875 

131,810 

55,400 

57,900 

254,515 

59,720 

1,822,700 


204 

140 
117 
149 

81 
414 
118 
155 
180 
358 
371 
285 
125 

98 

374 

130 

2077 


218 
143 
138 
130 
84 
304 
105 
138 
150 
294 
379 
297 
117 
105 
3R7 


Walkerton 


131 




1944 




$10,367,030 


$10,734,705 


$3,777,930 


$4,085,215 


5382 


5119 



*Special school levy and taxation tor city purposes not included. 



COUNTY EXPENDITURES FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 31, 1880. 



Amount paid County Officers except County Superintendent f 5041.82 

" Grand and Petit Jurors, bailiffs, and all Court allowances. 2584.68 

" on account of Coroner's Inquests 167.95 

" on account of enumeration, appraising, assessing, etc. . . . 1787.25 

" on account of roads, viewing, surveying and bridges 2717.01 

" on account of County Superintendents and Institutes 1292.76 

" " on account of prisoners and criminals 788.30 

" (total) on account of poor, not including investments in 

poor farms or buildings or repair of same 9041.63 

" on account of benevolent or reformatory institutions 986.71 

" on account of repairs of public buildings and care of same 1343.52 

" on account of interest on County bonds 240.00 

" on account of books, stationery, printing and advertising. . 1261.71 

" on account of redemption of County Bonds, proper 3000 00 

" on account of Commissioners' Court 439.20 

" on account of bounty on wolf and fox scalps 42.00 

" on account of County Asylum (poor-house farm) 2893.37 

" on account of insane paupers 939.87 

" on account of fuel and lights 748.38 

" on account of ditches 9.00 

" on account of elections 45.89 

Total 135,239.55 



568 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



OFFICIAL CENSUS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



TOWNSHIPS. 


.9 

-«© 

st- 
and 

Oh 


.2 

SCO 
P.00 
OiH 

Ph 


.2 s° 

a * 

T— 1 


•— S- 

£ 8 

O >» 

Jo 

1—1 




Olive 


1560 

551 

1442 

408 

2617 

2365 

777 

1363 

1743 

2679 

1421 

760 
964 
717 
1697 
1801 
1394 
1063 


1901 

579 

1476 

450 
2640 
2321 

770 
2197 
3286 
3236 
2280 
2393 

777 
1000 

768 
1906 
2015 
1939 
1389 


341 
28 
34 
42 
23 

834 

1543 

557 

859 

2393 

17 

36 

51 

209 

214 

545 

326 


44 

7 


157 




129 




107 
74 








369 




105 


South Bend, 1st Ward 




" 2d Ward 




" 3d Ward 




" 4th Ward 




" 5th Ward 






129 




161 




130 




330 




310 




264 
158 




25322 


33323 


8052 


51 


2423 



The net gain in the county in ten years was S,001. The largest 
gain anywhere in the county was in the Third and Fifth wards. In 
1870 these two wards constituted the Third ward, and the popula- 
tion was 2,679. The population now in the same territory is 5,629 
— an increase of 2,950, or more than 110 per cent. 

The deaths in the county from May 31, 1879, to June 1, 1880, 
were 400, divided as follows: Olive township, 17; Clay, 16; Mish- 
awaka and Penn townships, 84; Portage township and First ward 
of South Bend, 30; Third and Fifth wards, 93; Second and Fourth 
wards, 54; Warren, 3; Greene, 6; Centre, 8; Madison, 17; Union, 
31; Liberty, 24, and Lincoln, 17. 

AGED PERSONS IN THE COUNTY. 



The following list ot persons over 75 is compiled from the cen- 
sus report as furnished by the different enumerators, now on file in 
the clerk's office at South Bend: 

In the 1st ward of South Bend and Portage township E. W. 
Hoover reports 17 persons above 75 years. They are: John Boyes, 
79; Madore Cratee, 77; Charity Cobb, 79; Sophia Coquillard, 76 
Elizabeth Cleveland, 88; Dolly Caldwell, 86; John Degraff, 85 
Benjamin Eckler, 76; Susannah Elbel, 80; Elizabeth Embick, 80 
Jacob Hardman, 76; Henry Holtz, 83; John Kleindinst, Sr., 77 
Lovina R. Pfleger, 79; Andrew Sherburg, 70; Rebecca Stude 
rbaker, 78: Lena Schidler, 79; L. Hain, 82; C. M. Heaton, 75 
Thos. Fitield, 78; Mrs. Mary Kent, 76. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 569 

In the 2d and 4th wards Major Witherill reports 15, as follows: 
Joseph Bradt, 79; Frank Bauer, Sr., 78; James G. Bentley, 86; 
Catharine Emerick, 83; Sarah Kindig, 84; Joseph Megler, 80; 
Jacob Miller, 85; Win. G. Norris, 77; Samuel Perry, 78; Frances 
Perro, 75; Dr. S. Kaff, 76; Thos. Rockhill, 79; Mary Shuman, 76; 
Eveline Tilden, 80; Christine Yeada, 77; Dr. Ham, 80; J. B. 
Arnold, 79. 

In the 3d and 5th wards John M. Deffenbaugh reports 26 as fol- 
lows: Adam Bernhard, 75; Catharine Bernhard 75; Agnes Butch- 
coski, 90; Barbara Fritzer, 76; Susannah Goodwin, 78; Hester 
Good, 79; Rosa Hantz, 80; James Huey, 75; Sarah Hall, 80; 
Anna Hack, 76; Henrietta Judia, 75; Joseph Keasey, 86; Max 
Konzen, 70; Elizabeth Konzen, 70; Martin Lasetski, Sr., 78; 
Charles Loring, 79; Catharine Ordt, 79; Jlcdin_D^_RoWns 011^89^ 
Henry Slusser, 82; Ann B. Sample, 79; Doretta Sehauchs. 80; 
Ephraim Trueblood, 79; Margaret Trueblood, 70 ; Samuel Wal- 
dorf, Sr., 77; Nancy A. Whitlock, 76; Charles Morgan, 80; T. J. 
Seixas, 77. Oldest man in the city, Judge Robertson; oldest lady, 
Mrs. Butchcoski; both in the 3d ward. 

Union township, 17, reported by P. P. Ducomb: Ruth Brock, 
78; Nathan Corderay, 80; Martha Corderay, 75; Sophia Conrad, 
78; Christine Dowell, 77; Thomas Hughes, 80; Jane James, 80; 
Mary Knepp, 79; Nancy Kern, 80; Matilda Manuel, 79; Simon 
Paulns, 76; Joseph Penrod, 78; Jane Palmer, 75; Catharine 
Rupert, 76; Aaron Reynolds, 82; Elizabeth Reynolds, 80; . Charles 
. firnit h, 83. Oldest gentleman, Charles Smith; oldest ladies, Mrs. 
Reynolds, Mrs. James and Mrs. Kern. 

Madison township, 10, reported by John Wier: Andona Aut : 
enberger, 88; Sophia Cinsmer, SO; Isaac Culp, 70; John Dock- 
look, S6; Jacob Getz, 84; Christian lleminger, 75; Philip Kline, 
78; Balser Manges, 77; Mary Markes, 77; Thomas Fifield, 78. 
Oldest gentleman, Mr. Autenberger; oldest lady, Mrs. Cinsmer. 

Liberty township, by J. C. Miller, 13, as follows: Samuel Betz, 
79; Jacob Hildebrand, 83; Hannah Hildebrand, 77; Greenberry 
King, 79; Elizabeth Leitner, 75; Elizabeth Reinehart, 83; Anna 
Rupe, 78; Conrad Swank, 75; Dorcas Swank, 79; Mary Smick, 
86; Samuel Williams, 77; Charles Williams, 79; Eleanor Wil- 
liams, 76. Oldest gentleman, Jacob Hildebrand; oldest lady, Mary 
Smick. 

Olive township, 23, reported by James Curry: Joseph Adams, 
76; Nancv Adams, 77; Samuel Bates, 79; James Caterlin, 75; 
Jane Davis, 77; Barzella Drollinger, 79; Nancy Drollinger, 77; 
Isaac Faurote, 75; Mahala Faurote, 78; Mary Flannigan, 75; Mar- 
garet Frisby, 80; John Fredinberger, 75; Anna Goolbeck, 84; 
Christian Iierpolshimer, 75; Anna Herpolshimer, 77; Maggie 
Harmon, SO; Andrew Kush, 90; Anna Kush 80; Elizabeth Lane, 
79; Nancy Nango, 90; John Nauok, So; Benjamin Nickersou, 84; 
Gabriel Reed, 79. Oldest gentleman, Andrew Kush; oldest lady, 
Nancy JSaugo. 



570 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Clay township. Mr. Molloy, enumerator; 8, as follows: Michael 
McRedmond, 76; Lewis Neyron, 86; John Pecan, 80; Harriet 
Redmond, 80; John Statesman, 75; Eliza Statesman, 75; Eliza- 
beth Ullery, 76; E. C. Webster, 76. Oldest gentleman, Dr. Ney- 
ron of Notre Dame; oldest lady, Mrs. Redmond. 

Pen n township, including Mishawaka, 36. reported by Messrs. 
Judkins and Sumption: Harriet Beart, 7S; Elizabeth Boltinghorn, 
77; Moses Bascom, 83; Mary Crooks, 78; Mary Carreus, 78; 
Henry Delcamp, 80; Elizabeth Eberhart, 80; Julia Edwards, 76; 
Stephen Griffins, 84; David Griggs, 90; Ruth Griggs, 75; Abbie 
Halburd, 75; Sabrina Ham, 76; Sophia Hallenbeck, 75; Christian 
Hopricks, 84; George Jacobs, Sr. 90; Esther R. Kerr, 80; An- 
drew H. Long, 86; Mary Maut, 75; Elizabeth Matthews, 77; 
Margaret Ossia, 85; Alphona Pecher, 85; Hannah R. Petti t, 77; 
Mary A. Smith, 7^; Sally Smith, si ; Hannah Faurell, 79; Ryan 
Van Pelt, 79; Lavina Doo'little 79; Polly Jones, 77; Mathias 
Klein, 87; Alvina Moon, 75; Mary Ocker, 79; Mary Pegg, 85; 
Nancy Patterson, 76; Israel Schmid, 80; Louisa Zager, 75; Gil- 
man Towle, 76. Oldest gentlemen, David Griggs, and George 
Jacobs, Sr. ; oldest ladies, Margaret Ossia and Mary Peag. 

Lincoln, W. J. "Wolfe, enumerator, 5, as follows: Win. Bender, 
70; Polly Haymaker, 83; Andrew T. Mitchell, 76; Truman Rose, 
77; Ruth AVilcox, 77. Oldest gentleman, Truman Rose; oldest 
lady, Polly Haymaker. 

Greene, James Carskaddon, enumerator, 7, as follows: Christina 
Haukey, 82; Elizabeth Jones, 81; Jacob Myers, 78; John Rupel, 
82; Elizabeth Rambo, 85; Christina Swygert, 75; John Seward, 82. 
Oldest gentlemen, Messrs. Rupel and Seward; oldest lady, Mrs. 
Haukey. 

Centre, Schuyler C. Carskaddon, enumerator, 3, as follows: 
Elizabeth Henson, 75; Susan Price, 77; Sophia Schaffer, 78. Old- 
est lady, Sophia Schaffer; no gentleman over 75 years. 

Warren, Ashbury Lindley, enumerator, 3, as follows: Martin 
Nailin. 75; Elizabeth Reprogle, 75; Rustin Wright, 78. Oldest 
gentleman, R. Wright; oldest lady, Elizabeth Reprogle. 

German, J. G. Keltner, enumerator, 6, as follows: Julia Cham- 
berlain, 80; Mary House, 78; Samuel R. Keltner, 84; Mary Shade, 
76; Abrah am Smith, 77; Margaret Zigler, 75. Oldest gentleman, 
S. R. Keltner; oldest lady, Julia Chamberlain. 

Harris, A. D. Manning, enumerator, reports 8, as follows: Geo. 
Young, 82; Catharine Young, 78; William Snyder, 83; John 
Rohrer, 78; John Kerfus, 75; Michael Griffith, 80; Arbagast 
Zaehnle. 79; Horace Bonney, 78. Oldest gentleman, Wm. Snyder; 
oldest lady, Mrs. Young. 

The oldest men in the county are David Griggs and George 
Jacobs, of Penn, and Andrew Kush, of Olive, each aged 90. The 
oldest women are Mrs. Butchoski, of this city, -nd Mrs. Nango, of 
Olive, each aged 90. 

The total number above the age of 75 in the entire county is 
197. . . 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE PRESS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. NORTHWESTERN PIONEER. — SOUTH 

BEND FREE PRESS. ST. JOSEPH VALLEY REGISTER. MISHAWAKA TOC- 
SIN. FREE DEMOCRAT. ST. JOSEPH COUNT!' FORUM. NATIONAL 

UNION. SOUTH BEND HERALD. MISHAWAKA BEE. THE INVESTI- 
GATOR. — SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE. INDUSTRIAL ERA. SOUTH BEND 

ERA. — ST. JOSEPH COUNTY REPUBLICAN. WALKERTON VISITOR. 

SOUTH BEND COURIER. TURNER'S SOUTH BEND ANNUAL. NEW CAR- 
LISLE GAZETTE. — NOTRE DAME SCHOLASTIC. AVE MARIA. 

THE PRESS OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

As has already been stated, St. Joseph county was organized in 
August, 1830. One year after, John D. Defrees made his appear- 
ance at South Bend, a village of some thirty houses, and proposed 
to its citizens the establishment here of a newspaper. At this 
time there was no paper north of the Wabash in this State, or in 
Southern Michigan. Chicago, also, was without representation. 
In November, 1831, the first number of the Northwestern Pioneer 
was issued, by John D. and Joseph H. Defrees. Politically, the 
paper was Whig. After the first six months the name of the paper 
was changed to the St. Joseph Beacon, and continued as such 
eighteen months longer when it was suspended, the country not 
being sufficiently populated to support a newspaper. 

The South Bend Pree Press was the next venture in the news- 
paper line, and was established in 1836 at South Bend, by William 
Millikan. It was continued nine years, the office then being sold 
to Albert W. West and Schuyler Colfax, in September, 1845. The 
Free Press was discontinued, but on its ruins was established the 
St. Joseph Volley Register. 

St. Joseph Volley Register. — Volume 1, No. 1, was issued Sept. 
12, 1845, at South Bend, with the names of Albert W. West and 
Schuyler Colfax as publishers — Sclmyler Colfax, editor. In size it 
was 22x32, a six-column folio. In its salutatory, the editor says: 
"In politics we shall be inflexibly Whig, believing those principles 
the best and safest and wisest for the administration of our Govern- 
ment. With an abiding confidence that sooner or later those 
principles will gloriously and permanently triumph, we shah labor 
for them as zealously and faithfully when the prospect is dimmed 
by defeat or reverses, as when it is lit up by the sunshine of victory. 
Although we shall defend those principles sternly and earnestly, our 
arguments and language will be such as to offend no reasonable 
opponent. And if it should be our ill-fortune to be visited with 

(571) 



572 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

personal scurrility and abuse by any antagonist, wc shall leave that 
part of the contest exclusively to him. We were not bred in that 
school; we know nothing about its arguments." 

On the subject of slavery, the editor says: " We shall take the 
middle ground lying between the two dangerous extremes, which 
patriots should always aim to find. We shall be opposed both to 
Oalhounism and Birneyisra, viewing them both as ultraisms, and 
yet, like opposites, often meeting unconsciously. To the first we 
shall be hostile because it holds that outrageous doctrine that slavery 
is a national blessing and the corner stone of the republic; because 
it strives to enlarge the borders of that 'peculiar institution;' 
because it would, if it dared, rack the glorious fabric of our union 
till it tottered and fell. To the other we shall be opposed because 
its course, we think, tends to rivet the chains of the slave more 
firmly to prevent a calm and argumentative discussion of the whole 
question through the South, and because its political organization 
has only tended thus far, to assist the fanatics of the South in per- 
petrating slavery and enlarging the slave territory and slave power 
of the union. Without regard, therefore, to these two extremes, we 
shall be fixedly opposed to enlarging the borders of slavery even 
one inch, either so far as sailor power and weight in the national 
councils are concerned, and shall hail with happiness the day when 
the Southern States, after calm examination, shall in a constitutional 
and legal manner adopt a feasible plan of emancipation, either 
gradual or immediate." 

Agriculture, education and news were to find a prominent place 
in the paper. The first number contained the advertisements of 
John Brownfield & Co., George S. Harris and John Oilman, Jr., 
dry-goods and groceries; A. Delano & Co., hardware; R. Bur- 
roughs, copper, tin and sheet-iron manufactory; James Snodgrass, 
E. F. Dibble and R. L. Farnsworth, attorneys; South Bend Acade- 
my, C. M.Wright, Principal; L.Humphreys and John Tatman, 
physicians; Henry Johnson, wool-carding; several book advertise- 
ments, legal advertisements and tracts of land. 

Albert B. West retired after the expiration of seven months, 
Schuyler Colfax becoming sole proprietor of the establishment. 

Volume 3, No. 1, commenced with an enlargement to a seven- 
column folio. This change the editor says caused a considerable 
outlay and added heavily to his weekly expenses for type-setting 
and paper. On the completion of the telegraph line, it began to 
receive telegraphic dispatches. On the 29th day of December, 1849, 
the Register boasted of a telegraphic feat. Dispatches were sent 
from New York at 4 o'clock p. m., and received at South Bend at 
3:35 p. m. — apparenth* 25 minutes before being sent, the difference 
in longitude occasioning this strange fact. The editor said: "If 
Mor6e ever gets a line across the ocean, by way of Iceland, we shall 
expect him to furnish European news up to Thursday night every 
week for our Thursday morning's paper." The editor did not 
dream a line would ever be stretched across the ocean, and that not 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 573 

by way of Iceland. In the same issue, in farther speaking of tele- 
graphic work, the editor says: " Last Saturday, the atmosphere 
being dry, cool and pure, and everything else propitious, the proper 
communications were made, and the operator at Buffalo wrote 
through beautifully to Milwaukee, 800 miles, without re-writing 
at Detroit. "We received our report of that afternoon direct from 
Buffalo. This is the first time that this has been done, and we 
believe 800 miles is as far as writing has ever been sent by any of 
the operators on any of the lines in the world." But he has lived 
to see this eclipsed. 

In the spring of 1851, Mr. Colfax was nominated for Congress and 
retired temporarily from the editorial management of the paper, 
James Davis assuming editorial control. Unfortunately he was 
not elected, so at the close of the campaign he again took the 
editorial chair. 

As an evidence of prosperity, the Register in July, 1S53, placed 
in its office a Northrup power press, by which it was enabled to 
work the paper at a rate of 800 to 1,000 per hour. Few power 
presses were then in the country, and this was a great novelty. 

In 1854 Mr. Colfax was again honored with a nomination for 
Congress, and while canvassing his district, Alfred Wheeler was 
placed in charge of the editorial department of the paper. Mr. 
"Wheeler discharged his duties in a satisfactory manner, and did 
much to assist in the election of Mr. Colfax. 

Just before the completion of the eighth volume the Register was 
enlarged to an eight-column folio, 2t!x40. In speaking of this 
enlargement the editor says: " Eight years ago this month we issued 
the first number of the St. Joseph Valley Register. The years 
since then have sped rapidly by, and to-day we issue the largest 
paper published in the State of Indiana; each page is twice the size 
of those to be found in the first and second volumes of the Register. 
This forward step has been an expensive one. No country paper 
in Indiana has ever risked as large an amount as we do now in the 
present enlargement. But we have coolly calculated the cost, and 
resolved upon the hazard; and the first fruits of the determination 
is now before our readers. The first year that we published the 
Register, we will not conceal the fact, it did not pay expenses. The 
second year it materially improved and left us a surplus. "We 
resolved then, after considerable reflection, to enlarge its size, and in 
September, 1847, it first appeared as a seven-column paper, being 
the only one of that size in this section of the State, north of the 
Wabash counties. Many of our friends, and one or two of our 
cotemporaries, doubted whether a paper of the size of the Indiana 
State Journal would pay in this less populous and less profitable 
locality. The first year of that experience was as gloomy as the 
unprofitable volume of two years before; but the tide of patronage 
gradually swelled; the next year was better, and at last the margin 
was on the right side. To-day we invest the earnings of all our 
eight years of labor in the enlarged Register, and we shall labor 



574. HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

during the coming year to make its receipts, if possible, equal to 
its largely increased expenditures. That much achieved, we shall 
hopefully rely upon the past being a sure augury of our prospects 
in the future." 

In April, 1S57, Alfred Wheeler was admitted as a partner in the 
publication of the paper, the firm name being Colfax & Wheeler, 
both gentlemen occupying the position of editor as well as publisher. 
In April, 1859, a further enlargement was made from an eight- 
column folio to a nine-column folio. A new power press had been 
added a short time previous, which, together with much other 
materia], made the office the most complete in Northern Indiana. 
Subsequently Mr. Wheeler became sole owner, afterward taking as 
a partner Mr. Hall. In November, 1S65, Archibald Beal became 
the owner of the office, associating with him in the publication of 
the paper C E. Fuller. This partnership continued for two years, 
when Mr. Fuller retired and A. B. Miller and E. Crockett became 
associated with Mr. Beal, under the firm name of Beal, Miller & 
Co. In Jannary, 1872, Miller and Crockett disposed of their interest 
to Mr. Beal, who remained as sole editor and proprietor for another 
year, when Daniel S. Marsh was installed as associate editor. In 
February, 1S7-4, D. J. Benner purchased one-half interest in the 
office, and became associated in the editorial labors, Mr. Marsh 
remaining but one month longer in an editorial capacity. In Au- 
gust, 1S75, a joint-stock company was organized for the publication 
of the paper as well as general job printing, composed of Archibald 
Beal, President; E. W. Henricks, Secretary; N. F. Van Winkle 
Treasurer; O. II. Palmer, George H. Alward and A. N. Thomas. 
The name adopted by the company was the Register Company. On 
the 13th of October, 1878, the Register Printing Company was 
organized, composed of the following named stockholders: Daniel 
S. Marsh, President; Charles N. Fassett, Secretary; Herbert S. 
Fassett, Treasurer; E. M. Kerr and F. A. Marsh — the entire stock 
of the Register Company passing into their hands. Subsequently 
the stock of D. S. and F. A. Marsh was purchased by the company 
which is at present composed of Herbert S. Fassett, President; 
Charles N. Fassett, Secretary; E. M. Kerr, Treasurer. Charles N. 
Fassett is the editor of the paper, and Willis E. Beal, reporter. 

In the various changes that have been made in the publication of 
the paper, no backward step has been taken, it keeping in the front 
rank in its general and political and in its local departments. 

On Saturday, Sept. 18, 1875, the publication of the Daily Reg- 
ister was commenced. It is a seven-column folio, well edited in 
its various departments, and a credit to the place. 

The Mishawaka Tocsin was established in 1841, by Wilbur F. 
Storey, the present editor of the Chicago Times. Subsequently 
George Merritield became the publisher. In 1845 Thomas Jerne- 
gan became the owner and the office was removed from Mishawaka 
to South Bend, and the name of the paper changed to the Indiana 
Tocsin. The support in South Bend was not sufficient to warrant 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 575 

its continuance, and the paper was suspended here and the office 
removed to La Porte. 

The Free Democrat, was started in 1848 by E. W. H. Ellis, to 
support the Free-Soil movement and in support of the candidacy 
of Martin Van Buren, who was the nominee of that party for 
President. It survived but a few months. 

In 1853 A. E. Drapier & Son commenced the publication of the 
St. Joseph County -Forum. The Forum was Democratic in 
politics and edited with more than ordinary ability. The senior 
proprietor was a man of great force of character, a close observer, 
ami deep thinker, while the junior was a " chip off the old block." 
For several years Charles E. Drapier was the responsible editor, 
especially during the sessions of the Legislature, each of the pro- 
prietors being engaged as short-hand reporters in the legislative 
bodies. The experiment of a semi- weekly was tried in 185S, but 
abandoned after a few months' trial as being unprofitable. In 1863 
the Forum was suspended by order of Brigadier-General Hascall, 
for what was regarded as disloyal utterances. After a suspension 
of a short time its publication was resumed. The proprietors 
subsequently sold the establishment to Edward Malloy, who changed 
the name to the National Union and again to the South Bend 
Weekly Union. In December, 1S74, it passed into the hands of 
C. L. Murray, who placed his son, C. T. Murray in charge. About 
this time the latter formed a joint stock company known as the 
"Herald Printing and Publishing Company." The company 
started a morning daily which was continued one year. The 
Herald has at other times issued a daily, but only for political 
campaign purposes. On the 22d of May, 1876, the stock of the 
company was transferred to C. L. Murray, who came to South 
Bend and assumed control and management of the paper. It is 
now recognized as one of the leading Democratic papers of the 
State, and is edited with zeal and ability by Mr. Murray. 

The Mishawaka Bee was started in 1816 by S. P. Hart, and dis- 
continued after the expiration of two years. 

The next venture was that of the Free Press, the publication of 
which was begun in 1853, by D. C. Ireland, and continued by him 
for two years, when he sold to L. A. Elliott who changed its name 
to Mishawaka Enterprise, and subsequently sold it to Archibald 
Beal. In 1865 the Enterprise passed into the hands of N. V. 
Brower, and in 1872 it was purchased by E. A. Jernegan, who 
enlarged and otherwise improved it, until it now is one of the 
largest pa; ers in the county and fully up to the times in every 
particular. The office was destroyed by fire in 1872, but by increased 
patronage and faithful work it soon recovered from the calamity, 
and the Enterprise was made a complete success. 

The Investigator was the name of a religious paper published by 
P. T. Russell for a short time. It advocated the doctrines of the 
Christian Church. 

37 



576 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The South Bend Weekly Tribune was established in 1S72, the 
first number bearing date March 9, of that year. The Tribune was 
published by the Tribune Printing Company, composed of Alfred 
B. Miller, Elmer Crockett, E. W. Hoover and J. H. Banning. 
Alfred B. Miller was placed in editorial charge and has remained 
in that connection to the present time. The paper has always fear- 
lessly and consistently advocated the principles of the Republican 
party. In his salutatory the editor said: " As to the policy of the 
Tribune we have only a word to say. Our aim will be to make it 
the best family journal possible; a wideawake and reliable news- 
paper; earnestly devoted to the great principles upon which the 
Republican party was founded, but independent in utterance and 
impartial in criticism. As an exponent of public opinion, it will 
aim at candid, impartial and enlightened discussion of every ques- 
tion of public interest. It will be in sympathy with every liberal 
tendency, progressive movement and live thought, which shall give 
promise of securing the prosperity and elevation of the people. Its 
best energies, however, will be employed to advance the interests 
of our city and county, and no effort "will be spared to make it 
worthy of the generous patronage and hearty support we respect- 
fully solicit." That the paper has been what is set forth in the 
foregoing statements an examination of its files will attest. When 
the paper was established, a book bindery was started in connection, 
and one year after a stock of books and stationery was added. The 
present officers of the company are Alfred B. Miller, President; 
Elmer Crockett, Vice President; John M. Diftenbaugh, Secretary; 
Alfred Wheeler, Treasurer. 

In 1S73, the company started the Daily Tribune, which at once 
met with public favor, and in a very short time was placed upon a 
paying basis. 

Industrial Era, a seven-column folio sheet, established late in 
the fall of 1S79, b\ 7 Ralph E. Hoyt. The Era was an advocate of 
the principles of the National Greenback party 7 . It only survived 
about three months. 

South Bend Era. — The first number of the Era appeared March 
27, 18S0, with B. F. Shively, editor and proprietor. Like the 
Industrial Era it is a strong advocate of the National Greenback 
party, and strikes telling blows in advocacy of the right as under- 
stood by that party, and against what it conceives to be wrong. It 
is a seven-column folio, and is meeting with fair success. 

St. Joseph County Republican. — The Republican, was ushered 
into existence in the summer of 1879, at Walkerton, and is edited 
by James F. & W. A. Endley, father and son. As its name indi- 
cates, it is a consistent advocate of Republican principles, and labors 
faithfully and intelligently in behalf of the doctrines of that party. 
It is a six-column folio, printed all at home, and is meeting with 
encouraging success. 

Walkerton, Visitor. — This paper is published weekly at Walker- 
ton, Indiana, and is a seven-column folio. It is edited and pub- 
lished by H. S. Mintle, and is now in its sixth volume. The 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 577 

Visitor is a staunch advocate of Greenback principles, and being 
published in a region where it can draw on two or more counties 
for support, it has a large and increasing circulation. 

South Bend Courier. — This paper was established in 1873 under 
the name of the Indiana Courier, by the publisher of the Herald. 
It was shortly afterward purchased by G. Fickentscher, who has 
since been both editor and publisher. When started it was folio in 
form, 28x40 in size. When the name was changed to the South 
Bend Courier its form was also changed to a six-column folio. The 
paper has a large circulation in St. Joseph and neighboring counties. 
In politics, the Courier has always been a strong advocate of the 
principles of the Democratic party. 

Turner's South Bend Annual. — The Annual was started Janu- 
ary, 1869, by T. G. Turner, and has since annually appeared about 
the first of January. It gives a complete and reliable review of the 
business of the city during the preceding year, and is a very valu- 
able publication. 

The New Carlisle Gazette was founded Feb. 6, 18S0, by George 
H. Alward, of South Bend, and G. M. Fountain, of Mishawaka, 
under the firm nameof Alward & Fountain. Under the manage- 
ment of these parties the paper was continued six months indepen- 
dent in politics; but finding it unprofitable to publish successfully 
a paper without pronounced political views, G. M. Fountain pur- 
chased the interest of his partner and brought out the paper as an 
advocate of the Republican party. The paper was first published 
as a six-column folio; in three months it was enlarged to a seven- 
column folio, and when purchased by the present proprietor it was 
made an eight-column paper, making it the largest paper in the 
State for $1 per year. 

Notre Dame Scholastic. — In the good old days of Notre Dame, 
the students of the college had a semi-monthly magazine called the 
Progress, which rarely passed beyond the manuscript edition. Its 
origin was due to John Collins, J. H. Fleming, B. B. Barron, and 
F. C. Bigelow. The first paper was called the Notre Dame Liter- 
ary Gazette, and was passed around among the students. The very 
first number was destroyed in a summary manner, and this destruc- 
tion inspired John Collins to start the Progress, and have it read 
publicly for all the students. Mr. Collins edited the first number, 
in the year 1858. Other numbers were edited by T. E. Howard, 
General Robert Healy, James B. Runnion. A. J. Stace, Philip Car- 
roll, D. M. M. Collins, M. O'Reilly, J. M. Howard, L. G. Tong and 
others. All articles were copied for the paper by a committee of 
publishers, the most famous of whom were Chamberlain, Fleming, 
and Horatio Calvin. As these young men wrote similar hands, 
the " get up " of the Progress was very tasty, while the form of 
publication gave great satisfaction to all. The reading of the Prog- 
ress was looked forward to as a sort of celebration, and everybody 
flocked to the large study hall to hear it read. Although the editors 
of the Progress were students, the paper was to a great extent 



578 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNT!'. 

under the direction of the late Rev. N. H. Gillespie, and many 
of the editors of '61 and '62 remember with pleasure the kind assist- 
ance given them by him. Editors and contributors of those years still 
recall the social times they enjoyed over oysters and the like about 
once a month. When Father Gillespie went to Frauce in 1863, the 
paper was suspended, after having lasted some four or five years, 
and the college literary talent found no other vent than in such 
Biirreptitious publications as the Weekly Bee, and others of like 
character. On Father Gillespie's return from France he found a 
printing office established at Notre Dame for the publication of the 
well-known Catholic periodical, the Ave Maria. Ever zealous for 
the literary welfare of the students, he easily found means of pro- 
curing the issue of another paper from the same office, devoted to 
their interests, and to which the title of Scholastic Year was, after 
mature deliberation, given. It was founded in 1867, under Father 
Gillespie's direction, and was issued semi-monthly. During the 
year, an editorial corps, composed of students, was formed, under 
whose charge the paper was conducted until the end of the second 
term. Experience, however, showed that the editors of one week 
could not be made responsible for the editors of the previous one — 
that the Scholastic Year, to preserve its unit}' and identity must 
be under one responsible editor, and the director of studies (an 
oflice then filled by Rev. Augustus Lemonnier), the following year 
assumed the editorship ex officio, assisted by a numerous corps 
oi contributors. It was found, however, that the director of studies 
was tcio much occupied with the duties of his office to attend to the 
duties of editor, and in 1S69 Rev. N. H. Gillespie again took 
eha'ge of the paper, and the name was changed to the Notre Di/me 
Scholastic. In 1871 it was issued weekly, instead of semi-monthly, 
and as such has been continued. In 1S72 Rev. M. B. Brown, then 
director of studies, assumed charge of the paper, changing the name 
to the Scholastic. Before the end of the year, however, Father 
Brown found that his time was taken up by the duties of his oflice, 
and the paper was a<rain placed in the hands of Rev. N. H. Gillespie, 
the editor of the Ave Maria. Father Gillespie remained in charge 
ot the Scholastic until his death, which took place in 1874. In 
1875 the old name of Notre Dame Scholastic was restored. 

Ave Maria. — This is the name of a Catholic journal devoted to 
the honor of the Blessed Virgin, published every Saturday at Notre 
Dame. It contains essays on subjects referring to the Blessed 
Virgin, articles on the different festivals, edifying tales, historical 
and biographical sketches, choice poetry, items of Catholic news, a 
weekly letter from Rome, etc.; also a regular bulletin of the Asso- 
ciation of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, with a record of some of 
t'.c most remarkable cures effected by the miraculous waters ot 
Loiudes. There is also a children's department, which is made as 
entertaining as possible for younger readers. 

The Ave Maria was begun in May, 1865, by Very Rev. E. Sorin, 
who, with assistants, acted as editor for about a year and a half 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



579 



and was*"succeeded in 1S67 by Rev. N. H. Gillespie, who remained 
editor until his death, in 1874. On the death of Father Gillespie 
a committee of four was appointed to conduct the paper. The 
magazine has a general circulation of about fifteen thousand copies, 
and some of the best Catholic writers at home and abroad con- 
tribute to its pages. 








CHAPTER XV. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. ST. JOSEPH COUNTY TOTAL 

ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. WHAT A PINT OF WHISKY COST. — THE 

TEMPERANCE CRUSADE. RED RIBBON MOVEMENT. 

8T. JOSEPH COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. 

Pursuant to notice a large number of the friends of the Bible 
cause met at the Methodist Episcopal Church to take into con- 
sideration the organization of a County Bible Society which should 
be auxiliary to the American Bible Society. After some discus- 
sion it was resolved to organize^ and the following named officers 
were elected: William II. Patterson, President; J. H. Orr, Gr. W. 
Matthews and Almond Bugbee, Vice Presidents; Pv. B. Curtis, 
Secretary; J. L. Jernegan, Treasurer; John Brownfield, Reuben 
Burroughs and Jeremiah Banning, Executive Committee. 

A constitution was adopted which has since been somewhat 
amended. The society during its existence shows a clean record, 
and has accomplished much good in the furtherance of the object 
for which it was organized. It has endeavored at all times to be 
free from debt to the parent society, and always to have a surplus 
on hand. At times this surplus has amounted to $1,200. It has 
now in store books amounting to $363. The Tribune bookstore is 
the Depository. F. R. Tutt is the present President; J. E. Lewis, 
Secretary; Elmer Crockett, Treasurer. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. 

The temperance workers of St. Joseph county very early began 
the work of advocating the cause of temperance, and in the fifty 
years of the organized existence of the county have not ceased to 
labor in behalf of those who have been addicted to the use of strong 
drink, as well as to prevent the young from forming habits that 
might eventually lead them to a drunkard's grave. 

In 1841, when the Washingtonian movement began to be agi- 
tated throughout the land, the men and women in St. Joseph 
county who believed in the doctrines of total abstinence, at once 
formed themselTes into a society under the name of " St. Joseph 
County Total Abstinence Society." Annual meetings were held 
on the 22d of February at South Bend, and reports were received 
from the anxilian 7 societies formed throughout the county. The 
society had pledges of total abstinence circulated extensively, and 
all had an opportunity of enrolling themselves upon the side of 

(560) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 581 

temperance. It must not be thought their work was carried on 
without opposition. In that early day men loved their toddy as 
well as those of a later day, and as at present, those who advocated 
the doctrine of total abstinence were said to be fanatical upon the 
subject of temperance. " License" or " no license" was advocated 
by their respective champions, and the total abstinence societies 
were for many years successful in preventing the legalizing of the 
traffic in ardent spirits. 

The sixth annual meeting was held in the Methodi6t Episcopal 
Church, South Bend, Feb. 22, 1847, Samuel C. Sample in the 
chair. Judge Sample delivered an address urging all to secure a 
"no license" vote in their respective townships. A. Delano was 
elected President for the year; S. C. Sample, A. A. "Whitlock, 
I. De Camp, Vice Presidents; Schuyler Colfax, Recording 
Secretary; Charles M. Heaton, Corresponding Secretary; E. B. 
Crocker, John Ruddock, Charles N. Ryan, President Whitten and 
John Browntield, Executive Committee. Reports of a cheering 
character were made by auxiliary societies of South Bend, Misha- 
waka, Sumption's Prairie, Clay township, Kankakee, Terre Coupee 
and Warren township. The total number of pledged total absti- 
nence persons according to the reports made were 2,019. 

The seventh anniversary was held at the Presbyterian church in 
South Bend, Feb. 22. 1848. John H. Orr was elected President; 
Jonathan Hubbard, Jackson Green and Eliakim Green, Vice-Presi- 
dents; George Pierson, Recording Secretary; John Brownfield, 
Corresponding Secretary. 

A resolution was offered and carried by a close vote, asking the 
Legislature to pass an act changing the law as relating to this 
county, so that voters who wished to vote for license should have it 
expressed on their tickets, instead of counting all those who do not 
vote ,b no license," as being in favor of license. 

Feb. 22 the annual meeting was again held in South Bend, and 
flattering reports were made, there being an addition of several 
hundred names added to the names of those taking the total absti- 
nence pledge. James Davis was elected President; M. Stover, A. 
Wilson and G. Holloway, Vice-Presidents; John Brownfield, 
Recording Secretary; M. L. McClelland, Corresponding Secretary. 

Feb. 21, 1852, James Davis was elected President; P. Whitten, 
A. Hudson and G. Holloway, Vice-Presidents; John Brownfield, 
Recording Secretary; M. L. McClelland, Corresponding Secretary. 

The sixteenth annual meeting was held in South Bend, Feb. 22, 
1856. George C. Merriiield was elected President; President Whit- 
ten, Richmond Tuttle, George Holloway, Vice-Presidents; John 
Brownfield, Secretary; Picketson Burroughs, Corresponding Secre- 
tary. A resolution was passed in which the society deprecated any 
effort to identify the temperance movement, or the question of pro- 
hibition, with either of the political parties of the State, with a 
view of arraigning the other party against it. The society also 
expressed itself in favor of the prohibitory law, and against 



582 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

the elevation to the Supreme Bench of a man who was opposed 
to it. 

The eighteenth annual meeting was held Feh. 22, 1S59. R. 
Clark was called to the chair. Reports were received from several 
auxiliary societies of a not very encouraging character. Richmond 
Tuttle was elected President; H. E. Hurlbut, Ira Corwin and 
Matthias Stover, Vice-Presidents; A. Bugbee, Corresponding Secre- 
tary; John Brownfield, Recording Secretary. 

The Presidential campaign of 1860 coming on, followed by the 
war in 1861, interest in the cause died out, and the society soon 
ceased to exist, though efforts did not cease in other directions to 
advance the temperance cause. 

WHAT A PINT OF WHISKY COST. 

The St. Joseph Valley Register, under date Jan. 3, 1867, has 
this to say under the caption as given: 

" Some 31 years ago Jonathan Beckwith, a young lawyer of 
decided promise, bought a pint of whisky, and, getting drunk, 
wandered out on Terre Coupee Prairie on a cold winter night, and 
was so badly frozen that he lost his reason and the use of his limbs, 
and has been ever since, until his death two weeks ago, an inmate 
of the county poor house, an insane cripple, and his keeping has 
cost the county no less than $8,000! 

THE TEMPERANCE CRUSADE. 

In the winter of 1873, a movement was begun in Ohio, which 
was denominated the "Woman's Temperance Crusade," from the 
tact that a few noble women, despairing of success for the cause of 
temperance as advocated and enforced by the professed temper- 
ance people, proceeded to try the efficacy of prayer. Bands of pray- 
ing women visited the various saloons in their neighborhood, and 
by songs and prayer forced the rumsellers to close their shops. 
Their very earnestness had its effect upon all classes of society, 
and men and women who were lukewarm in the cause became 
aroused and renewed their light against the enemy. The citizens 
of St. Joseph county were riot to be outdone by communities else- 
where. In South Bend, Monday, March 16, 1874, there was a 
great gathering of the friends of temperance. A. meeting was an- 
nounced for three o'clock in the afternoon, but long before that 
hour the sidewalks were lined with people, and in the streets were 
the carriages of those who had come from a distance to take part in 
the {exercises. At a quarter before three the opera house was 
packed to the very limit. The stage was tilled with speakers, a 
choir of singers, and representatives of the press, the auditorium 
was crowded, every aisle had its ranks of persons standing, the 
gallery was packed, and many went away not obtaining even 
a glance of the inside. There was that in the eyes and mien of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 583 

the people which showed tliat they knew they were there, and 
meant all they expressed in their manner. The speaking and sing- 
ino- were strictly in accordance with the attendance, and altogether 
it was a grand affair, and such a meeting as gives support and 
stability to any good cause and those engaged in it. 

Promptly at three o'clock the assemblage was called to order, 
with Hon. Schuyler Colfax in the chair. The exercises were 
opened with an appropriate anthem by the choir. An earnest 
prayer was then offered by Rev. H. A. Gobin, which was followed 
by a second song. 

Mr. Colfax inaugurated the speaking by a few pertinent and 
eloquent remarks. He called attention to the terrible ravages 
which the evils of intemperance had brought to the land, and the 
urgent need of the reform now in progress. The women's move- 
ment had been as startling in its character as a clap of thunder 
from a clear sky, and the cloud which had been at first no bigger 
than a man's hand, had suddenly overspread the whole heavens. 
Tbe speaker believed that the mighty uprising now witnessed by 
the whole country would only subside when the curse of the traffic 
in liquor had been swept away. Like the institution of slavery, 
the demon of drink brought nothing but woe to mankind. They 
were alike obnoxious in the sight of God, and, as by His aid the 
first had been uprooted and cast out, so under His divine guidance 
would the women and men who had engaged in this noble crusade 
succeed in exterminating the second. The opponents to the reform 
all claimed to be friendly, but — they thought some other method 
of bringing it about preferable. Moral suasion was urged, and the 
liquor sellers wanted their opponents to be careful to keep within 
the bounds of the law. "With regard to the first, moral suasion was 
just the weapon in use, if he rightly apprehended the term, and he 
thought that if saloon-keepers were treated to the medicine they 
prescribe, few would be able to hold a license. For his part he 
was willing to let the women choose their own course, and he 
wished it understood that whatever they should see fit to do, he 
stood by them. 

Marvin Campbell was the next speaker. In view of the fact 
that whole communities would often make concerted and most ener- 
getic efforts for the eradication of minor evils, it seemed strange 
that apathy could anywhere exist with regard to the blighting 
effects of intemperance. He blamed men, with whom all legislative 
and judicial power is vested, for allowing it to remain unchecked. 
He appealed to mothers, fathers and sisters, to throw all their in- 
fluence in favor of the good cause now so happily begun. 

A letter was read from Rev. D. J. Spillard, pastor of St. Patrick's 
Church (Roman Catholic), in which he declined to take part in or 
approve of the movement inaugurated by the women, but pledged 
himself to do all he could to further the cause of temperance in 
other ways. He had but a few days before organized a total-absti- 
nence society in his Church, and would labor faithfully to increase 



584 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

its members. In concluding his letter the reverend gentleman 
said: "Let committees be appointed to watch and report every 
violation of the law, and then let legal proceedings be instituted, 
the guilty parties brought to justice and forced to forfeit their 
licenses. Let God be earnestly and piously supplicated to stay this 
terrible scourge which is devastating our fair land. Let every 
minor be made to bring to the bar of justice the man, if such he 
can be called, who would deal out his poisonous potions to inno- 
cent, unsuspecting, wayward youth; let every woman who suffers at 
the hands ot the terrible demon have recorded the name of her 
tormentor; in a word, let all just and proper means be used to wage 
untiring warfare against intemperance. Count on me always as 
the friend of temperance and the unrelenting foe of drunkenness." 

Charles Smith, A. N. Thomas, Lucius Hubbard and Miss Fanny 
Spain followed in short remarks, when Mrs. Emma Malloy made the 
closing speech. Mrs. Malloy said she had often been asked what she 
thought of this woman's movement, and hesitated to give a reply 
lest her answer should be less reverent than the subject seemed to 
demand. She could not doubt but the movement was a natural 
revulsion, an eruption of the smoldering fires that for centuries 
past was pent up in the heart of woman. She could not doubt but 
that the hand of God had shaken these internal fires, and could 
only gaze with awe and reverence at the mighty upheaving that 
thrilled the nation from center to circumference. She was convinced 
that women were not satisfied to sit with folded hands while the 
first-born of the nation was being slain, — while the fairest and pur- 
est in every household in the land were the victims of the fell 
destroyer. The heart of woman had thrilled with silent anguish; 
she had wept her night of sorrow through; and now had arisen the 
host of Israel. The foe was being routed. '• The glad dawn whose 
early twilight" all had been gazing down the centuries of time 
to see. had come. 

A temperance meeting was also held the same day at the Reformed 
church, and an association was formed under the name of the 
" "Women's Protective Association of South Bend," its object being, 
" In the spirit of love and earnestness to try to protect the hearths 
and homes of the women of South Bend, and those of other places 
who have fathers, husbands, sons or brothers, from the evils and 
dangers of intemperance." Various committees were appointed — 
on canvassing, visitation, enforcement of law, license, finance, mass 
meetings, printing, music and legislation. In addition to the 
regular membership there were to be co-operative members, com- 
posed of the men who would sign a pledge wherein they pledged 
themselves to abstain from signing any petition for the license of 
the sale of intoxicating drinks, and to give cordial support and 
co operation to the Women's Protective Association, in their efforts 
for the banishment of the traffic and use of intoxicating drinks. 

In less than one week 778 men and 350 women had signed the 
pledge of fellowship and co-operation in the temperance movement. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 585 

On Sunday, March 22, another monster mass meeting was held and 
addressed by able speakers. 

The movement was not confined alone to South Bend, but at other 
points in the county large meetings were held and good accom- 
plished which is yet felt in every community. 

EED-KIBBON MOVEMENT. 

The next movement in behalf of temperance was that known as 
the "Red Ribbon Movement," which was the direct result of the 
women's crusade. An interest had been awakened throughout the 
land, but many not religiously inclined, and some who were con- 
scientiously opposed to the work as performed by the women, were 
yet ready to embrace some other method that would lead to good 
results. At the opportune moment the red-ribbon movement was 
set on foot and rapidly spread throughout the land. In the winter 
of 1876-'77, eloquent speakers in advocacy of tile claims of this 
new effort came into this county, and at South Bend and other 
points large meetings were held and many induced to sign the 
pledge and wear the ribbon. The first club organized was at South 
Bend, on the 7th of April, 1877. John Brownfield, Jr., was elected 
President; Richard Holmes, John Duey and Fred Barnhard, 
Vice Presidents; Otto M. Knoblock, Secretary; Z. M. Johnson, 
Treasurer; Mr. Perkins, Chaplain. On the Sunday following the 
club held a public meeting and was addressed by several young 
men who had been accustomed to the use of intoxicating drinks. 
Under the direction of Mrs. Emma Malloy a series of meetings 
was held, and the number of those signing the pledge was greatly 
increased. The movement was one of love to all men, the doctrine 
of hate being unknown. 

After Mrs. Malloy ceased her labors in South Bend, there was a 
lull in the movement for a time, but it was again inaugurated in 
July following by John W. Custer and Major Plympton. Under 
their labors many who had not previously signed were induced to 
do so, and the cause of temperance received an impetus which 
could not be impeded by any slight obstacle in the way. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

DARK DEEDS. — CTARLES EAGER. — ALEXANDER WILSON. — THOMAS BOU- 
CHER. — ORANGE G. STAGE. — JOHN SCHULKOSKI.— JONATHAN HICK- 
MAN. JOHN SULLIVAN. MURDER OF EPHRAIM DICE. ST. JOSEPH 

: RIVER'AND ITS VICTIMS. — FOUR YOUNG PEOPLE DROWNED. — MYSTERI- 
OUS DISAPPEARANCE OF HENRY F. PORTER. HENRY SHERMAN. 

FOUND A WATERY GRAVE. KATY FLECK'S TRAGIC DEATH. — MYS- 
TERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF J. C. MARVIN. DEATH IN THE RIVER. 

DROWNING OF JACOB BAUER. — STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE. — JOHN 
SCHUMAN. — WHISKY DID IT. — ANOTHER VICTIM. 

DARK DEEDS. 

Since the day that Cain slew his brother Abel, murder has been 
rife in the land, and it can hardly be expected that a county the 
size of St. Joseph could have an existence of fifty years without 
having its soil stained with the blood of a human being. Made up 
of representatives of nearly every nation, having inherited the 
prejudices and imbibed the hatred so common among different 
nationalities, and sparred on by the demon drink, it is a wonder the 
record is not darker and crime has not prevailed to a greater extent. 

Thirty-eight years had passed from the time Pierre Navarre 
made here his home before the murderous hand was raised. The 
first case was that of 

CHARLES EAGER, 

indicted October 7, 1858, for the murder of Charles Kelley, at 
Mishawaka. Kelley and several companions from South Bend 
went to Mishawaka, and while intoxicated got into a difficulty, 
which resulted in his being stabbed in the heart by Eager. On 
trial the evidence seemed conclusive that the murder was done in 
self-defense, and the accused was acquitted. W. G. George and 
John. F. Miller appeared for the defense. The same defendant was 
afterward convicted of manslaughter in Allen county and sen- 
tenced to eight years in the penitentiary. 

ALEXANDER WILSON. 

On Friday, Aug. 3, 1860, Alexander "Wilson murdered, in cold 
blood, Samuel Pierson, near the residence of Mr. Lamadee, in 
Greene township. Thev were both residents of that township. Some 

(586) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 5S7 

years prior to this sad occurrence, Wilson married the daughter of 
Mr. Pierson, but owing to his almost habitual brutal treatment she 
had left him, and in the spring of 1S0O she obtained a divorce from 
him. "Wilson had since that time made repeated threats to kill 
both her and her father and other members of the family. On the 
day of the murder, with her father, she went to the residence of 
Mr. Lamadee in a wagon, Wilson following with a shot-gun. As 
Mr. Pierson got out of the wagon and was hitching his horses, 
Wilson came up and struck him repeatedly with the barrel of his 
rifle, breaking his arm, breaking and smashing his skull horribly, 
and knocking him senseless beneath his horse's feet. Before the 
alarm could be raised and assistance secured, Wilson made hi 
escape into the woods. Mr. Pierson, all the time senseless and 
without motion, lingered until the next day, when he expired. 
Wilson was always considered a bad man and a reckless and dan- 
gerous character, and so excited and incensed were the citizens that 
if he had been caught at the time he would have been lynched. A 
reward of $200 was offered for his capture by the Sheriff of the 
county, and he was afterward arrested and returned to Indiana for 
trial. A change of venue being taken to La Porte county, he was 
there tried, convicted and sentenced to six years' imprisonment in 
the penitentiary at Michigan City. He was, however, pardoned by 
the Governor long before the expiration of his term. Wilson was 
defended by W. G. George and A. Anderson. 

THOMAS BOUCHER. 

At the October term, 1865, of the Circuit Court, Thomas 
Boucher was indicted by the Grand Jury, for the murder of Alex- 
ander Laudemun. Thomas Boucher was a Virginian by birth, and 
at the time of the affair was a resident of Chicago, but temporarily 
working at Notre Dame. The killing occurred in the fourth ward 
of South Bend, and was claimed to have been accidental. He was 
brought to trial at the April term, 1866, of the Circuit Court, 
found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to two years in the 
penitentiary. He was ably defended by W. G. George and A. 
Anderson. After the expiration of one year he was liberated by 
the Governor. 

ORANGE G. STAGE. 

This man was charged with the murder of Charles Tibbetts in a 
saloon, where the opera douse now stands, in the city of South 
Bend. The weapon used in taking life was a large dirk knife. 
Stage was indicted at the October term, 1870, of the Circuit Court. 
A change of venue was taken to Marshall county, where he was 
placed on trial, being defended by W. G. George, C. H. Reeves 
and James Davis. The plea of the defense was that Tibbetts was 



588 HISTORY OF ST. JOSKPH COUNTY. 

killed by Stage in self-defense. The reputation of Tibbetts as a dan- 
gerous and quarrelsome man materially aided this defense, and 
Stage was acquitted. 

JOHN SCHULKOSKI. 

Frank Treanofski, Martin Sass, Max Strafe, Joseph Pinkowiski 
and John Schulkoski were out hunting on the 27th of November, 
1873, and returned about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and at the 
invitation of one Kitkoski, went to his house to get some whisky, 
but when they arrived there they found there was none in the 
house, so they made up a pur6e of a dollar and sent for some alco- 
hol, which they diluted with water. Under the influence of their 
potations they became merry and went to dancing, which they kept 
up until about 10 o'clock, when they commenced quarreling. 
Kitkoski attempted to put Treanofski out of his house, in which 
he was assisted by Schulkoski, who in the melee drew a knife and 
attempted to stab Treanofski, cutting through his vest and shirt, 
but not wounding him. They finally succeeded in getting them 
out of the door, but they did not immediately go away; they stood 
on the porch while Sass was putting on his gloves. While 
in the act of doing so Schulkoski shot at them out of the 
window, the load passing in front of Treanofski's face and striking 
Sass in the left side of the face, destroying the left eye and carry- 
ing away nearly all the lower part of the nose, and killing him 
instantly. Schulkoski was arrested, and on the 2Gth of December 
was arraigned for trail. Conviction followed and he was sentenced 
to 21 years in the penitentiary. 

JONATHAN HICKMAN. 

On Tuesday morning, July 16, 1874, the people living about 
three miles north of .New Carlisle were surprised to find the log 
cabin in which a Polander by the name of Thomas Cihanski, 
better known by the nickname of " Tommy Polander," lived with 
his wife, to be burned to the ground. On closer investigation 
they were horrified to find the '-emains of two human beings in 
the ashes, which proved to be those of the Polander and his wife. 
The sight was a most horrible one. The legs and arms were almost 
wholly consumed, the bodies with their shriveled intestines and the 
open skulls, showing the brains within baked to a cake, being the 
only parts which were not charred to cinders. At first it was 
thought thev had been burned to death, but closer examination 
showed a foul double murder had been committed. The remains 
of the man were still recognizable, and on inspection it was 
revealed that the back part of his skull had been crushed in. The 
body of the woman was so badly charred, that whatever marks of 
violence may have been on her person were undiscoverable. Locks 
of ha ; r and clotted blood were fuund on the grass near the ruins of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 589 

the house, seeming to indicate that a terrible strnggle had taken 
place between her and her murderer outside of the house. A 
bloody nightcap was also picked up nearby. 

The remains of both parties were found close to where they were 
known to sleep, showing that the woman's body must have been 
carried in and thrown on or near the bed, to convey the impression 
that both came to their deaths while slumbering, by accidental 
burning of the house. The house was built of logs in a partial 
clearing made by Cihanski, on land belonging to James Swank. 

The report that there was a considerable sum of money in the 
house, supposed to have been the motive of the killing, was posi- 
tively confirmed by the evidence brought out at the inquest, the 
brother-in-law testifying that Cihanski had about $600 in a belt 
which he carried around his waist. He had been repeatedly urged 
to put this in a bank, but would not. 

Sheriff Turnock, who was present at the inquest, had his suspicions 
aroused by the actions of two young men, James Bennett and 
Jonathan Hickman. They were arrested, but no evidence being 
found against them, they were discharged. The Sheriff kept track 
of them, however, and becoming more and more convinced of their 
being implicated, organized a party, and going to the residence ot 
their parents, a few days after the murder, arrested them and con- 
fined them in the county jail, where they remained until the 
December term of the Circuit Court, when they were placed on 
trial, Judge Stanfield presiding. 

After hearing the evidence of a number of witnesses, James 
Bennett, one of the parties indicted, was placed on the stand and 
turned State's evidence, narrating every particular of the horrible 
deed. Upon his evidence as well as by circumstantial evidence by 
other witnesses, Hickman was found guilty and sentenced to the 
penitentiary for life. 

The prosecution of the case was conducted by O. S. Witherilland 
Lucius Hubbard, the defense by Major Plympton and Judge 
Hagerty. 

JOHN SULLIVAN. 

On Saturday evening, March 18, 1876, a little after six o'clock. 
John Sullivan appeared at the county jail and asked to be locked 
in, stating as his reason that he had stabbed William Quinlan in 
front of a saloon on South street, opposite the Lake Shore depot. 
It would appear from evidence given in the case, Quinlan and a 
man named Harrington had been having some trouble about a 
woman. Harrington had cast some aspersions upon the character 
of a woman in whom Quinlan was interested, and the latter, when 
intoxicated, went to a house where Harrington was stopping and 
demanded satisfaction. It is said that Harrington and others took 
advantage of Quinlan's partial helpless condition and gave him a 
severe beating. Out of this grew the difficulty which ended in the 



590 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

death of a human being. The parties met in the saloon of Thomas 
Krick, near the Lake Shore depot, and after partaking of a quan- 
tity of villainous whisky, the old difficulty was renewed and they 
proposed to fight it out. Some feeble protest was made against the 
tight, but the general voice of the crowd was in favor of it, fisti- 
cuffs being recognized as the only true way of settling misunder- 
standings, particularly if it happened to be an old grudge. Krick 
objected to fighting in the saloon, and as the crowd wanted more 
elbow room, all moved outside, Quinlan and Harrington clinching 
and falling as they cleared the door. They then had two or three 
rounds, breathing a moment between each, when Sullivan, a cousin 
of Harrington, who had been standing with an open knife in his 
hand, gave Quinlan a slash in the bowels, driving the blade in its 
full length. Quinlan did not at first realize that he was cut, but 
continued fighting. The blood streamed from the wound, however, 
and he soon got faint. He leaned for support against a building, 
and with an exclamation that he was stabbed, staggered a few steps 
and fell. He was taken into the saloon and physicians summoned. 
Soon after he was removed to the residence of his parents, where 
about six o'clock the next morning he died. 

On Wednesday, May 31, Sullivan was arraigned for trial, the 
evidence being substantially as narrated. After hearing the evi- 
dence and the counsels for the prosecution and defense, the jurj r 
retired, and in a few minutes returned with a verdict of eleven years 
in the penitentiary. 

MUEDEK OF EPHEAIM DICE. 

On Friday night, Aug. 20, 1SS0, Benjamin and Ephraim Dice, 
had some trouble with Charles Perkins and Maennerchor Wall, in 
South Bend. The parties met again on Monday afternoon follow- 
ing at J. K. Seltzer's saloon, No. 117 Michigan street, where the 
trouble was renewed. Ephraim and Ben Dice were sitting in the 
saloon when Perkins and Pfaffenbach entered. Perkins and 
Ben Dice renewed their quarrel and engaged in a sort of a wrestling 
fight, which Pfaffenbach interrupted by striking Dice. The latter 
then turned his attention to Pfaffenbach and knocked him down, 
when he gave up whipped. A short time afterward the two broth- 
ers met the other crowd in front of Hughes' saloon, where talk of 
a fight was entered into, Pfaffenbach making a demonstration 
toward Ben Dice. The Dice boys saw that they were greatly out- 
numbered and didn't care to fight. Meantime George Keck, who 
like most of the others was partially under the influence of liquor, 
was anxious to get at Ben Dice, and finally did break awaj T from a 
couple of his friends who were holding him and struck Ben Dice. 
Ben was knocked down and partly stunned by two or three blows 
rained in upon him as he fell, and did not fully recover conscious- 
ness until informed that his brother wa6 killed. When Ephraim 
Dice saw his brother beset by so many he naturally went to his aid, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY". 591 

and thus through his brother's troubles came to his own death. 
He was immediately engaged by two or three of the crowd and 
quickly knocked down with what is supposed to have been a pair of 
metal knuckles on a slung-shot. He fell head foremost against a 
box and then rolled down upon the sidewalk, from whence he was 
kicked into the gutter. As he struck in the gutter his hands went 
up like the last grasp of a man for receding life. The next mo- 
ment he partially raised himself on his elbow and was picked up 
and carried into Snyder's drug store, close by, where within ten 
minutes he breathed his last, without having uttered a word or 
recognized a friend. A large crowd immediately gathered, and 
when the injured man was pronounced dead, people began to look 
around for his assailants, but during the excitement of the moment 
they had taken to their heels and made their escape. The police 
were scattered over the city, but were soon summoned, and as soon 
as they could get any information began to work, resulting in the 
arrest of Michael Lynch, Charles Kelley, Martin Pfaffenbach, 
Charles Perkins, Daniel Casey, Patrick Touhey, Geo. Briner, and 
a number of young men who witnessed the fight. 

On being pronounced dead by the attending physicians, Drs. 
Partridge and Myers, the remains of the unfortunate young man 
were removed to Liphart's undertaking rooms on the opposite side 
of the street, where Coroner Miller viewed them, and assisted by 
Dr. Flory, made a post-mortem examination, which resulted in the 
discovery that in addition to a bruise and cut over the left eye, pre- 
senting the appearance of having been made with a hard, blunt 
instrument, his neck was dislocated close to the base of the skull. 
The physicians satisfied themselves of this fact by making an in- 
cision in the back of the neck, by which means the dislocation 
could be plainly felt. The dislocation was caused, the doctors say, 
by the fall into the gutter, but it might have resulted from one of 
several kicks that forced him from the sidewalk. 

The parties arrested were taken before Justice Harbaugh, and 
after an examination lasting two days, Charles Kelley and An- 
drew Ptaffenbach were held to bail in the sum of $2,000 each. 
The others arrested at the time were discharged. 

A few days after the examination. Pfaffenbach was taken before 
Judge Noyes, on a writ of haheus corpus, for examination, with 
the intent of having bail reduced. Atter hearing the testimony, 
the Judge remanded him to jail without bail. 

ST. JOSEPH RIVER 4ND ITS VICTIMS. 

As one looks upon the St. Joseph river, with its clear, sparkling 
water hastening on toward the lake, it is with no dark, foreboding 
thoughts, but with heart-felt thanks to the Giver of all good and 
perfect gifts for placing at our feet another evidence of his wisdom 
and his power. Here in this beautiful stream is seen a power, 
which, if controlled by man, may be the means of giving life to 

38 



592 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

many by converting the golden grain into an article of food; mills 
and manufactories may flourish upon its banks; vessels may ride 
upon its water; but no thoughts of death obtrude upon the mind; 
the grim monster that waits upon all surely cannot be lurking here; 
and yet the pen of the historian is compelled to write of many sad 
endings of life in these pure waters. Here is witnessed a youth, 
playing in the water, with no thought of death before him; peace 
and joy reign in his heart; but as he playfully splashes the water 
upon his companion he gets beyond his depth, goes down, and a 
life is lost! A beautiful maiden, fair as the sunshine, outwardly 
giving no evidence of a clouded life, plunges into the river and is 
rescued a corpse. Here is one whose mind has been deranged by 
misfortunes that crowded thick and fast upon him; a small ray of 
light pierces his mind; he realizes that he is a burden to those he 
loves; he goes down to the river bank in the dark hours of the 
night, lays down in the water, where he imagines all trouble will 
end; his body is found and laid away to rest. None but an all- wise 
God can know the thoughts of those who have met death by their 
own hands. The veil of charity must be thrown over all by those 
who are living. 

FOUR YOUNG PEOPLE DROW r NED. 

On Tuesday evening, June 2, 186S, at about half- past six o'clock, 
Eugene Seixas and Charles Walterhouse, accompanied by Miss 
Adele Seixas and Miss Molly C. Miller, started boat-riding, with 
the intention of going a short distance up the river from South 
Bend. Launching the boat near the headgates of the west race, 
very close to which runs the elbow of the dam, it is supposed that 
before the young men got hold of the oars or were conscious of the 
danger, the boat w-as drawn into the swift current and carried over 
the falls. Two men on the bank of the river saw the boat go, and 
stated that it went over sideways, all the parties being in it until it 
capsized just on the edge of the dam. There was nobody near 
enough to render them any assistance, the workmen having all left 
the shops, consequently all were lost. The body of Miss Miller 
was found the same evening, fifteen minutes after the accident hap- 
pened, near the bridge. That of Charles Waterhouse was found the 
next morning at six o'clock; the body of Eugene Seixas about 
nine o'clock, and Adele about noon, near a large sycamore tree 
beyond the foot of the east race, and a quarter of a mile from where 
the disaster occurred. The young folks were well known in the 
city of South Bend, and their terrible death cast a gloom over the 
entire community. 

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF HENRY F. PORTER. 

Henry F. Porter was the superintendent of the Carriage Works 
of Studebaker Brothers' Manufacturing Company. Some time in 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 593 

the month of January, 1878, he resigned his position for the pur- 
pose of accepting a position in Philadelphia: so he stated. A fare- 
well supper was given him on the night of the 31st of January, on 
which occasion he was presented with a fine gold watch by the 
Studebaker Brothers, valued at $300. Mr. Porter was a very tal- 
ented man, and a writer of merit. He was at one time connected 
with the Carriage Journal., and a regular contributor to other trade 
journals. On the evening of tbe 5th of February, Mr. Porter sud- 
denly disappeared from the city. Fears were entertained that he 
had committed suicide by drowning in the St. Joseph river, but the 
facts in the case were not fully known until the evening of March 8, 
when his body was accidentally discovered by a party of fishermen. 
They were drifting down stream with a torch-light in the bow of 
their boat, engaged in spearing fish, and had reached a point about 
a mile and a half below the city of South Bend, when a white object 
on the surface of the water, near the shore, attracted their atten- 
tion. They immediately turned the boat into shore, and on reach- 
ing the object, discovered it to be the lifeless body of a human 
being, resting on its face, with the back protruding white and 
ghastly from the water, and the arms disposed close to the sides. 
Believing they had no authority to remove the body, the men 
secured it in the position it occupied when discovered, by thrusting 
their spears into the river bottom in such a way that the current 
could not carry it down stream and necessitate further search for it. 
The alarm was given the next morning, and the body taken 
from the water. Its condition was terrible to contemplate. It was 
stark naked with the exception of a stocking on the right foot, and 
a shoe and stocking with a piece of his red flannel drawers clinging 
about the left ankle and foot. The face was considerably disfig- 
ured, though but little swelled, and the thin hair of his head was 
full of the sweepings of the river and looked much darker than its 
natural color on that account. The body was not bloated in the 
least. The naked condition of the body was a general surprise, and 
created a new mystery in the premises, as when he disappeared he 
wore a full suit of clothes and an extra heavy overcoat. The where- 
abouts of these articles was a question. Whether they were taken 
off by the drowned man, or whether torn off by the hidden powers 
of the river will remain a secret until all mysteries are exposed. 
But the remains were fully identified as being those of the missing 
Henry F. Porter. They were placed in a metallic casket and for- 
warded to Philadelphia for interment. 

HENET SHERMAN. 

On Sunday afternoon, June S, 1879, W. R. McCracken, of South 
Bend, was rowing up the river in a small boat, and when about 
half way between that place and Mishawaka he discovered an 
object in the water which at first sight resembled a valise, but 
upon closer examination proved to be the skirts of a coat floating 



59-1 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

over the shoulders of a man's body. The body was lying upon its 
face and was lodged upon a snag. Mr. McCracken immediately 
turned his boat about and floated down stream a short distance 
where he found three men fishing. To them he disclosed his start- 
ling discovery, and the entire party repaired to the spot where the 
body was still held by the obstructions in the water. The men 
hauled it on the shore with some difficulty. The face was black, 
the limbs stiff, and it had the appearance of being in the water for 
sometime. The coroner was notified and an inquest held over the 
remains, which were recognized as those of Henry Sherman, of 
Mishawaka. Mr. Sherman had been of unsound mind for about 
four years, and to end his troubles threw himself into the St. Joseph 
river, and added one more to its long list of victims. 

FODND A WATERY GRAVE. 

Joseph S. Kenyon and Ellet W. St. John went in swimming in 
the river near South Bend, Sunday, Aug. 3, 1879, and their two 
sons, Johnny Kenyon, aged 13, and Henry St. John, aged 12, 
went in with them. The two men, after bathing awhile swam 
across the river, leaving the two boys to bathe where they then 
were. At this point the water was quite shallow some distance 
from the shore, then it deepened suddenly at a clayey bank. Henry 
St. John was the only one of the boys who could swim. While the 
fathers were across the river, the two boys were playing in the 
water, walking backward and splashing the water over each other. 
Suddenly Johnny slipped on the clayey bottom and into the 
water over his head. Henry, who was with him, made an 
attempt to save him, but was so much smaller that when 
he grappled Johnny both went down. John Marble was on the 
bank watching the swimmers, and although lame, he plunged in 
when he saw the danger, with his clothes on. He reached Henry 
first and started him toward the shore and he got safely on the 
bank. He then turned his attention to Johnny, but the moment 
he seized him, Johnny grabbed him by the throat with vice-like 
grip and choked Mr. Marble so that he was nearly drowning him- 
self, and was obliged to throw him off and catch him by another 
part of his body. When he attempted to do this Johnny was out 
of reach, and Mr. Marble was himself so exhausted he could 
scarcely get to shore. The alarm was then raised, and the two 
fathers swam across as rapidly as they could and began the search 
for Johnny's body. As soon as they found it every effort was made 
to resuscitate the boy, but in vain, althongh they did not cease 
trying for over an hour. 

KATY FLECK'S TRAGIC DEATH. 

About the first of April, 1876, the wife of Charles Schaeffer, ot 
South Bend, died, leaving an infant child about four months old. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 595 

A sister of the deceased, Miss Kate Fleck, then came to keep house 
for Mr. Schaeffer, and attend to the motherless one, receiving as 
compensation the sum of $2 per week. On Wednesday, July 5, 
she demanded an increase of wages to $2.50 per week. Mr. Schaef- 
fer told her he could not afford it, and if she was not satisfied 
with what he was paying her, he would have to hire some one else. 
The following morning Schaeffer arose at an early hour, went down 
to his shop and returned to the house at his usual breakfast hour. 
Instead of finding the meal prepared, he found a note from Kate as 
follows: "Charley: — Hunt me and your baby on the other side of 
the railroad bridge in the river." Search was at once instituted, 
but no trace could be found of the bodies, and it was thought the 
letter was an idle threat, a mere blind, and that she had gone else- 
where, probably to her father's house, near Plymouth. 

On Friday evening the dead body of Kate was seen going over 
the dam, the arms nearly encircling the head, and the hands above 
as if fighting the water — the position in which the arms of most 
people drowned are found. The river was high and the current 
swift, and the body floated rapidly down stream after emerging 
from the seething waters under the dam. It kept the middle of 
the river and passed the iron bridge before a boat could be secured 
to follow it. Two men finally brought the body to the shore about 
20 rods below the Singer factory. 

The action of the current in forcing the body against obstacles 
had bruised the face and head somewhat, and torn and displaced 
the clothing so that below the waist the body was bare. The face 
was discolored slightly from being so long in the water, but other- 
wise the body presented a very natural appearance. 

On the Sunday following, the dead body of the baby was seen 
floating down the river, and was taken from the water by Theodore 
Chandoni. The body was bloated and badly discolored. The 
legs were spread out and bent at the knees, with the knees 
drawn up toward the shoulders. Around the waist was tied 
a scarf, the ends of which had been made into a loop, which 
evidently Kate had put around her neck to keep the child by her 
that their bodies might be found toerether. Certain discolored marks 
around Katy's neck were thus accounted for. 

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF J. C. MARVIN. 

On the 25:h daj' of March. 1870, J. C. Marvin, engineer in the 
lower shops ofStudebaker Brothers' Manufacturing Company, dis- 
appeared. On the evening of the day mentioned, he parted with 
some of his associates on the street, telling them he must go to his 
room. He boarded at 1G7 Michigan street. Reaching there, he 
got out his old letters, and spent an hour or two looking over them, 
after which he burned them. He then placed his watch and keys 
upon the table and left the house. About ten o'clock he called at 
Eupp's drug store for chloroform, as he had often been in the 



596 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

habit of doing, using it to relieve neuralgic pains from which he 
at times suffered so severely as to render him temporarily insane. 
After applying the chloroform, he conversed with the clerk a short 
time, and then started, as the clerk supposed, for his board- 
ing house. This was the last seen of him by any of his acquaint- 
ances. 

Not making his appearance next day, and his manner of leaving 
his boarding house exciting considerable surprise, search was made 
for him He had been in the habit of visiting at a house near the 
bank of the river, in the north part of the city, and on examining 
the bank there, foot-prints, supposed to be his, were discovered 
near the water's edge. On Sunday, March 27, a large force turned 
out and dragged the river, but no traces of the missing man were 
found. 

On Tuesday, the 29th, a gentleman from Niles, while driving 
across the river at Bertrand, discovered the dead body of a man 
floating in the river. Giving the alarm a boat was procured and 
the body secured, but not until it had floated some distance below 
the town. The body was dressed in a full suit of clothes, and had 
on, in addition, an overcoat. The right arm was fastened to the 
man's side by a rope passed around the wrist two or three times, 
and then tied around the waist. A letter was found in one of the 
pockets addressed to J. C. Marvin, and believing it to be the body 
of the missing engineer, a messenger was dispatched to South 
Bend, and from the description he gave of the clothing, no doubt 
whatever remained of its being any other than the body of Mar- 
vin. Sheriff Glover, Mr. Rupp and Mr. Marks went to Bertrand 
and brought the body to South Bend, where it was recognized by 
his associates. An inquest was held, the Coroner's jury holding 
that he came to his death by drowning in the St. Joseph river, and 
that the drowning was the result of his own act for the purpose of 
self-destruction. 

Before the war, Mr. Marvin was a banker in New York. At the 
breaking out of the Rebellion, he enlisted and served in a three 
months' regiment, and afterward went to Iowa, where he assisted 
in raising a company and was made Captain. He received several 
promotions and was a Brevet Brigadier-General at the close of the 
war. 

DEATH IN THE EIVEE. 

About six o'clock Tuesday morning, Dec. 13, 1S70, two 
employes of the Union Cabinet Manufactory, while going to their 
work, were hailed near the Peninsular railway bridge by a man in 
his shirt sleeves and bare-headed, standing on the bridge, who 
requested them to take his coat and hat to Bartlett & Orvis' 
grocery, and he pointed to those articles, which were hanging on 
Mr. Hue}''s fence, just across the street from the bridge. The man 
acted rather strangely, and having suspicion that he was bent on 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 597 

self-destruction, they started toward him with the intention of pre- 
venting hirn jumping in the river, but he motioned them back, 
saying he was bound to go down, and almost before they could realize 
it he leaped from the bridge into the river and immediately sunk. 
He struck the water at full length, and as the distance from the top 
of the bridge to the surface of the water is between ±0 and 50 feet, the* 
severe shock must have stunned him into insensibilit}^. The men 
then took the clothes down and left them at the grocery store of 
Russ & Co., the only place then open, and gave the alarm. Shortly 
after a clerk of Bartlett & Orvis recognized the clothes as belong- 
ing to R. A. Orvis, the junior member of the firm. !No cause could 
be assigned for the rash act by friends of the deceased except that 
he had become temporarily insane. He had for some time been 
suffering from dyspepsia, and arose that morning about half past 
four o'clock and told his brother Willard, with whom he slept, that 
he was going out and would return shortly, and that was the last 
any of his friends saw of him. He had but lately come to South 
Bend from Baraboo, Wisconsin. The body of the unfortunate 
man was found on Thursday afternoon following his self-destruc- 
tion. 

DROWNING OF JACOB BAUER. 

About half past two o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 20, 1872, 
Jacob Bauer was drowned in the river a few rods above the Penin- 
sular railroad bridge. The drowned man, who was employed on 
the race, assisting in the construction of the water works, had been 
laboring in the forenoon as usual, but feeling rather poorly at noon 
concluded to rest the remainder of the day. Shortly after dinner 
John Miller and John Wanderlich invited him to join them in a 
ride on the river, to which he unfortunately consented. Near the 
spot where the casualty took place, Bauer arose to change his posi- 
tion in the boat, his balance was lost, aud in a moment the craft 
was bottom upward, and the three men were struggling in the 
water, Miller, who could swim a little, reaching the shore by his 
own exertions. Wanderlich climbed upon the overturned boat; 
but Bauer, unable to swim, with not so much as a straw to meet 
his random dying clutches, again and again coming to the surface, 
finally sank almost within reach of the shore, in less than seven 
feet of water. His body was recovered soon after, a Coroner's 
inquest held and a verdict rendered in accordance with the foregoing 
facts. 

STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE. 

Johanna Sharinghausen, who had lived with the family of A. G. 
Cushing in the capacity of housemaid about three years, very 
unaccountably disappeared some time during the night of Aug. 15, 
1872. She retired to her room at the customary hour, after making 



598 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

some trifling inquiries of Mrs. dishing regarding culinary mat- 
ters. Her last words were comments on the beauty of the evening. 
Her absence was first noted about six o'clock the next morning. It 
is presumed she made her exit through the kitchen window, as that 
avenue was the only one in the house unfastened. Her mother and 
• sjsters were immediately notified of her absence, but they were 
utterly at a loss to account for her strange act. The presumption 
was strong that she must have been attacked with insanity, as 
nothing in reason could have actuated her to take such a course. 
She attended church and prayer-meeting with great regularity, and 
was exemplary in all her walks of life. The river, near both banks, 
was dragged between South Bend and Niles, and the west race also 
was searched. On Wednesday afternoon following her disappear- 
ance, some tinners who were at work at St. Mary's, discovered a 
body floating in the river near the bank. It was secured, and 
although distorted almost beyond the semblance of humanity, it 
was recognized as the body of the poor unfortunate girl. 

JOHN SCHDMAN. 

On Monday afternoon, June S, 1874, John Schuman, a young 
German, attempted to cross the river by walking on the apron of 
the dam. When about mid way, where a small stream of water 
pours over the dam, by some means he lost his foothold on the 
slippery planks ot the apron, and was immediately whirled into 
the boiling, seething, eddying waters below. He immediately sank 
out of sight and did not rise to the surface again. His disappear- 
ance was noticed by some persons, and in a few minutes several 
?arties, good swimmers, commenced diving to recover his body, 
'hey continued their diving at intervals for two days, their efforts 
being rewarded on Wednesday afternoon by discovering the body 
at a depth'of twenty- two feet, fast by the arm to some logs. They 
could not release the bod} - from its imprisonment that evening, and, 
when preparing to make another effort the next morning, it had by 
some means become detached from its hold, and was floating on the 
surface. The necessary steps were immediately taken to rescue it, 
and by the time a boat went out, the body had floated further down 
the stream and was picked up opposite the Eagle Works. A legal 
inquest was held and a verdict rendered in accordance with the fore- 
going facts. 

WHISKY DID IT. 

Three Germans, working in the shops of the Studebaker Brothers' 
Manufacturing Compan}', having been paid off a few days previ- 
ously, took a holiday on Thursday, June 11, 1S74, and celebrated 
the event by imbibing large quantities of whisky during the fore- 
noon. About twelve o'clock they found themselves on the river 
bank, a short distance above the Jefferson street bridge, in South 
Bend. The subject of swimming was discussed, and one of the 



RISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 599 

party, Albert Neuman, declared his ability to swim across the 
river at that point. To make good his word, he plunged into the 
river with coat and boots on, and was making fine progress as far 
as the middle of the stream, where he struck the rapid current. 
This was too much for him, loaded down with clothing and alcohol 
as he was, and he commenced being carried down the stream, losing 
every moment more completely the control of his actions. He 
managed to grasp a piece of timber connected with the ice-breaker 
of one of the piers of the bridge, and here for a few moments he 
made a determined effort to support himself. His perilous position 
was observed from the shore, and he was called to hold on to the 
support until a boat could be brought to the rescue, but, being too 
weak, or losing control of his sense of self-preservation, long before 
assistance could reach him, he sank under the waters. His body 
was recovered in fifteen minutes after sinking, and although every 
means were taken to resuscitate him, yet they were unavailing; the 
spirit had left the mortal tenement and was then in the presence 
of its Maker. 

ANOTHER VICTIM. 

James H. Fleming, an employe of the Register office, in com- 
pany with Samuel Carney, of South Bend, on Saturday, June 20, 
1S74-, visited Lumley Lewis, Superintendent of the county poor- 
house and farm, with whose family he was acquainted. About 
seven o'clock the party went to the river, about midway between 
South Bend and Mishawaka, — Lewis, Fleming and a boy named 
VanAmburg, for the purpose of bathing, and Carney, of looking on. 
After being in the water some minutes, Lewis and Fleming swam 
out to a sand bar, about midway of the stream. Lewis warned his 
friend that if he was not a good swimmer he had better not follow 
him. but return to the shore by the way he came, as the water was 
much deeper and the passage more dangerous. Lewis began the 
passage, Fleming following, saying " I am coming, Jim." In a 
lew moments Lewis noticed a peculiar sound in the direction of 
Fleming, and looking back, saw him showing signs of strangulation, 
and struggling in the water, evidently unable to support himself on 
its surface. He immediately returned, and before reaching the spot 
saw his friend sink. He saw him rising again some distance down 
stream and he dived toward the spot, but the drowning man had 
already been carried out of his reach by the current. He swam to 
the shore, and hastening along the bank opposite where he saw the 
bubbles rise, he plunged in again and swam to the spot, but Fleming 
never came to the surface again, being taken with sudden cramps, 
as is supposed, which deprived him of all power to help himself. 

Very much exhausted by his exertions in the water, and darkness 
rapidly coming on, Lewis was unable to make any further search 
for the missing body. Intelligence of the sad affair was at once sent 
to South Bend, and the next morning the proprietor of the Register, 



600 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Lewis, Mr. Carney, Thomas Cottrell, John Beurva, William 
Gantz and Charles Brickel commenced the search. After nearly 
two hours diving and watching the river bottom, just as the search 
at that point was about being given up, and Cottrell was dressing, 
Gantz, rowing over the spot where the last signs of the sinking body 
had appeared on the water, discovered the body lying prone on the 
sand within a few feet of where it sank. Cottrell dived down and 
brought him to the surface, nearly meeting with an accident, which 
would have been unfortunate, had he not been a good swimmer, for 
as he came to the surface with the body in his arms, mistaking the 
depth of the water, he undertook to touch bottom, and, weighed 
down with the additional load, he sank under the water. With the 
assistance of Beurva in the boat, who caught Fleming by the hair, 
Cottrell came to the surface again, still maintaining his hold, and 
brought him to the shore. A coroner's inquest was held and a 
verdict rendered in accordance with the facts as given. The body 
of the unfortunate] man was sent to his parents at Gettysburg, 
Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Fleming's age was 26 years. He was born in Baltimore, 
Maryland, where he spent the earlier years of his life. For nearly 
two years he served his country in the Seventeenth Pennsylvania 
Cavalry, participating in a number of engagements and receiving an 
honorable discharge at the end of the war. Some years before com- 
ing to South Bend he connected himself with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and on arriving here, he was received by the 
First Church, of that denomination, in full membership. He was 
also a member in good standing of a Baltimore lodge of Odd Fel- 
lows, the Grand Army of the Republic, of Gettysburg, and Good 
Templars, of South Bend. 




CHAPTER XVII. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. — FIRST BRICK HOUSE IN SOUTH 
BEND. PIONEER MEETINGS. ADDRESS OF JUDGE STANFIELD. — AD- 
DRESS OF DR. HUMPHREYS. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

In the fall of 1S67 a call was issued addressed to the old settlers, 
for a meeting to organize a county historical society. On the evening 
of October 26, those interested assembled in the City Council rooms, 
when Horatio Chapin was called to the chair, and W. J. Holloway 
appointed secretary. Dr. L. Humphreys then read the call, which 
was signed by George F. Layton, W. J. Holloway, Thomas S. Stan- 
field, L. M. Taylor, P. B. Boon, Charles Morgan, John Brownfield, 
L. Humphreys, A. Bugbee, J. G. Bartlett, William L. Barrett, 
John T. Lindsey, John Reynolds, Mark Whinery, Elisha Egbert, 
Charles M. Tutt, Benjamin AVall, E. S. Reynolds, Jacob Hard in an, 

B. F. Price, J. JST. Massey, R. Burroughs, Elliot Tutt, Matthias 
Stover, J. A. Henricks, Daniel Green, D. Dayton, D. A. Yeasey, 

C. W. Martin, Schuyler Colfax, Francis R. Tutt, William Miller, 
Horatio Chapin. 

At this meeting Messrs. Stanfield, Humphreys, Egbert, Hardman 
and Miller were appointed a committee to draft a constitution and 
by-laws for the government of the society. A resolution was then 
adopted inviting all early settlers and alt old citizens of St. Joseph 
county to transmit to the County Historical Society, when organ- 
ized, in meeting or otherwise, so much of their personal history as 
would be of general interest, and such facts as they may be in pos- 
session of, in relation to the early settlement of their respective 
localities and neighborhoods, in order that such facts and incidents 
may be collected and placed upon the records of the society when 
properly organized. 

On the second day of November an adjourned meeting was held, 
at which time the committee on constitution and by-laws reported. 
The following is the constitution adopted: 

Sec. 1. This society shall be known by the name of the " St. Joseph County 
Historical Society." Its object is to collect the early and correct history of St. 
Joseph valley, and especially St. Joseph county, and to preserve the same in a. 
durable form. 

Sec. 2. The officers of the society shall consist of a president and vice-presi- 
dent, who shall be elected for the period of one year. The president shall pre- 
side at all meetings of the society, and in his absence one of the vice-presidents 
shall preside in his place. There shall be a secretary whose business it shall be 
to keep (he minutes of the pre cecdinsrs of this societv. There shall also be a 

('(301 ) 



602 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

corresponding secretary, whose duty it shall be to conduct the correspondence of 
the society, and receive all communications directed to the society, and lay the 
same before it at its next regular meeting thereafter, and discharge all other duties 
that the society may require. There shall also be atreasurer, whose duty it shall 
be to receive and pay out the funds of the society in pursuance of any resolution 
thereof; and a librarian, whose duty it will be to take care of and preserve the 
books, papers and manuscripts belonging (o the society, and to discharge such 
other duties as may be required of him, provided that the secretary may discharge 
the duties of librarian. Said officers shall be elected by ballot, and hold their 
respective offices for the period of one year, and until their successors are elected 
and qualified. The following named persons are hereby declared to be the offi- 
cers elect for the first year, to wit: Horatio Chapin, President; Elisha Egbert, 
Daniel Davton, John A. Henricks, Vice-Presidents; William H. Drapier, Secre- 
tary and Librarian; Thomas 8. Stanfield, Corresponding Secretary; John T. 
Lindsey, Treasurer. The subsequent annual elections shall be held in South 
Bend, on the first Saturday of November in each year. 

Sec. 3. At the first meeting in each year there shall be appointed the follow- 
ing Standing Committees of three members each, to wit: on Collation, on Corres- 
pondence, on Revision, on Membership. 

Sec. 4. Any person of adult age may become a member of this society, who 
shall unanimously be recommended by the Committee on Membership, and pay 
the admission fee required of members. 

Sec. 5. To defray the expenses of the society, the admission fee for member- 
ship shall be oue dollar, and each member shall pay the treasurer at the first an- 
nual meeting the sum of one dollar. 

Sec. 6. The meetings of the society shall be on the first Saturday evening of 
each month, in the eit}' of South Bend. 

Sec. 7. Five members shall constitute a quorum to do business. 

Sec 8. The society shall have power to make all the by-laws, rules and 
regulations it may deem necessary for its government, not inconsistent with the 
constitution, and by a two-thirds' vote of those present at an adjourned meeting 
may alter or amend this constitution. 

The second regular meeting of the society was held Saturday 
evening Jan. 4, 1808, when the following resolution and state- 
ment of points on which information was desired was adopted: 

Resolved, That each member of this society, and each individual to whom this 
circular is addressed, be requested to furnish toour society a short historical sketch 
in answer to the following questions, in the order in which they stand, so far as 
he has any information on the subject matter of each question: 

1. State the place and date of your birth, the nationality of your father and 
mother and names in full, and the maiden name of your mother. 

2. When and how long did you attend school or college ? What was the char- 
acter or kind of school-houses, teachers (male or female) and books in use when 
you attended school? How far was the school-house from your place of resi- 
dence ? Give any information in regard to the schools attended by you that you 
may regard of interest. 

3. At what date did you first settle in the St. Joseph valley? At what places 
have you resided since, and how long in each place ; the number of inhabitants in 
any village in which you reside at any date you can give? Or if you settled in 
the country give the names of your neighbors, and the distance of their residence 
from yours. The distance to your nearest school-house or church, with a descrip- 
tion of the buildings used for such purposes. What was the character of the land 
on which you settled or lived at any time? Was it thick timber, openings or 
prairie? How does the fertility of the soil when first cultivated compare with its 
present productiveness ? What fertilizers have you used and what one do you 
prefer ? What kind of crops have you considered the most profitable, and what 
kind have you raised principally? What kind of implements have you used for 
farming purposes in the St. Joseph valley at various dates? What ones do you 
now consider the most useful and profitable ? What kind of fruits have you raised, 
and what is the result of your experience as to the adaptation of the soil and cli- 
mate for the cultivation of the different fruits? What kinds can be profitably raised 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. » 60S 

here and how do you protect them in the winter? What kinds of live stock have 
you raised, and what kind do you consider the most profitable? Give any other 
Information in any way connected with farming interests that you may think use- 
ful or important. 

4. Merchants, lawyers, physicians, ministers, school-teachers, mechanics and 
artisans of all kinds are requested to give a short history of the introduction, prog- 
ress, incidents and present condition of the various professions and acts carried 
on in St. Joseph valley, — the name of the first person who opened or commenced 
any business or profession; the fees and prices charged at various dates; the 
means and facilities of receiving and shipping ot goods and produce, and all mat- 
ters of interest, and your opinions arising upon such facts, in any way connected 
with the mercantile profession or mechanical business of the St. Joseph valley, 
from its earliest date to the present time. 

5. Give an account of any and all important events within your knowledge, 
such as rain, hail, wind or snow storms, accidents, causalties of an}' kind, exciting 
election events, political meetings, camp-meetings, early military parades and 
operations, etc., etc., being particular as to names and dates. 

6. You are also requested to give, in a separate paper the history of any of your 
friends and neighbors, who may have died in the St. Joseph valley, following as 
far as convenient the course indicated in the foregoing questions. 

Your response to these questions will be read to the society and carefully pre- 
served for future use. 

All relics, such as old newspapers, magazines, printed or written documents, 
and all articles of curiosity found in the St. Joseph valley will be thankfully 
received and carefully preserved. 

Interesting meetings were held from time to time by the society 
and some valuable information gathered. Occasionally a member 
was called upon to furnish a sketch upon a topic specified, and as 
a specimen, is given below from the pen of Dr. Humphrey's, an 
essay upon 

THE FIEST BRICK HOUSE IN SOUTH BEND. 

" The first brick house in South Bend is our subject for the pres- 
ent occasion, and might be termed in geological language the prim- 
itive brick period or era. The first residence of brick was built in 
the summer and fall of 1831, and still exists on Main street, one 
door south from the southeast corner of Main and Water streets, on 
the west half of lot No. 11, original plat of South Bend. It is now 
owned and occupied by our fellow citizen who bears the name of 
that distinguished philanthropist, Gerrit Smith, but does not claim 
relationship by consanguinity, as our G*rret Smith descended from 
Gallic nationality, as he is said to have asserted, by virtue of his 
having resided for a number of years in that ancient French town, 
Vincennes, Indiana. It must be borne in mind that the locality of 
this house and its surroundings were commons at the time of its 
erection, a level plateau of land ornamented by a natural growth of 
oak trees, single or in groups, winding in and about which were 
' Indian trails,' and chance road ways of the white settlers. 

"Frederick Bainter, formerly from Montgomery county, Ohio, 
near Dayton, of German origin, projected, planned, erected and 
exercised ownership of the house, whose history we now attempt 
to write. Horace Wood, a bricklayer and plasterer of excellent 



604 « HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

skill, and a rapid workman, was its builder. lie is well remem- 
bered by the early inhabitants of South Bend and St. Joseph coun- 
ty as the builder of the old court-house. In after years he moved 
to Dormine Prairie, in La Porte county, Indiana; thence to Kan- 
kakee Rapids, thence to Minnesota; emigrated to California by way 
of the plains in 1849 or 1850; built a brick house at Marysville, 
California; subsequently returned to his home in Minnesota, and 
died there some years since. The bricks for the Bainter house, 
as near as can be ascertained, were made by Horace Wood, the 
clay for which was obtained from the mouth of a ravine upon the 
west bauk of the St. Joseph river, near where the west abutment of 
the present river bridge is located, and carried by a flat boat up 
stream to a brick yard, then situated about where the South Bend 
Iron Works are now. The lime used in the construction of this 
house was burned from boulders obtained from the river. The lime 
kiln was in an embankment upon the lot where Mr. Lemen now 
resides, southwest corner Main and Water streets. It appears 
from this that the value of marl beds with which this country 
abounds was not then understood for the purpose of making lime 
as is now the case. The lumber was furnished from the saw-mill 
of Elijah Lacy, at the mouth of Dowagiac creek, on the east side of 
the St. Joseph river, in the vicinity of Niles, Michigan. It could 
not be ascertained by whom the carpenter work was done. It was 
unquestionably done by some 'old-style workman' as its order in- 
dicates. 

" Nearly cotemporary, or soon after Bainter's house was built, 
were erected two small brick buildings for office purposes, one by 
Levi F. Arnold, then a justice of the peace, and located on the 
south side of Water, between Maine and Michigan streets; the 
other by Col. L. M. Taylor, then clerk of the court, and situated 
on Michigan street, where the saddle and harness shop of C. W. 
Martin now is. But these structures have long since been demol- 
ished, and shared the fate of thejtemples at Ephesus, Karnack and 
Baalbec; and the Bainter house proudly asserts its claims to the 
pioneer structure, from materials similar to that manufactued by 
the ancient Israelites under the despotic rule of their cruel Egyp- 
tian task-masters, and like unto that of which the tower of Babel 
was built. But unlike the Babylonish tower, this domicil of ad- 
vanced civilization in its day, was reared without confusion of 
tongues, although the English, German, French, Pottawatomie and 
Hoosier dialects were daily heard in the community at that time. 

"The style of architecture of the Bainter-Smith house next claims 
attention. It is not Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite, nor is it 
Babylonish, after the style of the temple of Belna, Kasr, or the 
hanging gardens that Nebuchadnezzar built for his Lydian bride. 
It is not copied after Oriental architecture, or Chinese, where pa- 
godas are only imitations of the design of the Nomadic tent. It 
is that style that Dr. Holland believes does not particularly please 
the Great Architect, though the Doctor will not venture an opinion 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 605 

that the Creator of all things absolutely hates the style after which 
our pioneer brick house was fashioned, namely the quadrilateral or 
square style. 

" Four walls, each 18 feet in length, two stories high, roofed with 
shingles, without cornice or projections at the eves or gables, a wide 
chimney at one end and no front door, constitute the exterior of 
this venerable structure, located upon the interior line of the side- 
walk. Each story contained but one room, the lower seven and the 
upper eight feet from floor to ceiling. A wide open fire-place in 
each story, for warmth and ventilation; two windows, each 12 
lights, of 8x10 glass, in the upper story, and one of the same size in 
the lower story next the street ; one window of the same size of 
those described and a door in the lower story, and two windows and 
a door of like dimensions in the upper story upon the east or rear 
side of the house, complete the interior. The front doors were in 
the rear of the house, the entrance being by the lower door only, 
and no means of access to the upper door by steps or stairs outside. 
Thus stands to-day this unpretending structure, once 2-egarded as a 
comfortable, cozy family residence, a venerable witness of all that 
transpired in the thirty-eight eventful years of the past. 

"From the fall of 1831 to Feb. 12, 1833, the elder Bainter and 
his family while ensconced within its walls were looked upon almost 
with envy by the passer-by, as the aristocratic dwellers in the first 
brick house in town ; the head of the family was regarded by com- 
mon consent as ' Frederick the Great,' in the community of this then 
embryo city. From February, 1833, to some time in the year 1835, 
this house was owned and occupied by Captain Samuel L. Cottrell, 
who was the first sheriff of the county. When Cottrell came in 
possession he found the house unplastered. He immediately erected 
the frame addition in the rear of the house as it now stands, thus 
adding two rooms, one above and one below, each 10x18, with two 
windows on the east above and below, same size as those described, 
and the house was then plastered throughout. Horace Wood did 
the plastering, and William Creviston, assisted by E. C. Johnson, 
did the carpenter and joiner work. Creviston is yet remembered by 
our early settlers; he usually bore the cognomen of ' Bill Creviston,' 
was a good workman, and a rollicking, jolly fellow. He subse- 
quently moved to Wisconsin, thence to California, and returning 
from thence, is said to be now living in his AVisconsin home. In 
February, 1833, Frederick Bainter relinquished the ownership, as 
has been stated. He continued to reside in the town and vicinity 
until the year 1838, when he died at his home about one mile south 
of South Bend, at the junction of Michigan and La Porte roads. 
He was a quiet, respectable citizen, esteemed by his neighbors and 
friends. 

" During the residence of Captain Cottrell in this house, amongst 
other pursuits engaged in by him was the keeping of a family 
grocery in a building one door south of his house, where Mr. 
Menssel now resides. James Burnett, a ' half breed' (French and 



606 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CODNTT. 

Indian), boarded in the family of Captain Cottrell while they lived 
in this house. In the year 1834 Burnett fell sick and died, and 
his remains were the first adult citizen interred in the present city 
cemetery. His grave is now unknown, and he was the first 
'pioneer settler' in that now numerously populated 'City of the 
Silent Dead,' where lie buried the household treasures of so many 
of our people. 

" The following constitute the list of owners of the Bainter-Smith 
house from February, 1835, to the present time: A. Coquillard, Sr., 
and Francis Comparet ; JJJ3J L John T. S mith ; 1839, A. Coquillard, 
Sr. ; 1841, John D. Defrees, and the same year Coquillard again; 
1844, State Bank of Indiana; 1845, Farmers' & Mechanics' Bank 
• of Michigan; also within that year John Totman, James Benham 
and Herman Ball, in the order named; 1847, Robert Hyslop, of 
New York city ; in 1849 Hyslop conveyed to Garret and Isaac 
Smith; the former as has been stated, is its present owner and 
occupant. 

"It was quite impossible to obtain a complete list of all the 
families who have occupied this house subsequent to Captain Cot- 
trell's residence in it. In 1837, and for some time subsequent, 
John Rush and family resided in it. The writer of this took 
dinner with the Rush family here in July, 1837. John Rush, to 
distinguish him from others of that name, was generally known as 
'Black John,' or 'John, the Dusky,' from his exceedingly dark 
complexion. He was for some years one of our most prominent 
merchants and business men, and was at one time associated in 
business with our fellow-citizen, Dr. John A. Henricks. About 
the year 1S50 Rush, with his wife, moved to California, where both 
died of cholera soon after their arrival in that country. In 1838, 
known all over the West as the ' sickly season,' Norman Campbell 
and his family occupied the lower apartments of this house. 
During the fall of that year, a widowed relative of the writer with 
her family occupied the upper portion of the house. In October, 
1838, the author of this paper had a bitter experience from an 
attack of remittent fever of about four weeks' duration. Amongst 
other mental vagaries incident to fever was that for some days 
four other adult persons occupied jointly with him his sick bed. 
The sense of crowding and want of room was almost unendurable, 
especially in so small a house. During this time, a young man, a 
school-teacher by profession, died of the prevailing disease, in the 
lower part of the house, while a boarder in the family of Norman 
Campbell; his name is not now remembered, and he doubtless fills 
a nameless and unknown grave. Norman Campbell's trade or 
occupation was the same as that of U. S. Grant, a tanner and 
currier. He worked as a journeyman for a number of years for 
Captain Day, and subsequently moved to Benton, Elkhart county, 
at which place he is probably yet living. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 607 

" About the years 1840-'42 Captain Lot Day occupied this house. 
He resided here when Sheriff of this county. After a long resi- 
dence in this city and vicinity, engaging in various kinds of busi- 
ness, one of which was tanning, as has been stated, holding the 
offices of Sheriff, County Commissioner and State Senator, respect- 
ively, he, with most of his family, subsequently moved to Cali- 
fornia. There were other occupants of the house besides those 
mentioned, whose names could not be ascertained. From the long 
catalogue of owners and occupants of this house, it can be seen in 
what estimation it was held, embracing, as it does, merchants and 
business men, lawyers, banking institutions, office-holders and poli- 
ticians — the last proprietor before the present owner and occupant 
of philanthropic name being no less than one of New York's mer- 
chant princes. And if any class of men can estimate the present 
and prospective value of real estate, where would they more likely 
be found than in the great commercial metropolis of this coun- 
try, that boasts of its unapproachable Broadway and incomparable 
Fifth Avenue! The investment was doubtless made by Robert 
Hyslop as a profitable one, as his shrewd, keen, visual optics scanned 
the sky-line of South Bend's future, even at that early day. 

" The several occupants of this house ought to have been an up- 
right people, exemplary in their conduct and zealous of good works. 
Just across the street, and nearly opposite the Bainter-Smith house, 
once stood the old Methodist Episcopal Church, erected in 1836, 
and from whose tower first rang out the musical tones of the first 
'church-going bell' to the inhabitants of this portion of the St. 
Joseph valley, reminding them of their dearly cherished native 
homes, now widely separated from them by leagues of distance, 
then traversed by no railroad or .telegraph lines, and but few stage 
coaches. From the pulpit of this early sanctuary were poured forth 
in terms often of great eloquence, expositions of the ' glorious gos- 
pel of the great Teacher and Divine Redeemer of depraved and 
fallen humanity, wherewith believers are made free,' by a distin- 
guished roll of Methodist divines, which, let us hope, benefited 
the denizens of the Bainter-Smith house, ' wayside hearers' though 
they may have often been, and that, too, by their own hearth and 
fireside. 

" As Napoleon first said to his army in Egypt, when pointing to 
the pyramids: .'Forty centuries look down upon your achieve- 
ments of to-day;' so we can say, forty years look down upon us from 
the walls of that venerable structure, upon which, if all the events 
of its years were inscribed, would cover them within and without, 
with records of the dead past. May its foundations never crumble, 
may no earthquake rend it, or tornado mar its modest proportions, 
or lightning scathe it, or devouring conflagration scorch it. Palsied 
be the hand that may ruthlessly despoil or remove this ancient 
land-mark of South Bend's early civilization." 

30 



608 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

PIONEER MEETINGS. 

The old settlers of St. Joseph county held one of their annual 
meetings at South Bend, Friday, Oct. 2,1874. This meeting was 
very largely attended, owing to its being held at a time when many 
were in attendance at the various fairs then being held. Music was 
furnished by the South Bend Cornet Band. Dr. John A. Hen ricks 
was made chairman. After a few introductory remarks, the gath- 
ering sung a beautiful parody of " Anld Lang Syne," written by 
" Malcolm Duncan " (Mrs. Flora L. Stanfield), who presided over 
the organ on the occasion. 

" AULD LANG SYNE." 

Should all our old friends be forgot, 

And never brought to mind '? 
Should all our old friends be forgot 

And the days of auld lang syne ? 

CHORUS : 

For auld lang syne, my dear, 

For auld lang syne ; 
Let us pledge anew each friend that's here, 

For the sake of auld lang syne. 

We'll share again our early joys, 

Our early griefs resign, 
And be the happy girls and boys 

That we were in^iuld lang syne. 

And in the costal waters clear, 

Without a thought of wyne, 
We'll toast the old acquaintance here, 

And drink to auld lang syne. 

And when upon our lowly graves 

The summer sun shall shine, 
May Heaven's grace not quite efface 

The thoughts of auld lang syne. 



For auld lang syne, my dear, 

For auld lang syne ; 
Let us pledge anew each friend that's here, 

For the sake of auld lang syne. 

Judge Stanfield, as president of the society, was expected to 
deliver an address. Being unavoidably absent he prepared a writ- 
ten discourse, which was read by Dr. Humphreys. The latter gen- 
tleman delivered the address of the occasion thefollowing September. 

bellow Citizens: — These reunions forcibly remind us that time 
is fiying. I can hardly realize that I have lived here nearly forty- 
four years — almost half of the life of this great Republic. Forty- 
four years ago it had only thirteen millions of people, now over 
forty millions. Then the north half of this State and northwestern 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 609 

Ohio, nearly all of Michigan, two-thirds of Illinois, all of Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota, and the great West, now divided up into numerous 
and populous States, were almost an unbroken solitude, just in the 
wild condition it had been from the beginning. The time seems 
long in personal experience, but forty-four years is only a dot in 
human existence. Short as it is in the life of a people, it has 
abounded in wonderful work. We ought to feel thankful that we 
have been permitted to live in an age when all the activities of life 
have been so quickened by railroad, telegraph, and the thousands 
of other inventions, saving labor and cheapening productions, and 
at the same time increasing the price of labor. 

" This ' St. Joseph country' as it was then called, was from a 
hundred to two hundred miles beyond the frontier settlement. At 
that time emigrants were coming in from the southeastern part of 
this State, and the central and southwestern parts of Ohio. The 
distance to be traveled was from two hundred to two hundred and 
fifty miles, most of it through a heavy timbered country, level and 
swampy, the road narrow, and without bridges, and almost 
impassable in wet weather. Many, like us, came late in the fall of 
1830,. and were delayed by the bad roads until nearly winter. We 
crossed the St. Joseph river just below the mouth of the Elkhart, 
in the latter part of November. The ford was deep and crooked, 
but we managed to get over safely, and made our way up the Chris- 
tiana to Diamond lake. The creek was our only guide. There 
was no road, but the country was open and level. The reason for 
going to Diamond lake was because Young's Prairie lay close by, 
where there were abundant crops that could be relied on for the 
winter. We pitched our tent (made of the wagon cover) on the 
north side of the lake, and commenced building a cabin near that 
of another family who had preceded us a few months. Before we 
could get our cabin up and covered, heavy rains set in, winding up 
on the 5th of December with a fall of snow twenty-eight inches 
deep, which, with large accumulations, remained until the first of 
April. It was the coldest winter ever experienced in this country. 
This neighboring family that preceded us consisted of a husband 
and wife, with six or seven children, all living in a cabin not over 
twenty feet square, total strangers to us and as poor as we were; 
but when they saw us (a family about the same size) exposed in our 
little tent to the cold, pelting storms of approaching winter, their 
generous hearts were filled with sympathy for their destitute and 
suffering neighbors. At their urgent request the two families were 
united in one cabin until our own was ready for use, all eating at 
the same table without a thought as to who furnished the most 
provisions or did the most of the housework. I shall always 
remember and fondly cherish the disinterested goodness of this 
unpretentious family. The father and mother have long since 
departed, and the children scattered I know not where. This inci- 
dent will no doubt awaken in the memories of the old settlers recol- 
lections of the heartiness of backwoods hospitalities. And while 



610 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

looking back over the road we have traveled these forty odd years, 
faces and characters will spring up before us that we once loved 
and cherished, but now almost faded away from our memories. 
Still it is a pleasure to contemplate them in the deep, dark, misty 
past — their follies all forgotten, and only their virtues remembered. 

" During that winter what little stock we had was fed on brouse, 
the tops of trees — a good substitute for hay when there is none. In 
the spring we moved down to Harris's prairie, enjoying the hos- 
pitalities of Jacob Harris and his family, as kind and good-hearted 
people as ever lived. Mr. Harris was the first settler on the prairie, 
and I am glad the name of so good a man is perpetuated by it. 
This little prairie was nearly a mile in diameter, almost round, 
and surrounded by burr-oak and hickory bushes. It was a perfect 
gem in beauty and fertility. After putting in a crop of corn, we 
moved to South Bend in June, 1831, where my home has been ever 
since. There is no place on God's footstool dearer to me than this 
town of South Bend and St. Joseph county. Its prosperity, and 
the good fortune of all in it, is mine. I rejoice in the success of 
every one of its citizens, and feel proud of the reputation given it 
by its successful business men, such as the Studebakers. Singers, 
James Oliver, Alexis Coquillard, the Birdsells, and other manu- 
facturers of less notoriety, who command respect and confidence 
even'where. The prosperity of such .enterprising men, directly or 
indirectlv, benefits us all. Envy and jealousy are the meanest pas- 
sions of the human heart. Let no citizen of South Bend entertain 
such feeling toward any other citizen who by honest means excels 
him in the race for wealth and reputation. It is no disparagement 
to the good character of one, that he is outdone by another in one 
particular direction ; perhaps in other avenues of life he is the supe- 
rior. Our true policy is to help each other, and do all we can to 
help the whole as a community. When new men come in seeking a 
location for business, when their characters are all right, we should 
encourage and uphold them, though they ma}' be engaged in a rival 
business, and if they get ' hard up' by spreading out too much, 
we should indulge them and help them out as far as we can. Always 
speak well of them and hope fir their success. The municipal 
authorities should always be liberal and just in fostering our man- 
ufacturing interest, treating the old establishment with the same 
consideration they offer to new ones as an inducement to come in. 
Let us all unite in one common enterprise in behalf of the city. 
If we diner in opinion, the minority ought to yield without a trace 
of bitterness being left behind, and as soon as the object of the 
majority is accomplished, they too should obliterate all memory of 
the division. We have neverbeen cursed with rings and cliques, 
and woe be to the man or set of men who shall dare to so divide our 
people. 

'• There was not a house between South Bend and Harris's Prairie, 
not even a wagon road, in the spring of 1831. We came down 
along the nortli side of the big marsh, and forded the river a few 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 611 

rods below St. Mary's, and then came along the edge of Portage, 
and then struck off into town — such as it was. The whole town 
plat was covered with oak and hickory trees. There was but one 
house on Michigan street, a story-and-a-half house, where Peter 
Johnson kept tavern. Alexis Coquillard had the frame of the house 
up where Joseph Miller now resides. 

" On Pearl street, where E. P. Taylor now lives, was Lilley's 
tavern, a two-story, hewed-log house, the spaces between the logs in 
the upper story still open. On the south side of Pearl street, at its 
junction with Washington, Benjamin Coquillard also kept a tavern. 
A good many people were coming in looking up lands to enter, and 
it required a good many little taverns to accommodate them. 
Alexis Coquillard had several cabins on the bank of the river, on 
the lots now occupied by Worden, Pine and others, where he then 
resided and kept an Indian trading post. Hanna & Taylor had an 
Indian store on Pearl street, nearly opposite the present residence 
of E. P. Taylor. Simeon Mason had commenced a tannery on the 
Menssel property, near the standpipe. I am not sure, but think 
Solomon Barkdoll had a log house on the lot now owned by Franz 
Bauer. Thomas St. Comb lived on the bank of the river near where 
W. L. Barret now resides, and a man by the name of Nedeau lived 
back between Michigan and Main streets, near Centre. Samuel 
Martin, the proprietor of Martin's addition, was the only person 
living on that addition. The houses I have named embraced all in 
the town of South Bend when I first saw it. A good many people 
soon after came in, and then 20 or 30 houses were built that sum- 
mer. There were several other families living outside the town 
plat. Joseph Rohrer and his family were living under a shed on 
the lot now occupied by James Henry, Oliver Bennett was living 
on the Wadhafn place; Col. Hiram Dayton, near where Adam 
Baker's new house now stands; Major Larue, on the bank of the 
river, on the John Veasey place; Henry Stull, where David Bow- 
man now lives; Samuel Leeper, on the Kankakee out-lot where it is 
crossed by the Michigan road. The south half of the county was 
an unbroken forest; so was all the country between here and the 
Wabash. Portage Prairie, Sumption's Prairie and Terre Coupee 
had a few settlers scattered around the edge of them. The first 
emigrants to the prairies selected their lands adjacent to the timber, 
and to protect themselves and cattle from the severe storms of win- 
ter, built in the woods near by. 

" For several years the middle portion of the prairies were left 
open and unobstructed by fences. There were only here and there 
a few settlers between South Bend and the east line of Illinois. 
The whole of this territory was, at that time, attached to St. Joseph 
■ county for municipal purposes. It was really still a wild Indian 
country just beginning to attract emigration. Its beauty and fer- 
tility soon became widely known, and emigration poured in rapidly 
from all quarters. The county seemed to be flourishing until the 
panic of 1837, when every enterprise was flattened. Then came the 



fil2 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

sickly season of 183S which about laid lis all out. It was a very 
different thing in settling a new country then from what it is now. 
There were no railroads to the frontiers. There was not fifty miles 
in the United States. Now there are over sixty thousand. It took 
us longer to pass over the Black Swamp, in Ohio, though only 
twelve miles wide, than it now takes to go by rail from here to 
Kansas. It is no wonder that Kansas and Nebraska have settled up 
more rapidly than Indiana and Illinois. The railroads have not 
only furnished a great deal quicker and cheaper transportation, but 
a read} 7 market for the productions of the country. Without them 
the fertile lands of the Mississippi and Missouri, and back from 
these rivers, would still have been the hunting grounds of the 
Indians, unmolested by white men, and Chicago and St. Louis third- 
rate cities. Without them this county would have been twenty years 
behind its present condition. There are undoubtedly individual and 
local instances where railroad companies are unjust and oppressive, 
but the general results of railroads upon the country at large has been 
so strikingly beneficial, that I think the general complaint is a little 
unjust. 

" For several years before the Michigan Southern & Northern 
Indiana railroad was built, twenty-five cents was considered a good 
price for corn, twenty cents for oats, forty to sixty cents for wheat, 
one and a half to two cents for pork and beef, three to five dollars 
a ton for hay, and butter and small fruits hardly worth anything. 
I bought the first wood used on the railroad in this county — four 
hundred cords — and paid eighty-seven and a half cents per cord for 
body wood, and seventy-five cents for second quality. That was 
the market price. Wood-haulers, what has the railroad done for 
you? But if they carried your wood to Chicago for the same rate 
as they bring lumber here, you would make ire pay eight dollars 
instead of five dollars per cord. But there is nothing unjust to 
you in that. This you will admit when you consider that railroads are 
the largest consumers of wood in the country, and that the increased 
price would cost them more than all the freight they would receive 
for carrying it. You would do precisely the same thing if placed 
in similar circumstances. Powerful corporations may at times 
be oppressive, and extort, but the great regulator, competition, is 
the safest governor. When you come to regulate by law prices 
and values, you are treading on unsafe ground. Every man affected 
by it regards it as unjust and oppressive, and will do all in his 
power to evade it. Considering the great good railroads have done 
the country, let us deal with them as we do in other business. 

" I have oidy time to talk of the settlers of 1831. The late 
Horatio Chapin was our first general dry-goods merchant. He 
commenced business in July or August in a small hewed -log house 
on St. Joseph street, where the widow of John Massey now resides. 
Massey and Samuel Eaton started a blacksmith shop on the same 
lot. Chapin's store, the blacksmith shop, Lilley's tavern and Tay- 
lor's Indian store made St. Joseph street then the business street of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 813 

the town. The late Elisha Egbert was our first lawyer and school- 
teacher. He taught me to ' read, write and cipher.' Rev. Nehe- 
miah B. Griffith was our first Methodist preacher, a man of a good 
deal of native ability. Rev. S. T. Badeau, our first Catholic priest, 
a hale, hearty, genial old man, who had spent his life as a mission- 
ary among the Indians. I heard him say he was the first Catholic 
priest ordained in America. 

'' In the fall of this year South Bend was attracting a good deal of 
attention. A weekly newspaper, the Northwestern Pioneer, was 
started by John D. Defrees and his brother Joseph, the latter now 
an honored citizen of Elkhart county, but it was ahead of its time. 
It withered and died. It was in that office our respected towns- 
man Lea P. Johnson learned to set type. Mr. Defrees now lives 
in Washington. Dr. Jacob Hardman was our first physician. He 
is, I am happy to say, still above ground, hale and hearty, and 
well known as one of the white-bearded patriarchs of the town. 
Nearly all the men of that day have departed. Many of them 
lived until within the last few years, — one by one gently dropping 
away, until now L. M. Taylor, E. P. Taylor, Benjamin Coquillard 
and Dr. Hardman are all that I now remember remaining here, 
and but few who then lived out in the country are surviving; but 
among the number Henry Stull, John Druliner, Jacob Rush, 
B. Druliner, George Holloway, John Rupel, Jacob Ritter and John 
Squires are all that occur to me now. 

" If I had time I would like to say something of such good men 
as Reynolds Dunn, Dr. Harvey Humphreys, Dr. Leonard Rush, 
John Egbert, Elisha Egbert, Horatio Chapin, Alexis Coquillard, 
George Reynolds, Peter Johnson, John Massey, Samuel Good, 
Aaron and David Miller, John T. McClelland, Jacob Bowman, and 
many others of the departed. The mere mention of their names 
will be enough to call them up before you, and to freshen their por- 
traits in your minds, and you will then in imagination see them 
again as you used to see them moving about amongst you, living, 
active men." 

In September, 1875, another meeting was held, at which the 
President, Dr. Humphreys, delivered the following adddress: 

" Ladies and Gentlemen: — To-day we halt briefly by the way, 
in our rush over life's rugged journey. From these days of rail- 
roads and telegraphs, of almost countless daily mails and daily 
newspapers; of the transit from New York to Chicago in 26 hours; 
from the dash and roar of multitudinous wheels in our manu- 
factories; of water-works, sewers, fire brigades, and firemen's 
tournaments; of palatial residences and business houses; of fur- 
naces, base-burning coal stoves, cooking ranges and cooking stoves; 
of gas-lighted and paved streets; of friction matches and steam 
threshing-machines, grain and clover separators; of mowers by 
horse-power, self-raking and binding reaping machines; of Oliver 
chilled and all other kinds of steel andiron plows; of Studebaker, 



614 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Chockelt and Coquillard wagons and carriages; of patent states, 
man and other grain drills and horse-power sulky rakes, and culti- 
vators; of spinning jacks and jennies, and woolen and cottou 
factories; of paper by millions of miles in sheets, or by tons in 
weight; of sewing-machines of all kinds (except feminine); of 
household furniture, elegant, fanciful and varied in styles as the 
changes in the kaleidoscope; of large aud numerous church edi- 
fices, school, educational and manufacturing structures; costly and 
fashionable wearing apparel; of extensive and well-cultivated farms, 
elegant farm houses and barns; of large orchards and small-fruit 
plantations; of the contemplation of individual and corporate 
wealth, banks and moneyed institutions; of fire and life insurance 
companies and agencies; of populous counties, towns, cities and 
cemeteries; of the careless selfishness of crowded populations and 
varied pursuits of life, and the thousand unnamed surroundings of 
the day; we turn away for a short time to contemplate the rapidly 
receding past, in our histories as individuals and communities. 

" To-day memory will reproduce startling memories of by-gone 
years with startling vividness. Today faces, figures and charac- 
ters, long since faded from recollection, will take their places in our 
panoramic vision. Once again will come memories of the old- 
style prairie-schooner wagons, drawn by oxen, as moving vehicles, 
filled with household goods, women and children, live stock in train 
in slow-creeping pace, over roads not made with hands. To these 
will be added the camp-fires by night and the wayside baitings by 
day, for rest and refreshment lor man and beast; the location and 
purchase of homes, for which, sometimes, a horseback ride at Gil- 
pin speed to the land office was requisite; then again, the hastily 
built log cabin will appear, with rudely constructed furniture of 
rough boards or poles, lighted by night by the improvised broken 
saucer or tea-cup lamp, of lard or 'possum fat, or grease of the 
raccoon for illuminating substitutes. Near by will be seen the 
wood-curbed well with its old style sweep (no driven wells or 
pumps, propelled by patent wind engines then). Upon the plain, 
prairie or green slopes, the fresh furrow, by primitive plows drawn 
by several yoke of oxen, in dark lines will come again, or, perchance, 
the forest clearings, log-rollings or log heaps lighting up the mid- 
night sky will be produced. The memory of the one or two daj's' 
journey to some far-off mill, with the family grist of corn or wheat 
(usually corn) to be ground, will pass before some of us. The 
staple articles of food — pork, wild game and fish, potatoes, dried 
apples, cranberry sauce, bread of Indian meal, rye for coffee, some- 
times mixed with the 'bouarhten article,' with brown sugar or 
wad honey — will once more take their places on store-box tables. 

"To-day visions will pass before some of ns of the barshear plow, 
the wooden-toothed drag, the flail, or circus performance of horses on 
barn floor or ground, in tramping out the grain from the straw, the 
plain shovel plow, the three or four pound hoe, the grain sickles, 
with baby cradles of sugar troughs, the hand rake, the flax-break, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 615 

scutching board, the hackle, the little wheel and rack, or distaff, 
with its musical whir to the mother's nursery song morning and 
evening, and often heard at the midnight hour; the sheep- 
shearing, the hand-cards, the woolen rolls from the carding machine, 
the 'big wheel' with its spasmodic hum, the flitting forward or 
backward of the Jameses or Marys, traveling miles in a day as the 
soft rolls dwindled into threads of uniform size, counting the 'cuts' 
of 3'arn by dozens before each day's sunset; the domestic dying of 
yarn by the matron, whose hands showed the tints and colors for 
weeks; the hand loom, with its periodic knocks and interludes of 
rattling, squeaking treadles; the domestic flannels and home- 
made jeans and cloths to be fashioned by female skill into wearing 
apparel; the domestic millinery, sun-bonnets, calashes and flats for 
ladies; hats of straw braided and sewed by mother and the girls, 
for father and the boys; the home-made socks and stockings, knit 
as an amusement by the women during their gossippy hours of 
rest and repose; the slippers of cloth, soled with old saddle-skirts, 
or felt from old woolen hats, for the women; for the men, moc- 
casins, or stoga boots or shoes, made in odd hours by some artisans, 
or by Sam Jones, who farmed when the sun was out, and made 
shoes when it rained. Once more the old-fashioned open fire-place 
will shine upon us with its .cheery light and genial warmth; the 
evening domestic circle about it of from half to one dozen children 
sandwiched by visiting representatives of the nearest neighbors; 
topics for discussion by the elders and middle-aged, the lecturers 
of those times — crops, farming, breaking prairie, clearing forest, 
prices of land and their prospective value, wild game, hunting 
achievements, the latest news from former far-off native homes, 
preparations to move to this country by friends and relatives, antici- 
pated joy on their arrival, politics and religion. Visions of old- 
style kitchens will come up to-day; of antiquated deep and shallow 
kettles, ovens and spiders, with hooks of wood and iron, or the 
swinging crane to hang them on over the open fire in the old deep 
chimney upon stones, andirons or fire-dogs. To these were added 
a frying pan (everything was fried; a gridiron was a novelty then), 
then the Johnny-cake board, and in families well-to-do, the door- 
yards had an oval, mound-like 'Dutch oven' upon a platform, 
like a sentinel or altar to Ceres, a guarantee of an abundance of the 
staff of life. The flushed faces will again revisit us of the cooks of 
those times, bearing witness of the torrid climate in the kitchens, 
protected in part by deep sun-bonnets and other devices of feminine 
ingenuity. Evening corn-huskings, pumpkin pies, roast spare-ribs 
and quiltings will again loom upon our vision, when the sounds of 
the fiddle, with musical airs familiar to all but Strauss and Wagner, 
will ring out in tones giving inspiration to young and old in Money 
Musk, contra dances and the Virginia Reel. To all these will be 
added the log school-house and log church, often both in one, 
with puncheon floor and seats without backs, except when occupied, 
paper windows, and the wide, deep fire-place, whose hearth was the 



616 HISTOKY OF 8T. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

shrine of Lares, before whom all the children were taught to wor- 
ship. Before these will rise the ' Knight of the birch,' enthroned 
for these winter months, instilling into the pnpilistic subjects about 
him the principles of ' Webster's Speller,' the ' Columbian Ora- 
tor,' the 'English Reader,' 'Pike' and 'Daboll,' 'Murray' and 
'Kirkham.' The various scenes and events will once more pass 
before us to-day, of the profitable dealings of some cf our enter- 
prising pioneers in the trade of furs and peltries witli the numerous 
family of ' Mr. and Mrs. Lo' who once resided here. Our beauti- 
ful river St. Joseph will again swarm witli little steamers, keel- 
boats, arks and barges, that once comprised a commerce of no small 
magnitude, and the only facility for exportation of the surplus prod- 
uce of St. Joseph valley and the importation by way of the lakes, 
Chicago and the village of St. Joseph, of necessary supplies of 
groceries, drygoods, hardware, and much of our wearing apparel. 
Again will come before us the representatives of the newspaper 
press — at home — the Northwestern Pioneer, the South Bend Free 
Press, the Mishawaka Bee, the Mishawaka Tocsin, the Free Soil 
Democrat, a written local, ' Tom, Thunderh um/per," 1 by name, the 

Valley Register, and South Bend Forum. From abroad, the 
National Intelligencer, Amos Kendall's Union, the Richmond 

Whig and Enquirer, New York Courier, New York Enquirer, 
New York Herald, Cincinnati Gazette, Louisville Journal, and 
our own State papers, nearly all weekly publications, with these 
budgets of news from five to ten days old from the Atlantic cities, 
and twenty to thirty days from Europe. 

"To-day will come the remembrance ot the time when the early 
emigrants, who had not forgotten their religion and principles of 
Christianity, began to group themselves in embryo Church organi- 
zations, each seeking his or her affinity in denominational preferences; 
then the store lofts and rooms in private houses for public worship; 
then primitive church buildings, and then still a better class of 
religious edifices, with bells upon them. Away up the river of 
time to-day, will come to some of us the sweet music of the first 
church bells (small and unpretentious though they were), sounding 
out in dying cadences memories of distant native homes, and 
recalling the hallowed scenes of boyhood and youth. To-day the 
pioneer preachers of the different church organizations will pass in 
review before us; camp-meeting scenes and surroundings, the 
frequent practical and often eloquent sermons of those times, as 
though the inspiration of a new country as God had made it, gave 
new energy, power and impulse to the leaders of the advance guards 
of Christianity. 

" To all who were here in 183S, known since as the sickly season, 
when four- fifths of the population were sick, the sad scenes and suffer- 
ings of that year will pass in review with no pleasant memories, when 
whole families were prostrate, without often even one of the entire 
household being able to assist the others to a drink of cold water; 
when the grass actually grew in the principal streets of South Bend 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 617 

irom non-use; when the supplies of medicine failed and no more 
could be obtained, so remote were we from points from which sup- 
plies could be had, and so slow and imperject were the facilities for 
bringing tbem to this frontier region; when the few of our inhabi- 
tants that were able to leave their rooms and houses went slowly 
about our streets like stalking ghosts, supported by canes, and 
protected by umbrellas from a blazing sun that was not obscured 
by rain clouds for a period of four months; when all the physicians 
of the country were sick, some of whom sacrificed themselves, 
literally dying at their post with their professional harness on; 
when entire fields of wheat and other crops went to waste, and 
were tmharvested for want of laborers. But this panoramic view 
of that year of suffering lias never and can never return again, for 
the reason that such a combination of causes can never again 
exist. 

" To-day will return to us that noble trait in the character of the 
early settlers of this country, which, like charity, was the greatest 
and best of all their virtues, and covered a vast multitude of minor 
faults and imperfections, and, like the patriarchs of old, leaves a 
halo of glory and admiration around their memories. I allude to 
the generous hospitality, sincere sympathy, self-sacrificing desire to 
help each other, characteristic of them all, traits of character seldom 
found and almost crushed out and extinguished by the selfish, push- 
ing, jostling pursuits of a comparatively crowded population of the 
present day. 

" Patriarch pioneers and old settlers, the long roll of departed 
ones show that a large number from your ranks have passed through 
the valley and over the Jordan that marks the end of time, and 
their memories only live with us to-day. Let us emulate and cher- 
ish their virtues and forget their imperfections. Others of you are 
well down the sunset slope of life's journey. Some of you are 
almost touching the river's brink. May it be yours to say, ' Though 
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE SOUTH BEND FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE. 

In 1S47 John Norris resided on the south branch of the Ohio 
river, about one mile and a half below the town of Lawrenceburg, 
Indiana. He claimed to own as slaves a family consisting of David 
Powell, his wife Lucy, and their four children, Lewis, Samuel, 
George and James. He permitted the family to cultivate a piece 
of ground and sell the produce where they pleased, and David and 
the boys were often seen in Lawrenceburg selling their produce. 

During the night of Saturday, Oct. 9, 1847, David and his family 
disappeared from Kentucky. The alarm was given next morning, 
Sunday, and about forty persons started in pursuit. Norris and a 
party in his employ hunted through Southern Indiana for about two 
months without success, though they found articles of clothing 
belonging to the fugitives at several different places. In Septem- 
ber, 1849, Norris started with a party of eight men, and about 
midnight of the 27th of that month, they forcibly broke into a 
house about eight miles from Cassopolis, in Cass county, Michigan, 
occupied by Mr. Powell's family. The house was in the woods 
about half a mile from any other dwelling. Mr. Powell and his son 
Samuel were absent from home at the time. Norris and his party 
drew their pistols and bowie knives, and compelled the mother and 
her three children to rise from their beds and follow them. Some 
they bound with cords, and hurrying them off to their covered 
wagons, they started post haste for Kentucky, leaving a portion of 
their company at the house to prevent the other inmates from giv- 
ing the alarm. Lewis, the oldest son, had but recently been mar- 
ried, and was forcibly separated from his wife by the brutal gang. 
Alter awhile the alarm was given, and pursuit commenced; a 
neighbor, Mr. Wright Maudlin, overtook them about noon, near 
South Bend, Indiana, about thirty miles from where they had 
started. This was on Friday, the 28th of September. Mr. Maudlin 
immediately applied to E. B. Crocker, an attorney in South Bend, 
stated what he knew of the circumstances, that he had no doubt 
the family were free, that he had known them for some time as 
quiet and industrious persons, and never heard any intimation that 
thev were slaves. They had purchased a small tract of land, on 

(618) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 619 

which they resided at the time of their abduction, and were laboring 
hard to pay for it. 

A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was drawn up, and signed, 
and sworn to, by Mr. Maudlin, setting forth that Mrs. Powell and 
Lewis Powell (as Mr. Maudlin did not then know with certainty 
how many of the family had been taken) were deprived of their 
liberty by some person whose name was unknown, under pretense 
that they were fugitive slaves, averring that he verily believed they 
were free persons. On this petition the Hon. Elisha Egbert, Pro- 
bate Judge of St. Joseph county, who was authorized by a special 
statute to issue and try writs of habeas corpus, ordered that writ 
to issue. It was issued accordingly by the clerk, and placed in 
the hands of Russell Day, Deputy Sheriff, for service. Mr. Day, 
learning that the Kentuckians were armed, called upon several citi- 
zens to accompany him in serving the writ. In the meantime the 
report having spread about that a party of kidnappers with their 
captives were in the vicinity, the whole town was aroused, and the 
people, in a high state of excitement, were running about, anxiously 
inquiring into the matter. The deputy sheriff with his company 
overtook the Kentuckians about one mile south of the town, where 
they had stopped in the bushes to feed their horses. They were all 
well armed, making quite a display of their weapons, and evincing 
at first a disposition to resist all legal proceedings. The writ was 
served by reading, and after considerable parley, in which they were 
made to understand most distinctly that they could not proceed 
without a fair trial of their claims, they at last consented to go 
back to town and proceed to trial on the writ. By this time about 
thirty or forty persons had arrived from town, two of whom brought 
guns, but no attempt to use them was made. A Mr. Frazier, with 
a gun in his hand, was met by Mr. Crocker, and told by him to put 
up his weapon, as it was no place for such things. Some of the 
citizens carried walking canes, but no force was used toward the 
Kentuckians, though the people were in a high state of excitement. 
Norris and his party at last drove back to town with their captives, 
followed by the Sheriff and the people. In the meantime a new 
writ of habeas corpus had been procured, directed to Mr. Norris, 
whose name had been ascertained, for all four of the captives, which 
was served upon him as soon as he arrived in town, the first writ 
having been dismissed. At the request of Norris, the deputy sheriff 
placed the captives in jail, until he could procure counsel. In a 
short time he procured the services of Messrs. Listen and Stanfield, 
two of the ablest lawyers in Northern Indiana, to conduct his de- 
fense. Messrs. Deavitt and Crocker appeared on behalf of the 
captives. Norris and his counsel appeared before thejudge, who 
held his court in the court-house, and asked for time to enable them 
to prepare their defense, which was readily granted. After about 
an hour or more they again appeared, and made a return to the last 
writ of habeas corpus, sworn to by Mr. Norris. 



620 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

It appearing from the return of Norris that he had not procured 
the certificate required by the act of Congress, the counsel for the 
captives, therefore, " excepted to the sufficiency of the return," as 
provided by the statute, distinctly stating to the judge that if this 
exception should be overruled they should then take issue upon the 
facts alleged in the return, and require Norris to prove all the facts 
therein. It will be noticed that the act of Congress is imperative 
in requiring the claimant to take the fugitives before some judge 
or magistrate of the State or county, " wherein such seizure or 
arrest shall be made," to procure the certificate. 

The exception was ably argued on both sides until night, the 
counsel for the captives insisting that the law of '93 was the only 
remedy provided by Congress to recover fugitives from labor; that 
a claimant must strictly pursue its provisions to enable him to 
enforce his rights; that although by this law he had the right to 
seize or arrest, in the first instance, in the State where he might 
find the fugitive, yet, to enable him to hold his captive in another 
State, he must first procure a certificate in the State where the 
arrest was made, as provided by the law. The statute was plain in 
its provisions, and there was no misunderstanding it. On the other 
hand, it was contended that a claimant had a right to arrest any 
person whom he might claim as his slave, wherever he could find 
him, take him wherever he pleased, without any proof, certificate, 
warrant or process whatever; and if any one interfered or ques- 
tioned the claim, they did it at their peril. No authority whatever 
was introduced to sustain this position, and the judge, after a full 
and candid hearing, sustained the exception and ordered the cap- 
tives to be discharged. 

The court-house was crowded with an anxious audience, listening 
to the argument and decision. Everything had been conducted with 
order and propriety, and no one, we presume, anticipated the scene 
which followed the announcement of the decision. The judge 
spoke in a very low tone of voice, so that but few could hear him. 
As soon, however, as he concluded, Mr. Crocker announced the 
decision in a loud tone of voice, that all could hear. Norris, in the 
meantime, had gathered his men around the captives as they were 
seated within the bar; and the moment the decision was announced, 
they seized the captives with one hand, brandished their weapons 
with the other, threatening to shoot the first man that interfered. 
This was while the judge was still sitting on the bench, and before 
anj' adjournment had been announced. Everything had been per- 
fectly quiet up to this moment, but upon this display of force, the 
people rose to their feet highly excited. Some ran out and spread 
the alarm through town, others crowded around the Kentuckians 
and their captives, calling upon them to put up their weapons; but 
they continued brandishing them, threatening to shoot all who 
dared to oppose them. Mr. Liston, one of their counsel, jumped 
upon a table and called upon the Kentuckians to shoot all who 
interfered, and they would be justified in so doing. His language 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 621 

was most violent and abusive toward the citizens and did much to 
fan the excitement. The citizens were entirely unarmed, and not- 
withstanding the excitement, no attempt was made to rescue the 
captives by force. At length the Kentuckians put up their 
weapons, the excitement subsided, and, at the request of Norris, the 
Sheriff took the captives and locked them up in jail for safe keep- 
ing. 

It was now discovered that while the trial was pending Norris 
had procured a writ under a law of the State of Indiana respecting 
fugitives from labor, under which he claimed to hold them, and he 
alleged that he was but serving this writ when he drew his weapons 
upon the people. 

This was on Friday evening. During the evening and the next 
da}- several warrants were issued against the Kentuckians for 
assaults and batteries, and one for riot, predicated upon their violent 
proceedings in the court-house. The whole of Saturday was occupied 
in trying these cases, and in the riot case they voluntarily gave 
bail to appear at the Circuit Court, which commenced its session 
the next Monday. Two suits were also commenced by the Powells 
against Norris and his party for trespass and false imprisonment, 
and they were held to bail in the sum of $1,000 in each suit. One 
of their counsel entered himself as bail for them. On Saturday 
evening, the captives having been all this time in custody of the 
sheriff in jail, where Norris had placed them, another vrritpt' habeas 
corpus was procured, returnable before the same judge at S o'clock 
on Monday morning. 

In the neighborhood from whence these captives were taken, 
there is a large settlement of colored people, numbering, it is sup- 
posed, from 1,200 to 1,500 persons, many of whom are fugitives. 
As soon as it was known that Mr. Powell's wife and children had 
been carried off, several large pal-tie's, many of whom were armed, 
started in pursuit, but it was not until Saturday that they learned 
he direction taken. During Satnrday and Sunday, numbers of 
these colored persons, estimated at from 75 to 200 persons, arrived 
at South Bend, many of them in a highly exasperated state, though 
they conducted themselves with great coolness and propriety under 
the circumstances. 

On Satnrday, a citizen of Michigan made affidavit before a jus- 
tice of the peace in South Bend, that Norris and his party had 
been guilty of kidnapping in Michigan, and had fled from that 
State to Indiana. On this affidavit, a writ for their arrest was issued 
under a law of Indiana, which provides that, upon sufficient proof, 
a fugitive from justice may be committed to jail for one month, to 
await a requisition from the Governor of the State from whence he 
fled. This writ was placed in the hands of a constable, but was 
never served. 

On Sunday morning Norris had a consultation with his attor- 
neys, at which it was conculded that it would be useless to attempt 
to take his captives out of the county, in the face of so many 



622 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

armed negroes; that they would abandon all legal proceedings, and 
endeavor to make the friends of the captives liable in damages for 
their value. Mr. Crocker, having been most active in befriending 
the negroes, was to be entrapped into some violation of the law, if 
possible. To carry out this scheme, on Sunday morning, they 
sent for the sheriff, and formally demanded the negroes of him, 
though they well knew that he had been served with a writ of 
habeas corpus, and that he would render himself liable to a fine of 
$1,000 should he fail to obey the writ. He, of course, declined. 
They then requested him to take witnesses and call upon Mr 
Crocker, and get him to agree to become responsible for not deliv- 
ering them. He accordingly did so, but Mr. C. replied that he was 
acting as attorney, should do his duty fearlessly as such attorney, 
and should assume no other responsibility; that if he, the sheriff, 
refused to obey the writ of habeas corpus, the law should be 
enforced against him. This did not suit the conspirators. 

During Sunday Mr. Liston called several times upon the con- 
stable, who had the writ, to arrest Norris and his party as fugitives 
from justice, and requested him to serve it, but he replied, that his 
orders were not to serve it unless they attempted to leave the 
town. It would seem that their object was to have Norris and his 
party arrested, and then offer that as an excuse for not appearing 
at the trial of the habeas corpus on Monday morning; but in this 
they were foiled, as they were at perfect liberty from Saturday 
night until they left town, several days after, and could have 
appeared at the trial had they seen proper. 

During Saturday and Sunday Mr. Norris seemed very anxious 
to persuade the people that he was a kind and indulgent master, in 
order to create a favorable public opinion. In several different 
conversations he stated that he gave his negroes ground to culti- 
vate for themselves, and many* other privileges, that he permitted 
them to go to Lawrenceburg, in Indiana, whenever they pleased, 
to sell their garden stuff, and that they had taken advantage of 
this liberty to run away. 

Early Monday morning Mr. Liston stated to Mr. Crocker that 
Norris was very anxious to prove, on the coming trial, that the 
negroes were his property, to satisfy the citizens. As the case 
stood, be could not legally introduce such testimony, for he claimed 
to hold them by a writ issued under a State law, which the U. S. 
Supreme Court had decided to be unconstitutional and void. The 
sheriff would be compelled in his return, to set up this writ, as his 
authority for holding them in custody, and an exception to the 
sufficiency of the return would raise the question, under which no 
evidence could be offered. The object of the request seems to have 
been to obtain a refusal to admit the testimony before the issue was 
made up, and then adduce that ;is evidence of an unwillingness to 
grant a fair trial. But in this they were foiled, for the request 
was immediately acceded to, Mr. Crocker stating that he was willing 
to waive all technical matters and rest the case upon the question 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 623 

of freedom or slavery. This, however, did not suit their designs; 
for, when the trial came on, Norris refused to appear, saying that 
he did not want the negroes, that he could make the citizens pay 
for them, which was all he wanted. 

The sheriff, in his return to the writ of habeas corpus, stated 
that he held the captives in custody, as the agent of Norris, under 
the State writ, which was set forth in full. A replication to this 
return was filed, sworn to by Lewis Powell, excepting to the suffi- 
ciency of the return, and alleging that they were free persons and 
not slaves. One of Norris' attorneys and several of his party were 
present at the trial, but refused to appear for Norris. The case of 
Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, 16th Peters' Reports, in which the IT. S. 
Supreme Court declare that all laws passed by the States in relation 
to fugitives from labor are unconstitutional and void, was read to 
the court, and several witnesses examined in relation to the facts of 
the case. The court, after a full and fair hearing of the case, again 
ordered the captives to be discharged. The colored friends and 
neighbors of the captives immediately came forward, conducted 
them out of the court-house to a wagon, and quietly rode off home 
with them. On the bridge adjacent the town they halted, and 
made the welkin ring with their cheers for liberty. They rode off, 
singing the songs ot freedom, rejoicing over the fortunate escape 
of their friends from the horrible fate of slavery. Thus ended one 
of the most exciting scenes ever witnessed in Northern Indiana. 
The grand jury refused to find an indictment against the Ken- 
tuckians for a riot, and in a few days after they quietly departed for 
their homes, with new views of Northern feeling on the subject of 
slavery. 

The citizens of South Bend generally, without distinction of 
party, evinced the strongest feeling of sympathy for the oppressed. 
The trials called forth crowds to hear the arguments. The pres- 
ence of the poor, trembling captives in their weak and helpless 
condition, surrounded by a party of armed men in a court of justice, 
was a practical exhibition of slavery, which needed only to be seen 
to stir up the deepest fountain of feeling. The Kentnckians were 
looked upon almost universally with loathing and abhorrence. The 
sight of a family thus torn from a happy home, separated from 
those they held most dear, with nothing but slavery, hopeless, life- 
long bondage staring them in the face, made our citizens feel that 
nothing should be left undone to save them from such a horrid 
fate. 

Mr. Crocker, in speaking of this event, says: 

" Never shall I forget my feelings, as 1 stood among them in their 
dark cell in prison, when that mother, with streaming eyes and 
heaving breast, fell on her knees, and begged me to save them from 
slavery. Oh! what anguish filled those hearts! Who, possessing 
the heart of a man, could resist such an appeal? For one, I could 
not, and whatever cold, calculating conservatism might say, I felt 
then, that there is a ' higher law,' written by the finger of God 

40 



024- HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

upon the hearts of men, speaking in resistless tones, ' Thus saith 
the Lord, execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the 
spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor.' — Jer. xxii:3. Never 
can I forget an interview I afterward had with the husband and 
father of this family, who came to express his feelings of gratitude 
for my efforts in their behalf. The best of his days had been spent 
toiling for others living in luxury. Said he, ' I once had a wife; 
she was taken from me and sold South; I have never seen her since; 
I know not whether she is dead or alive, and when the news came, 
that this, my second wife, was in the hands of the Kentuckians, I 
felt that I had nothing more to live for,' and he wept like a child." 

Dec. 21, 1S49, Norris commenced suit in the United States Cir- 
cuit Court, for the District of Indiana, against Leander B. Newton, 
George W. Horton, Edwin B. Crocker, Solomon W. Palmer, David 
Jodon, William Willmington, Lot Day, Jr., Ainable M. Lapiere, 
and Wright Maudlin, to recover the value of the negroes and other 
damages. Mr. Maudlin being a resident of Michigan, the suit was 
afterward dismissed as to him. The declaration filed charged the 
defendants with having knowingly harbored, and concealed, and 
aided the four negroes to escape from the plaintiff, stating them to 
be worth $2,500. The court commenced its session on the 3d Mon- 
day in May, 1850. The plaintiff appeared by O. H. Smith and J. 
A. Liston, and the defendants by Joseph G. Marshall and J. L. 
Jernegan, their attorneys. The defendants demurred to the decla- 
ration on the ground that the suit was founded on the act of Con- 
gress of Feb. 12, 1793, and that no reference was made to the statute 
in the declaration, referring to the opinion of Judge McLean, in the 
case of Jones vs. Vanzandt, 2 McLean's Rep., 630, where the judge 
says: " An exception is taken to the fourth count, that it does not 
conclude against the form of the statute. If an action be founded 
exclusively upon the statute, and cannot be maintained at common 
law, a reference to the statute, as showing the right of the plaintiff, 
it seems to me is essential. The defendant is charged with harbor- 
ing the slaves of the plaintiff, who had escaped from his service in 
Kentucky. But the wrong charged is no legal wrong, except as it 
is made so by statute; and the fourth count does not refer to the 
statute. The statute is a public one, but it is the foundation, and 
the only foundation, of the plaintiff's right. It seems to me that 
the declaration must refer to the statute, as an essential part of the 
plaintiff's right," citing 1 Chitty's Pleading, 246; 1 Gallison, 257 
and 261; 1 Saunders, 135 n. This decision, made by one of the 
judges of the U. S. Supreme Court, was precisely in point to sustain 
the demurrers. If the demurrers had been sustained, the plaintiff 
would have been compelled to amend his declaration, which would 
have continued the case to the next term, at his costs, amounting to 
about $1,000. The demurrers were most unceremoniously over- 
ruled by Judge Huntington, who was officiating at this time. 

The defendants then tiled their pleas, one the general issue, and 
six special pleas, in which the proceedings under the writs of ha beas 



HISTORY OF ST JOSEPH COUNTY. 625 

corpus were set up as a defense to the action, thus raising the great 
question as to the right of alleged fugitives from labor to the writ 
of habeas corpus. The plaintiff moved to reject these special pleas, 
and as the question was an important one, the argument was 
deferred until Judge McLean should arrive from Washington City. 

In arguing the motion the counsel for the plaintiff took the bold 
ground that a person arrested as a fugitive slave had no right to the 
w'rit of habeas corpus, even though the master had made no proof 
of his claim, or obtained a certificate under the act of Congress; 
and that all who assisted in procuring, with the officer that served, 
and the judge that tried the writ, were trespassers and liable to the 
plaintiff in damages. On the other hand it was contended that it 
was a sacred writ, secured by the express terms of the Constitution 
of the United States, and of the State of Indiana, and the laws of 
the land, and that all persons, without distinction, were entitled to 
its benefits. Judge McLean decided the motion, without express- 
ing his opinion upon these points, upon a mere technical objection, 
that the pleas amounted to the general issue, and he therefore 
rejected them. 

The case at last came to trial. The jury was duly empaneled. 
In the preceding pages is substantially set forth the evidence as it 
was given to the jury. The following is the amount claimed: Lucy, 
40 years of age, $500; Lewis, 20, $800; George, 16, $750; James, 
14, $700; plaintiff's expenses at South Bend, $165.80. 

The charge to the jury by Judge McLean favored the claim of 
the alleged owner of the slaves, and the jury brought in a verdict 
against the defendants and assessed the damages at $2,856. March 
29, 1855, the United States marshal sold a quantity of real estate 
owned by some of the parties in the suit to satisfy it. 

Between the spring and fall terms of the Circuit Court, in 1850, 
the plaintiff commenced 12 suits, against 15 defendants, to recover 
in each suit the penalty of $500 under the act of 1793. The counsel 
for the plaintiff gave it out that they intended to commence about 
25 additional suits, for the penalty; and if successful in them all, 
they would have recovered judgments to the amount of about $15,- 
000 to $20,000. On the 18th day of September, 1S50, the new 
fugitive law was passed by Congress, punishing the same offenses 
by fine not exceeding $1,000, and imprisonment not exceeding six 
months. At the November term, 1850, the defendants appeared 
and filed demurrers to the declarations. 

Jernegan and Niles, for defendants, insisted on the following 
points in support of the demurrer. 1. The act respecting fugitives 
from labor, adopted Sept. IS, 1850, inflicts a greater punish- 
ment than the law of 1793, for the same offenses; 2. Anew statute, 
imposing a new penalty, repeals the prior law by implication — cit- 
ing 4 Burrows, 2020; 5 Pick., 168; 21 Pick., 373; 9 New Hamp- 
shire, 59; 2 Dana, 330, 344; 3. Such repeal puts an end to all suits, 
whether pending at the time, or commenced after the passage of 
the new law, unless there be a saving clause, which there is not in 



626 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

the law of 1850— citing 3 Burrows. 1456; 5 Cranch, 2S0; 4 Yeates, 
392; 5 Randolph, 657 : 1 Wash. C. 0., S5; 4 Alabama. 4S7; 3, 
Howard, 534; 16 Peters, 362; 18 Maine, 109; 26 Maine, 452; 1 
New Hampshire, 61. 

0. H. Smith for plaintiff insisted on the following in reply: 

1. The act of 1850 applies only to offenses occurring after its 
passage. 2. The penalties of the latter actare cumulative. Adding 
new penalties by law will not operate as a repeal of a prior law, 
unless there is a repealing clause, which there is not in this case — 
citing 1 Cowper, 297; 9 Bacon's Abridgment, Bouvier's Edition, 
226." 3. The plaintiff had a vested right to the penalty of $500, 
which the act of Congress has not taken away. 4. The act of 1S50 
is an "amendment and supplementary" to the act of 1793, by its 
express terms. 

J. A. Liston, for plaintiff, insisted that the two acts were not in- 
consistent with, or repugnant to each other; that they merely 
adopt different modes of recovering fugitives, imposing different 
penalties on those who violate the provisions of either; that a 
claimant can now pursue the remedy prescribed by the act of 1793, 
and if a person interfere with him in violation of that law, he can 
recover the penalty of $500; but if he should elect to proceed under 
the law of 1850. a person violating that law 'would be punished by 
fine and imprisonment. 

The question was fully argued, occupying two entire days, and 
the court took the matter under advisement, until the spring term; 
and at the May term, 1851, the court decided in favor of the 
defendants, but as the plaintiff was desirous of having the points 
decided by the United States Supreme Court, the court, pro forma, 
certified to a difference of opinion, which is the only way the 
question can be carried up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme 
Court affirmed the decision of the lower court. 

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the exciting 
events narrated formed a topic of the day. The drama of 1849 has 
become history. Of the actors, several have passed away, while 
others remain to glory in th? triumph of their cause, to see the 
last vestige of slavery swept away, and all men equal before the 
constitution and laws of their country. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME. — ST. MART'S ACADEMY. — NORTHERN IN- 
DIANA COLLEGE. 

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME. 

Very Rev. Edward Sorin, the founder of the univeisity, was born 
at Ahuille, near Laval, France, in the year 1814. In 1810, he 
attached himself to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, a religious 
society then recently formed at Mans, near Paris. The objects pro- 
posed to be accomplished by this young society were the instruc- 
tion of youth and the preaching of missions to the people and to 
both of these ends Father Sorin at once devoted his life. 

In furtherance of this object, and believing that in this country 
was a vast field for future usefulness, Father Sorin, with six other 
brothers of St. Joseph, sailed for New York in the summer of 
1*11, landing in that city on the 13th of September, the eve of 
the Exaltation of the Hoiy Cross. Father Sorin, the next day, in 
writing of this remarkable coincidence, says: " Our good God per- 
mitted me to land yesterday evening, the eve of the Exaltation 
of the Holy Cross. "With what happiness did I salute and embrace 
this dear land of America, and what increase of consolation to land 
on the eve of so beautiful a day! * * * What joy for a poor 
priest of the Holy Cross to be able to say his first mass in America 
on the feast of the Exaltation of that sacred symbol! What a de- 
licious day it is here! how beautiful is the American sky! Ah, 
yes! my Father, here is the portion of my inheritance; here will I 
dwell all the days of my life." 

Notre Dame du Lac was purchased in 1830 by Rev. Theodore 
Bodin, the first priest ever ordained in the United States. It was 
then known by the Indians and the few settlers around it as Ste. 
Marie des Lacs, and was made by Father Bodin the center of 
quite a range of missions, and the residence of the priest who at- 
tended the scattering population of Northern Indiana and Southern 
Michigan. Father Bodin having purchased the land and estab- 
lished the little log church as a central point, did not leave this 
part of the country without attending to the wants of the Indians 
who then dwelt in Northern Indiana, many of whom were Catho- 
lics, and the rest converted by himself and his successors. 

On the 26th day of November, 1842, Father Sorin viewed for 
the first time the scene of his future labors — his life work. The 
ground was covered with snow; the branches of the trees drooped 
under the weight of the snow; the evergreens, even the rail fences, 

627) 



628 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and the stumps that thickly studded the ten-acre lot, were rendered 
fairy-like with snow; snow, cold, pure, beautifying snow lay thick 
and heavy all around, and as the rays of the setting sun, struggling 
through the winter clouds, cast their magic light over the wide 
expanse of snow-covered land, the young priest consecrated it anew 
to the Virgin Mother of God. to whom, in his great love for her, 
all his undertakings, great or small, were always lovingly submitted. 
With Father Sorin came seven Brothers of the Order — Francis 
Xavier, Gatien, Patrick, William, Basil, Pierre and Francis, all of 
whom have gone to their long rest except Brother Francis Xavier. 

Notre Dame is on a farm originally of over 600 acres, lying on 
the right bank of the St. Joseph river, in St. Joseph county, Indi- 
ana, about two miles from the railroad station at South Bend, on 
the Michigan Southern & Lake Shore railroad, which connects 
Chicago with Toledo and Detroit; and also a branch of the Michi- 
gan Central & Grand Trunk railways. At the time Father Sorin 
arrived here only ten acres of the ground had been cleared, the rest 
being covered with forest trees and thick underbrush, except some 
hundred or more that were covered by the water of the lakelets from 
which the establishment took its name. The only house on the 
premises was one built of logs, in the old style of log-cabin — forty 
feet by twenty-four. The ground floor was the residence of the 
priest, while the upper story was the only church or chapel for the 
Catholics of South Bend and vicinity. A small frame house cling- 
ing to this sturdy log one, was occupied by the family of a man who 
acted as interpreter between the Indians and whites when occasion 
required. 

To fulfill the terms of the contract with the bishop, entered into 
by Father Sorin, it was determined, notwithstanding an apparent 
lack of means, to proceed as soon as possible, to the erection of the 
college building. The name of the place was now changed from 
St. Mary's to Notre Dame dn Lac, Our Lady of the Lake, a name 
which has been insensibly shortened to iS'otre Dame. On the 
28th day of August, 1843, the corner stone of the first college edi- 
fice of Notre Dame was laid with appropriate ceremonies. Before 
winter the building was under roof, and during the next spring it 
was completed. In June the few students who were in attendance 
were removed from the farm house, and in August, 1844, the first 
commencement exercises took place. Previous to this a charter 
had been obtained from the State, through the instrumentality of 
Hon. John D. Defrees, then a member of the Legislature, with all 
the rights and privileges of a university. 

During the year ls44 the Manual Labor School was also organ- 
ized and received a charter from the State Legislature. Besides 
Father Sorin. the chief personages of this early time were Fathers 
Cointet and Granger, the latter of whom arrived in 1S44. Father 
Sorin was the first president of the institution, continuing in office 
from 1S44 to 1865. Father Granger was the first vice-president, 
and Father Cointet the second. To them, therefore, must be chiefly 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 629 

ascribed the first shaping of the distinctive character which Notre 
Dame earlv began to assume. During the administration of Father 
Sorin the foundations of Notre Dame were deeply and solidly laid. 
Save the bare land, and the sympathy of the benevolent and charitable, 
the young community had in the beginning actually no means, 
except the blessing of heaven, their own feeble strength, and, after 
a time, the txxition of a few students, which for many years was a 
very small sum indeed. But faith and industry did not go unre- 
warded. Little by little every year was an improvement upon the 
last. Slowly, very slowly, the number of students crept up from 
one to one hundred. These spread over the country became the 
best advertisement. As if each took another by the hand, there 
were soon two hundred entrances; then three, four, five, even six 
hundred, until the halls were over-flowing. With this increase, 
every thing else increased. The faculty, which once consisted of 
Father Sorin, Father Granger and Father Cointet, advanced in 
numbers from year to year, until it now consists of nearly forty 
members. The courses of study at the same time widened in com- 
pleteness and increased in number, until at Notre Dame, according 
to the saying of a well-known patron of learning, " Any one may 
learn anything," whether in science, in the arts, or in business, as 
well as in theology, law and medicine. Buildings have arisen on 
every hand, until their appearance is rather that of a town than of 
a college. The first college edifice, except the farm house, was the 
central part of the old college building, and was 36 feet deep by 80 
front, and four stories high. This continued unchanged until 1S53, 
when two wings, 40 by 60, were added. It was now thought there 
would be room enough for at least a generation. But the error of 
this anticipation was discovered in a very few years, and in 1865, 
under the energetic presidency of Father Dillon, the old college 
building was, in the course of two months, transformed into an 
imposing structure, 160 feet in length, SO feet in width, and six 
stories in height, surmounted by a' colossal statue of Notre Dame. 
May 31, 1S66, the new building was dedicated, and the statue 
blessed by Archbishop Spalding, assisted by five bishops, and a 
very great number of priests, in presence of the largest concourse 
of people ever gathered at Notre Dame. April 23, 1879, the uni- 
versity was destroyed by fire. The main college building, the 
Infirmary, Music Hall, St. -Francis' Home and the Minims' Play 
Hall were burned to the ground. The fire originated from a tin- 
ner's furnace which some workmen were using on the roof of the 
main building. They left the roof for a short time, and while they 
were absent the fire started. About one-fourth of the original cost 
of the buildings was destroyed. The insurance was $45,000, and 
with this money and with the aid of the friends of Notre Dame 
throughout the country, the community went to work to clear 
away the rubbish and to lay the foundations of new buildings. 

The style of architecture adopted for the main building is mod- 
ern Gothic. It presents a frontage of 224 feet by 155 in depth, 



630 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

somewhat cruciform in shape, or like the letter E with an extended 
center. A projection or wing on each side, directly connected with 
the main building, will make the total frontage 320 feet. The 
height of the main building is four stories with basement; the 
height of the east and west wings, each three stories with basement. 
From the ground to the pedestal of the statue above the dome is 
170 feet. The dome is unusually lofty, extending 80 feet above the 
roof. A rotunda 30 feet in diameter at the base passes from the 
foundations up through the building, supporting the dome, and 
giving light, air and ventilation to the whole building. This 
rotunda, surmounted as it is by the glorious dome, and crowned by 
a statue over all, is entirely self-supporting, and constitutes perhaps 
the finest feature of its kind to be seen in any educational institu- 
tion in this or any other country. 

The study halls are located, as in the old building, in the east 
and west sides, on the principal floor. They are most spacious and 
beautiful rooms, 77 feet in length, 41 in width, and 15 feet clear in 
height, well lighted on three sides with large windows. The 
entrance to the study halls is from the south, as before, and also 
from a corridor 10 feet in width extending from each study hall to 
the rotunda in the center. 

In nothing perhaps is the superiority of the new building to the 
old more manifest than in the class rooms, both as to location and 
size. Twelve of them are situated on the same floor as the studv 
halls, thus ensuring convenience to students and professors, and 
doing away with much of the noise that attended the march of 
heavy classes up and down stairs. The average dimensions of the 
class rooms are 26 feet in length, 16 in width, and 15 feet clear in 
height. The commercial class-room adjoins the senior study hall, 
on the south side of the building, and is 44 feet in length by 20 feet 
in width. All class-rooms are lighted by two large windows, five 
South windows lighting the fine commercial class-room. 

The floors above are divided in a similar manner to those below. 
The dormitories are directly over the study rooms, are of the same 
lofty height, and are lighted in like manner with large and numer- 
ous windows. 

Particular attention has been given to the subject of ventilation, 
flues for this purpose running through every story from basement 
to roof, with openings from study halls, class-rooms, dormitories, 
etc., thus securing pure and health-giving air in every room. 

The destruction of the old college has drawn special attention to 
the protection of the new building from all possible danger from 
fire. The Malls are of solid brick and stone; the trimming and 
ornamentation of the exterior are of fine cut stone and galvanized 
iron, and all the roofs and cornices are covered with slate. Then, 
in addition to the ordinary stairways, there are" fire escapes on every 
floor, so that should fire ever again occur, there will be the most 
ample means of escape from every story and every room of the 
whole building. As a still further protection from fire, and also 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 631 

for convenience and beauty in lighting the building, gas has been 
introduced instead of coal oil. 

The principal entrance to the college is from the south, facing 
the main avenue, as in the old college, by a large and handsome 
porch approached bj- an extra large and inviting flight of steps. 
At the right of entrance are the president's room and parlor and 
vice-president's room and parlor. On the left of the entrance, 
looking out in front, is the main parlor, 40 by 42 feet. In the rear 
of the main parlor is a smaller parlor, with octagonal front, con- 
necting parlor with toilet room. 

The projecting wings are in themselves no insignificant build- 
ings, being each forty-two feet front, and but one story lower than 
the main building. The west wing is devoted exclusively to libra- 
ries and museums, the east wing to the laboratory and the sciences 
in general. 

The Music Hall is the name given to a large and imposing struct- 
ure on the east and front of the college building, three stories in 
height, with a total length of one hundred and seventy-five feet. 
In width it varies from a maximum of ninety feet to a minimum 
of forty -five. 

The apparatus for heating, lighting and ventilating the build- 
ings are all of the most approved character, and embrace the latest 
improvements; and these, together with the corresponding sanitary 
appointments, have engaged the special attention of the architect. 
The walls are heavy, and thus make the building not only strong, 
but also warm. The windows are large and numerous, and thus 
afford abundance of light, and also ventilation if needed. The 
building is heated by steam and lighted by gas. 

In connection with the church and college, a word may be said 
of the bells for which Notre Dame is famous. The original bell ot 
Notre Dame is that clear, sweet-toned one that now rings out so 
pleasantly from St. Mary's Academy. The second bell was one of 
2,400 pounds, which, becoming cracked, was taken down and suc- 
ceeded by the present great bell. This bell, with its rich musical 
tones, and its magnificent volume of sound, has a national reputa- 
tion, being the largest in the United States, as it is one of the finest 
in the world. Its weight is 13,000 pounds, and it was manufact- 
ured in France. The names of all donors are cast upon the bell. 
The church also possesses a chime of 23 bells, the finest and largest 
but one in the country. They were solemnly blessed in 1856 by 
Archbishop Purcell, and Bishop Henni, of Milwaukee. With its 
bells, its noble organ, and its well-trained choir, it need not be 
said that nowhere in America are the solemn and beautiful services 
of the church celebrated with more splendor than at Notre Dame. 

The growth of Notre Dame has been truly wonderful. From 
the small beginning already spoken of, it has grown to be one ot 
the most noted educational institutions in the country. Year by 
year an addition was made, an improvement introduced, from the 
first English class organized by Father Shaw, to the present classes 



632 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

'of rhetoric and literature, from the first Latin class called by 
Father Cointet, to the present numerous classes of Latin, Greek, 
and ancient literature; from the first logic class assembled by 
Father Granger, to the present classes of philosophy and theology ; 
from the first arithmetic class formed by Brother Gatien, to the 
present commercial department, and the various classes in the 
physical and natural sciences. 

The war drew off great numbers from Notre Dame to the hospi- 
tal and to the field. No less than seven priests went as chaplains 
in the army, — Fathers Corby, Cooney, Carrier, Gillen, James 
Dillon, Leveque and Bourget; of whom the last three, from expos- 
ure, contracted diseases which ended in death. The period since 
the war has been one of continual prosperity, even during the hard 
times between the years 1S73 and 1S79. It was ushered in by the 
building of a new college edifice, and by the establishment of the 
Ave Maria, a widely known religious journal. The Ave Maria 
was founded, and edited for the first two years by Father Sorin. 
It was afterward conducted by Father Gillespie until his untimely 
death in 1874. Father Gillespie also began the publication of 
the Schohistio, the college paper, conducted under his supervision 
by the students. To no one indeed is Notre Dame more indebted 
for the cultivation and encouragement of literary studies than to 
Father Gillespie, her first graduate. 

The year 1851 was one of great importance to Notre Dame; it 
was the year that the railroad was completed to South Bend, and 
the postoffice was established at Notre Dame. The wings of the 
college were added to the main building in 1853, and the college 
steadily prospered until 1854. The cholera had ravaged many parts 
of the United States, and the danger passed away, when in the sum- 
mer of 1S5-1, many of the inmates of Notre Dame were attacked with 
a disease akin to it. Among the first attacked was Father Cointet; 
his health had been completely shattered by a residence in New 
Orleans, but had greatly improved since returning North, yet not 
sufficiently to resist the attack of the disease, and in the month of 
August he passed away. Many other deaths occurred, and the fate 
of the college seemed hung in the balance. Soon the clouds passed 
away and all was bright again. 

The discipline of Notre Dame has justly met the approbation ot 
all the friends of the institution. At the beginning the main 
features were the same as now, for as in regard to discipline, as in 
everything else connected with the institution, Father Sorin gave 
the impulse and direction, l et some changes have been made, 
and they began in the first years. It was natural that the whole 
system of French college discipline should at first be introduced, 
but the founder of Notre Dame quickly seized the peculiarities of 
young America as distinguished from young France. The most 
powerful human cause of Father Sorin's remarkable success was 
his qnick perception of the manners and ideas of his adopted 
country, and the happy facility with which he not only conformed 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 633 

to them, but actually made them part and parcel of himself; and 
while he retained all the qualities of the Catholic priest and French 
gentleman, he laid aside the prejudices of the foreigner, and seemed 
to take possession of the spirit of the country with his oath on 
becoming a citizen. 

If the presidency of Father Sorin was a time of struggle and of 
triumph, and that of Father Dillon one of great business activity, 
that of Father Corby was one of earnest devotion to learning, dur- 
ing which the standard of education was materially elevated at 
Notre Dame. During this time the societies of the college, in 
which so much of its life centers, showed a marked increase of 
activity. To Father Granger the religious societies owe every- 
thing; the literary and dramatic societies are almost equally 
indebted to Father Gillespie and Lemonnier and Prof. Lyons. 
During the first administration of Father Corby, the association ot 
the Alumni was formed; and in 1S69 Notre Dame celebrated, 
with much rejoicing, her silver jubilee. 

, In the summer of 1872 there convened at Notre Dame an assem- 
bly, which, from its unique character, merits special remark. There, 
for the first time since the discovery of America, a general chapter 
of a religious order was held in the New World. At this chapter 
were present not only representatives from the United States and 
the Dominion of Canada, but also from France, Algiers, the East 
Indies, and even from Rome itself, where these meetings are usu- 
ally held, and which in this instance had given special permission 
to hold the chapter at Notre Dame, as a peculiar mark of favor to 
the United States, and perhaps also as a compliment to Father 
Sorin, the only American general of a religions order. It was at 
this chapter that the gifted Father Lemonnier was selected as 
president and local superior at Notre Dame. It would seem that 
his presidency came to add grace and beauty to what was already 
so laboriously and substantially constructed. There was hardly a 
science or an art in which he was not well versed; and as Johnson 
said of Goldsmith, there was nothing which he touched which he 
did not beautify. Under him all the sciences and the arts flour- 
ished, and Notre Dame became indeed a university. 

Of the presidents of Notre Dame, Father Lemonnier has gone to 
a better world, as Father Dillon went before him; Father Corby, 
after laying the foundation of a new Notre Dame at "Watertown. 
Wiscon-in, has again assumed control of the institution; and 
Father Sorin himself, now Superior General of the Congregation 
of the Holy Cross, remains still blessed with health and strength, 
though venerable with years. Of the companions of his youth, 
who laid with him the foundation of Notre Dame, but three remain. 
Father Granger, now provincial of the Holy Cross in the United 
States, the venerable Brother Vincent, and Brother Francis, the 
sexton. 

The present officers of the university are, Very Rev. William 
Corby, C, S. C, President; Rev. Thomas E. Walsh, C. S. C, Vice- 
President and Director of Studies; Rev. Patrick W. Condon, C. S. 



634 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

C, Prefect of Discipline; Very Rev. Alexis Granger, C. S. C, 
Prefect of -Religion; Rev. Timothy Maher, C. S. C, Secretary; 
Brother Celestine, C. S. C, Assistant Secretary. These officers are 
assisted by an able faculty of about forty professors and instructors. 

General Faculty: Rev. AVilliara Corby, President; Rev. Thos. 
E. Walsh, Vice-President and Director of Studies; Rev. Patrick 
W. Condon, Prefect of Discipline. 

Professors: Rev. William Corby, Evidences of Christianity; 
Rev. Thos. E. Walsh, Latin Language and Literature; Rev. John A. 
O'Connell, Moral Philosophy; Rev. John A. Zahm, Physical 
Sciences, and Curator of the Museum; Rev. Christopher Kelly, 
Logic and Mental Philosophy; Rev. Nicholas Stoffel, Greek Lan- 
guage and Literature; Rev. A. M. Kirsch, Natural Sciences, and 
Assistant Curator of Museum; Rev. J. Scherer, German; Rev. P. 
Kollop, French; Rev. Louis Neyron, Human Anatomy and Physi- 
ology; Joseph A. Lyons, Latin and English; Wm. Ivers, Mathe- 
matics; Timothy E. Howard, English Literature; Arthur J. Stace, 
Astronomy and Civil Engineering; Lucius G. Tong, Law and 
Bookkeeping; James F. Edwards, History, and Librarian of the 
Lemonnier Library; John Coleman, Latin and Mathematics. 

With the above are a large corps of assistant professors and in- 
structors, not only in the foregoing branches, but also in the fine 
arts. The general faculty is divided into five special faculties, 
namely, on arts, science, commerce, law and civil engineering. 
There are also numerous well-sustained literary, art, scientific and 
religions societies in the university. 



One of the most important objects of interest in the history of 
St. Joseph county, is Saint Mary's Academy, conducted by the Sis- 
ters of the Holy Cross. Although the order of the Hoh' Cross was 
founded at Notre Dame in 1842, and although the Sisters of the 
Holy Cross were established at Bertrand, Michigan, as early as 1845, 
yet Saint Mary's did not occupy its present charming site until 
1855. Nature seems to have selected and laid out the spot for the 
religious and educational purposes to which it is now consecrated. 
A table-land of 110 acres on the high bank of the St. Joseph river, 
with sunny openings between the groves of native forest trees, pre- 
sented itself to the e3 T es of those who had in view an institution of 
learning to which all coming generations would bring its daughters, 
and where they would not only find a home during the trying years 
of school life, but from which they would carry the germs of those 
noble womanly graces which must be the guerdon of the future 
glory of our republic. With that untiring energy which marks an 
earnest purpose the building at Bertrand was removed to the banks 
of the St. Joseph and made the nucleus of the wooden buildings 
which until 1859 were nestled among these groves. The present 
substantial brick academy, with its spacious and airy halls, its study 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 635 

and recitation rooms, library and museum, music halls and studio, 
its well ventilated domitories and refectories, is still only the 
beginning of good things to come. When the whole plan is carried 
out the present St. Mary's will be found to occupy only the third ot 
the St. Mary's which stands in the far-seeing eyes of its founders. 

But even as we now see it, after 20 years of industry, and conscien- 
tious labor, how richly has the efforts of the Sisters been rewarded. 
The stranger finds on his first visit to St. Mary's, an unexpected 
charm in this spot, so removed from all the busy turmoil of the day 
and age, and yet full to overflowing, with all the most sacred inter- 
ests to humanity. Meeting here seclusion without solitude, sim- 
plicity without rusticity, he sees the very place suited to carry out 
his own ideas of education; while for those who have spent years 
among these scenes of peaceful beauty, no description of St. Mary's 
can ever convey an adequate idea of its charms for the eye, the 
heart and the imagination. The young girl coming from some 
secluded homestead of some Western town or territory, loses none 
of her simplicity under this open sky, among these quiet groves, or 
along the varied path which follows along the winding high bank 
which overlooks the river and the meadows and the distant town; 
while the young girl from the city becomes acquainted with nature 
without losing the wholesome restraints of society, and even finds 
gracefulness of manner considered a subject of just emulation. 
The innocent cheerfulness, the happy buoyancy of spirits, which it 
is so difficult to preserve for the young in the atmosphere of towns 
and cities, is the natural result of the out-door life at St. Mary's. 
Exercise comes as a matter of course, and brings pleasure, instead 
of its being an irksome necessity, as it is so often under less favora- 
ble conditions, since nature has done for St. Mary's what 710 industry 
or invention on the part of the Sisters could ever supply. 

But as spring, summer and autumn must yield several months 
every year to winter, care has been taken to provide agreeable exer- 
cise for seniors, juniors and minims within doors, whenever the 
grounds or piazzas cannot be used. Lessons in dancing are given 
weekly, and the holidays and recreation days offer opportunities for 
"assemblies," at which the Superiors are always present. 

Situated two miles from the pleasant city of South Bend, the 
j'onng city and the college and academy have grown up together, 
and have proved mutual helps and encouragements. An exchange 
of courtesies have always marked the intercourse between these two 
institutions and the city of South Bend. Among her citizens are 
many whose names will always be remembered with pleasure and 
gratitude by the Sisters of the Holy Cross at St. Mary's, and the 
growth of each may well be a matter of just pride and congratula- 
tion to the other. Like South Bend, Sr. Mary's owes much of her 
material prosperity to the ready access given to the different parts 
of the country by the Michigan Southern & Lake Shore railroad. 
This road has been an old and long-tried friend to St. Mary's; 
while the Michigan Central now claims a place in her regard, on 



636 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

account of the branch road lately built in such a way as to put St. 
Mary's in direct communication with its extensive line of travel. 

One mile east of St. Mary's rise the beautiful dome and spires 
of Notre Dame, the first home of the Order of the Holy Cross in 
America, and still the fountain head as well as faithful coadjutor. 
The interest of the Very Rev. Superior General in the welfare of 
St. Mary's has never slackened since the academy was removed from 
Bertrand to its present site; and this personal interest of the Supe- 
rior General, who has watched over its growth, is shared by the 
Very Rev. Provincial at Notre Dame, by the president and all the 
professors at the university. There is a community of interests 
between the two institutions which secures many privileges to the 
students of both. Professors from Notre Dame take pleasure in 
repeating their lectures for the benefit of the pupils of St. Mary's, 
and the Scholastic, published weekly at Notre Dame, is devoted to 
the educational interests of both institutions. These mutual advan- 
tages, and the short distance from the university to the academy 
(one mile), with a regular mode of conveyance to both places from 
South Bend, resolve many a family problem as to a place of educa- 
tion for sons and daughters. To the convenience of the parent, who 
can visit both at one time, is added the satisfaction of knowing 
that the j'outhful members of the family are near each other, espe- 
cially when coming from great distances. 

NORTHERN INDIANA COLLEGE. 

The Northern Indiana College was founded in 1861, by an asso- 
ciation of gentlemen residing at and in the vicinity of South Bend. 
They organized under an act of the General Assembly, entitled "An 
act for the incorporation of high schools, academies and colleges." 
The institution was for the accommodation of both male and female 
students. The first Board of Trustees was composed of the follow- 
ing named gentlemen: Schuyler Colfax, William Miller, John H. 
Harper, John Brownfield, Asbury Clark, George F. Layton, Fran- 
cis R. Tutt, John W. Chess and Elisha Egbert. A college building 
was erected at the west end of Washington street, one mile from 
the court-house. It was easy of access, healthy, andaffbrded a fine 
view of the city and surrounding country. From its inception, it 
had many difficulties to contend with, principally of a financial 
character. On this account the edifice was not completed until the 
fall of 1S66. The building was of brick 50x90 feet, and four stories 
high, including basement. The front was ornamented by a central 
and cylindrical tower, rising to an altitude of nearly one hundred 
feet, and connected with every floor in the building. The interior 
arrangement was well adapted to the purposes for which it was 
intended, and the whole edifice finished in a workmanlike manner. 

On Thursday, Jan. 10, 18G7, the dedication of the college to the 
cause of Christian education took place. The dedicatory sermon 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



637 



was preached by Eev. T. M. Eddy, of Chicago, the sermon being 
founded upon Proverbs xxix:lS, " Where there is no vision, the 
people perish,'' 

The school was duly opened, lingered a few years, became 
involved, the school closed, the building passed into other hands, 
and the Northern Indiana College was of the past. 




■.At, ^'wr 



CHAPTER XX. 

AUTHORS AND SELECTIONS. 

Mrs. Flora L. Stanfield was born in Cleveland, Ohio, October, 
1848. She is the daughter ot'T. G. and Laura O. Turner, both ot 
whom were possessed of literary talents of no mean order, sketches 
of whom are given elsewhere. Mrs. Stanfield began to contribute 
to the local papers printed in the vicinity of her home when but 
twelve years of age, her contributions creating no little interest. 
Soon her articles found their way into the columns of the New 
York Independent, and other papers of that character. In 1870 
she was married in South Bend, to Howard Stanfield, son of Judge 
Stanfield, of that place. Mrs. Stanfield has usually contributed under 
the nom de plume of "Malcolm Duncan," though some of her best 
contributions have appeared over her own signature. In all mat- 
ters pertaining to literature and art, Mrs. Stanfield has taken great 
interest. She was chiefly instrumental in forming the "Pleiades 
Club," as well as the "Women's Literary Club," of South Bend. 
The following poem was written by Mrs. Stanfield when but thir- 
teen years of age, and gave token of the more mature thoughts and 
genius of later years: 

MY DKEAM. 

I dreamed a dream of my childhood's home, 

And I'd tell it to you again. 
If my voice would obey the tune of my heart, 

And my soul would chant the strain. 
I would tell of the words trilled by gay -crested birds, 

Welcoming me home once more ; 
And the warbling notes that laughed in their throats, 

Sounded as sweet as of yore. 

I thought as I stood in a beautiful wood, 

All alone the while, 
While the heaven-crowned hills and the murmuring rills, 

Seemed to be bathed in a smile. 
Then the scene was changed, it seemed so strange, 

And I saw my home once more. 
And my father and mother, my sister and brother, 

Stood at the cottage door. 

And my father smiled to his wayward child, 

That left him so long ago; 
My sister's face had lost none of its grace, 

Its beauty, or brow of snow ; 
My mother dear, that stood so near, 

I tried, but could hardly refrain 
To tell with a kiss, of the dreamlike bliss, 

That was mine to be with her again. 
(638) 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 639 

My brother was there, and his' nut-brown hair, 

Had grown to a deeper hue, 
And as glossy and bright in that autumn light, 

As if wet with the morning dew. 
I heard a sweet sound, and my heart gave a bound : 

'Twas the voice of my mother so dear; 
And the blue of her eyes, a tint from the skies 

Was dimmed with the mist of a tear. 

A blessing she spoke, and the vision broke, 

And I was myself once more; 
But I asked from above for the kiss of love, 

In that dream of just before. 

On the death of Charles Dickens, Mrs. Stanfield contributed to 
the South Bend Tribune the following beautiful tribute: 



CHARLES DICKENS. 



The gray old rocks are calling in the distance; 

The English ivies twine; 
Softly the chimes ring out with sweet persistence, 

A carol most divine. 

For in the joyous chorus of their glory, 

Amid the tender tune, 
We learn of one who tells the Christmas story 

Where life is always June. 

A strange forgetfulness is stealing o'er us : 

Earth and its thousand cares, 
Fade 'mid the rhythm of that clanging chorus, 

And rest comes unawares. 

We think of one — while wild the chimes are pealing 

Whose heart was always young ; 
Whose loving words brought life and joy and healing, 

Pure as the songs he sung. 

Who fought the fight alike of high and lowly, 

For nothing was too small 
For him to love; the humblest thing was holy; 

Our Father made them all. 

On English hills in dark and stormy weather, 

On sunny days as well, 
Amid the springing grass and budding heather, 

We roam with little Nell. 

And, sitting by the sea in bleak November, 

Paul Dombey by our side, 
The wild waves say to us: " Do you remember 

The day that Dickens died ?" 

A shadow fell upon the earth that morning, 

An angel wept unseen; 
He went with scarce a look or word of warning: 

Lord keep his memory green ! 

41 



640 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The following was written by Sirs. Stanfield in honor of the tenth 
wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Schuyler Colfax: 

0—5—10—25—50. 



THE BRIDAL. 



What gifts have the powers of the whole world wide, 

To bring to the feet of the new made bride? 

The ocean is dragged for its pearls of white, 

The tropics send diamonds alive with light; 

But brighter than jewels that worldlings prize 

Are the glances of love from a hundred eyes ; 

And dearer than ought on the earth beside 

Are the hearts of friends both true and tried, 

Who come from the ends of this world so wide 

And a blessing ask for the new-made bride. 

And Cupid sings till the skies resound, 

" 'Tis love that makes the world go 'round." 

True and tried ! true and tried ! 

Where can you find a gentler bride ? 



FIVE YEARS. 

Wood ! wood ! wood ! wood ! 
Five happy years have the mountains stood, 
Five happy years have the seasons fled, 
And love is triumphant, and hate is dead ; 
And blessings still follow the life so good, 
Who now wears the crown of motherhood, 
And a cradle of wood is the potent charm 
That keeps the heart of the household warm, 
And parries the thrust that would bring it harm. 

Wood ! wood ! wood ! wood ! 

Five more years have the mountains stood. 



TEN YEARS. 



Tin! tin! tin! tin! 

Beaten and molded and pounded thin, 
Tin that has heard the breakers roar 
Off the rugged coast of the Cornish shore. 
It comes to-night with a shining face 
The end of a long decade to grace; 
And though it is called but an humble ore 
It declares that it never will sorrow more, 
For it says, as it counts its blessings o'er, 
That the fates and the graces, though both combined, 
Could not give an honor more to its mind. 
Than the right to come, at the bride's request, 
To this happy home as on honored guest. 
'Tis dark without; 'tis bright within. 

Tin! tin! tin! tin! 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 641 

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. 

Twenty-five ! Twenty-five ! 

May every one of us tie alive 
When the wedding of silver shall arrive. 
'Tis silver that crosses the gypsy's palm, 
'Tis silver that acts as the beggars balm, 
'Tis a silver moon that lights the dark 
When the sun goes down on the weary barque. 
And there is fillet or gem as rare 
To place on the brow of a matron fair 
As a wonderful wreath of silver hair. 

Twenty-five ! Twenty-five ! 

May every one of us be alive ! 

FIFTY YEARS. 

Gold! gold! gold! gold! 
A heart of gold can never grow cold, 
A deed of gold can never grow old. 
The wedding ring is growing thin, 
And memories all that remain of tin, 
And friends are fewer and far more dear, 
And earth is fading and Heaven is near; 
And the church bells waiting that they may toll 
The breaking apart of the golden bowl. 
And the golden gates are opening wide 
For the happy steps of the groom and bride. 
Oh ! the happiest part of the voyage long 
Will be when they hear the triumphant song 
Of Jerusalem the golden ! 

The following illustrating a hopeful trust is all that can be given 
of Mrs. Stanfield's poems: 

SOME TIME. 

Oh, hard and thorny road, 
Oh, great and heavy load, 
Stay by me while you can ; 
For life is but a span, 
And at the final mile 
My soul will look and smile, 
Some time. 

Somewhere the waves are calm ; 
Somewhere there is a balm 
For all the vague unrest 
That trembles in my breast ; 
Somewhere the smile of God 
Will help me kiss the rod, 
Some time. 

Oh, roses washed in dew, 
Oh, violets so blue, 
Sometime the flowers I wear 
AVill be so very fair 
That you will turn as pale 
As lilies of the vale, 
Sometime. 



642 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Oh, melodies so sweet, 
And harmonies complete, 
Of you I can but tire 
When thinking of the choir, 
That with celestial sound 
Will compass me around, 
Some time. 

Oh, true and gentle friend, 
Whose patience knows no end, 
The tears are in my eyes 
At thoughts of Paradise, 
Where all the good of earth 
Will have a heavenly birth, 
Some time. 

I do not ask to know 
How long before the glow 
Of promise and of rest 
Will glorify the west; 
To eyes upturned to heaven 
The vision. will be given, 
Some time. 



MISS ELEANOR J. WILSON. 



The subject of this sketch was born in Ohio, and with her par- 
ents became a resident of South Bend in 1854. Quite early in life 
she manifested poetical talent which found expression in the local 
papers of South Bend and other places. Miss Wilson was for some 
years a teacher in the public schools of St. Joseph county, and sub- 
sequently followed her parents to California. As a specimen of her 
poetical genius the following poems are given: 

"go work to-day in my vineyard." 

" Go work in my vineyard," — 'tis Jesus commanding — 

For great is the harvest, the laborers few ; 
Then why all the day ye so idly are standing? 

Oo work, for there is something for each one to do. 

Yes, truly, I see the white harvest is wasting, 

But what shall I do in thy vineyard so great ? 
Yet others to labor are cheerfully hastening; 

Shall I, then, in doubting, stand idle and wait? 

Wherever we turn, there is labor before us, 
There's work for the hands, for the heart, and the mind. 

Superstition and darkness hang lowering o'er us, 
And error in blindness is leading the blind. 

The world is o'erfiowing with sorrow and anguish, 

The air is o'er burdened with misery's groans, 
And thousands in ignorance grovel and languish 

For the sunbeams of healing they never have known. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 643 

Nor look we to Greece, nor to Islands Ionian, 

To find fellow-man in the darkness of night, 
For lo ! from the South comes the cry Macedonian, 

" Come over and help us, we grope for the light!" 

Yes, nearer at home there are minds to be lighted, 

And night's gloomy darkness to turn into day ; 
There are chains to be broken and wrongs to be righted, 

And the blind mists of error to scatter away. 

Intemperance abroad through the nation is stalking, 

Sowing death, woe, and ruin all over the land, 
And many more evils our highways are walking, 

Ah! who will dare fight with this numerous band! 

So much to be done, and so few that are doing, 

While Satan is busily sowing his tares, 
And the hosts of his servants, all broadcast, are strewing 

For the feet of the Christian, their pitfalls and snares. 

Then let us to labor, no longer unheeding, 

And carelessly slighting our Sovereign's call, 
But with armor of toil, let us cheerfully speeding 

Go work in the vineyard ; there's labor for all. 



The following poem, the author remarks, is based upon an inci- 
dent in which a youth was portraying in golden colors his future 
career through college and through life. He was interrupted after 
the close of each scene by his aged friend to whom he was talking, 
by the simple words, " And then?*' After telling how he expected 
to spend his closing days — ''And then?" inquired the old friend. 
"And then — and then" — the youth hesitatingly replied, "why, then, 
I suppose I shall die." "And then?" solemnly inquired the old 
man. 

"And then ? — and then ? Ah, who'll reply 

To this momentous solemn thought ? 
What depths of meaning in it lie ! 

'Tis with eternal meaning fraught. 
Ah ! mortal tongue can never show, 

And mortal eye can never see 
Its depths of meaning, while below ; 

'Twill take a long eternity. 

Its hidden mysteries to reveal, 

Its awful weight of meaning show 
Its glorious heights of heavenly weal, 

Its everlasting depths of woe. 
An angel's tongue could never say 

What joy behind this question lies, 
Nor devil's powers e'er portray 

The fearful horror it implies. 



644 HIST0BY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Ah! thoughtless youth! with eager haste 

Drink down each cup of worldly joy ; 
But, though at first they please thy taste, 

Thou soon wilt find their pleasures cloy ; 
And lurking 'neatb, within their depth, 

Amid the dregs thou soon will find, 
Are serpents sly, whose poisonous breath 

Will leave a lasting sting behind. 

But is this life of folly ally 

These disappointed hopes, and vain? 
This wormwood, bitterness and all? 

This aching void and weary pain? 
Is man's aspiring thinking mind 

But as a ray of glimmering light, 
A little while on earth to shine, 

And then be quenched in endless night ? 

Ah, no! there's infinitely more 

Beyond Time's everchanging scene ; 
Compared to that eternal shore, 

This life is but a fleeting dream. 
But what shall be the soul's employ 

When we've forever waked at last ? 
Eternal songs of praise and joy ? 

Or sorrow's wail o'er mercies past S 

O, very soon — we kuow not when — 

We'll leave behind this earthly shore; 
Well may we ask ourselves — And then, 

Ah! whither shall our spirits soar? 
In ever rising scale, shall we 

Approach the glorious Lord of all ? 
Or through a vast eternity, 

To lower depths forever fall ? 

Wiry should earth's fleeting gilded toys 
Absorb the thoughts, and fill the mind 

Of those who, made for nobler joys, 
Must shortly leave them all behind? 

Thej-'re falling 'round us here and there; 
On ever3' hand the warning's given 

Which bids us, solemnly, — Prepare! — 
Prepare to meet the God of Heaven. 

Great God! 'tis Thou alone canst break 

The bands of darkness and of night; 
O, bid men's sleeping souls awake, 

And sei k the gospel's glorious light. 
Let light dawn on them from above, 

Unseal their eyes, and bid them know 
They e're must rise to heights of love, 

Or ever sink to depths of woe. 

PKOF. T. E. HOWARD. 

Timothy E. Howard was born near Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jan. 
27, 1S37. His childhood and early youth were passed in the 
healthful exercises of farming, with but little facilities for education 
till his seventeenth year, wheu he attended school for two terms in 
Ypsilanti, Michigan. At the age of eighteen he entered the 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 645 

University of Michigan as a student, where he remained till he had 
entered upon his sophomore year, but before its termination was 
obliged, in consequence of sickness in the family, to return home 
and assume the responsibilities of head of the family, a position 
which he had occupied since the death of his father some years 
previous. In the following year, having placed the family affairs 
on a firm footing, so as not to require his constant superintendence, 
he engaged as a teacher in the public schools, in which occupation 
he continued for two years. On reaching his majority he was 
elected School Inspector, winch office he filled with credit to himself 
and advantage to all concerned for one year, after which he resigned, 
his aspiring mind urging him to seek a higher degree of culture 
than it had as yet attained. Accordingly, in the spring session of 
1859, he entered Notre Dame University for the purpose of com- 
pleting his collegiate studies, at the same time engaging as a 
teacher in the preparatory classes. 

In 1862 Mr. Howard, prompted by that lofty sense of patriotism 
which never allows personal convenience or interest to interfere 
with duty, enlisted as a private in the 12th Regiment Michigan 
Volunteers. On the 6th of April, at the battle of Shiloh, he 
received a severe bullet wound in the neck, the bullet passing close 
to the jugular vein and severing some of the tendons of the left 
arm. He was taken to the hospital at Evansville, Indiana, where 
he lay until June, when he was honorably discharged, his wound 
rendering him incapable for further service in the field. 

After his discharge Mr. Howard returned to Notre Dame, and, 
as he had completed the required studies before he entered the 
army, received his first degree of Bachelor of Arts, and was 
appointed professor of rhetoric and English literature in the 
University. Two years later he received his second degree of 
Master of Arts. 

In July. 1864, Prof. Howard was married to Miss Julia Redmond, 
of Detroit, Michigan. They have eight children now living. 

Prof. Howard has always been a staunch Democrat and an ardent 
supporter of the principles and nominees of that party. In 1876, 
he was appointed chairman of the Democratic Congressional Com- 
mittee. In 1878 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, and 
the same year was elected member of the City Council from the 
fourth ward, and re-elected in 1880. He is secretary of the St. 
Edward's Land and Emigration Society, and also of the Wisconsin 
Land and Emigration Society. 

As a teacher, Prof. Howard is not only well qualified as respects 
knowledge, but he has the peculiar tact of gaining the affections of 
his classes. He possesses, moreover, in a high degree, those refined 
qualities which make the pleasing and instructive writer. He is 
the author of three works which have met with good sale — "A 
Grammar of the English Language," for the use of beginners, 
"Excelsior; or Essays on Politeness and Education," and a small 
volume of moral tales for the young, entitled " Uncle Edward's 



646 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

Stories." He has also written many excellent poems, which 
appeared from time to time in various journals and periodicals. 
As illustrative of his prose writings, the following extract is taken 
from an essay on "True Education," by Prof. Howard: 

" Education, in its broadest and best sense, signifies the har- 
monious development of all tbe powers of man. Man, by his nature, 
consists of body, soul and mind (the physical, the moral, and the 
intellectual), strength, love and wisdom. The mind forms, as it 
were, the link between the body and tbe soul, giving expression to 
the feelings, thoughts and aspirations of each, but partaking chiefly 
of the character of the soul, of which it is the intellectual manifes- 
tation — triune nature, whose true culture form the crown of the 
visible creation — a complete man. How important, therefore, that' 
we should consider well by what means we may best promote the 
development of this wonderful organism given us by the all-wise 
Creator! Nor is it strange that good men in all ages have thought 
it their first duty and highest pleasure to provide for the education 
of their people. 

"As man is composed of body, mind and soul, so his education 
should be physical, mental and moral. He who is trained in one 
of these respects to the exclusion of the others is, properly speak- 
ing, not educated. The extraordinary development of the physical 
powers, with little attention to the mind or soul, gives us the mere 
bully and prize fighter. The extraordinary development of the 
mind, with little regard to the body or soul, gives us the lean, lank 
infidel or the dreaming philosopher, turning the world upside 
down with their wickedness or nonsense, and leaving to sounder 
and better men the weary task of building it all over again. While 
the extraordinary development of the soul, with little care for mind 
or body, gives us the simple enthusiast, whose mind and body are 
too weak to hold the spirit, which becomes an angel because he 
disdained to remain a man. Educating our lower natures only, 
makes us lower than men — brutes; educating our intellectual nature 
only makes us worse than men — demons; educating our moral 
nature only, makes us better than men — angels. But if we wish 
to remain simply men, we must educate the whole nature of 
man. This education must be harmonious, moving together, all the 
powers receiving due attention in their turn. As the bod}- acquires 
vigor, agility and grace, the mind must acquire strength, wisdom 
and knowledge, and the soul purity, truth and charity. Men thus 
educated are models of beauty, lords of wisdom, and friends of God. 
Such were Adam and Eve before the fall, perfect without education 
from the hand of their Maker — Adam, type of manly strength and 
proportion ; Eve, fairest of women — whose minds were bright with 
intelligence, and whose souls were pure as the morning dews of 
Paradise. 

Adam the goodliest man of men since born 
His sons; the fairest of her daughters, Eve. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 647 

" They walked the groves and valleys, mountains and flowery 
fields of Eden, vigorous as the noonday, lovely as the morning. 
Looking out on all nature, they read as in a book ; the green earth 
and the starry heavens were the bright open pages on which the 
words formed into histories and poems more grand and beautiful 
than sage ever penned or poet dreamed. Day and night their 
hearts, not thinking evil, rose to God an endless hymn of praise. 
But they fell, and ever since their fall the world has been educating 
in the sublime endeavor to return to those model types fashioned 
by the hand of divinity." 

The following poems are given as showing what Prof. Howard is 
capable of in that line: 

t 

CHIMES OF NOTEE DAME. 

Beauty's spirit lingers 

O'er the spot I love; 
Well I know that angel Angers 

Paint the blue above ; 
Well I know they listen 

To the vesper song, 
When the silent planets glisten 

As they float along ; 
Listen to the ehiming 

Praises of the Larnb, 
As they tremble from the rhyming 

Bells of Notre Dame. 

Swell, ye sounds caressing, 

On the midnight air, 
All this silence bathed in blessing 

Woke to God in prayer; 
Wearied man is sleeping 

From the toilsome day, 
Tune the soft dreams o'er him creeping, 

Music, watch and pray ! 
Lo, the forest looming 
On the distant calm 
Echoes back your silvery booming, 

Bells of Notre Dame ! 

When the morning lightens 

On the eastern sky, 
And the spire-top glows and brightens 

As the sun rolls high, » 

Shed your peals to duty 

O'er the earth impearled, 
Give the sparkling morning beauty 

Tongue to rouse the world. 
As your songs of gladness, 

Matin hymn and psalm, 
Wake our souls and cheer their sadness, 

Bells of Notre Dame ! 

IN OCTOBER. 

I. 

It comes again, that subtle force, 
Stealing in air and stream and grove, 
Purples the water's winding course, 
And paints the woods as poets love. 



6-iS HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The liquid heaven in depths of blue, 
Broods over hills of mist and gold, 
O'er sleeping vales of crimson hue, 
Orange and green and tints untold. 



'T is beauteous Death, so placid, grand, 
Hath sent before her flush of pride, 
Hath flung her banners o'er the land, 
Triumphing ere her lance is tried. 

There gorgeous trappings deck the tomb, 
And hide its yawning from the eye; 
The victims crowned in flowers come, 
And move in pomp all stately by. 

The splendor of the coming storm, 
The glory of the setting sun, 
The comeliness of age's form, — 
Such garniture hath Death put on! 



And doth this shame our sable show, 
Our funeral cortege, plumes and weeds? 
AVorld-conquering Rome did never know 
Triumph superb as Death here leads. 

Endless processions, crimson-robed, 
All wailings hushed to breathless rapture, 
Hath none the god-like secret probed, 
And found this hidden joy of nature ? 



O doubter, lifttlry darkened brow 
To this fair Nature ! Sweet her May, 
But as a bride she blushes now 
That seeks her rest at close of day. 

Ah, she hath never sinned or sorrowed; 
She hath the primal purity; 
Her flush from the vernal sun is borrowed, 
And her Eden life shall ever be! 

ALFRED BRYANT MILLER. 

Alfred B. Miller was born in South Bend, February, 1845. He 
received his education principally in the old County Seminary. 
Mr. Miller was quite young when the war commenced, but enlisted 
in the 21st Indiana Battery, and before the close of his term of 
service was promoted Lieutenant. Before entering the army he 
evinced a taste for literary work, and contributed both prose and 
poetry to the columns of the Register, at South Bend, the McGregor, 
Iowa, Journal, and the Home Journal of New York. While in 
the army he was the regular correspondent of the Chicago Tribune 
and New York Herald, and an occasional contributor to Harper's 
Weekly and Fr<inlc Leslie's Newspaper, several of his poems being 
illustrated in those papers. Of the three selections which are 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 649 

taken from his writings, " Mist at Morn" was illustrated in Frank 
Leslie and ''The Signal Light" in Harper'' $ Weekly, When 
Lieutenant Miller returned from the army he became associated 
in the publication of the Register at South Bend, where he remained 
as editor in chief until 1872, when he sold his interest in that paper 
and in connection with others began the publication of the South 
Bend Tribune, after which he became managing editor. While 
Mr. Miller is an easy and graceful political writer, his tastes tend 
to general literature. The following poems are from his pen. 

A. KE1IEMBKANOE. 

O, boyhood days that come no more, — 
Long days in limpid sunshine drawn, 
When I lay in the cooling shade 

That flecked my father's lawn, 

Aud let my wayward fancy float 

Out on imagination's sea, 
To seek the wonders of elf-land 

And bring them back to me. 

Or, deep in books of childish lore. 

The stolen sweets of nursery shelf, 
I read until those tairy tales 

Became a part of self; — 

I tripped along in childish glee 

Or wept with fear in darkened wood, 
And, trembling stood at grand'am's door, 
With little Red Riding Hood. 

With Cinderella at the ball 

I pirouetted through the rooms, 
While elves and fairies 'round us danced 
Fantastic rigadoons. 

With Jack the Giant Killer I 

Went forth to deeds of giant strength ; 
On many a puissant field 

We laid our foes at length. 

Sweeping along the course of time 

Until the years count in their teens, 
I threw the childish books away; 

Then came the boyish dreams. 

I walked with Crusoe on his isle, 

I saw the footstep in the sand, 

And listened to the ocean waves 

That, lapped the lonely strand. 

Strange birds, strange beasts, strange forest trees, 

And fruits that had a foreign taste — 
Alone with himl walked the strand 
A monarch of the waste. 



650 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The legend of Arabian Nights. — 

Enchanted, wandered I amid 
The splendors of the palaces 

Of Haroun-Al-Raschid. 

I saw of fairest Persian maids, 

All favorites of the great Sultan's, 
Enrobed in richest draperies 
Reclining on divans. 

While from deep hidden galleries 

Sweet music filled the palace w T alls, 
And perfume that o'erpowered the sense, 

Wing'd through the pillared halls. 

And myriad maids, well-spoken, fair, 

Trooped through the open palace doors, 
And waltzed in graceful poses 'long 
The tessellated floors. 

With Ali Balia at the cave, 

When magic " sesame " oped its door, 
I stood, and feasted wondering eyes 
On riches that it bore. 

Or, mounting the Enchanted Horse, 

With eagle swiftness cleaved the air, 
And through great banks of golden cloud 
Mounted the purple stair 

That winds up through the starry realms, 

Unto Mahomet's paradise, 
And saw there pass an endless train 
Of darkest-eyed houris. 

I rubbed the lamp of Aladdin, 

I saw my every wish fulfilled ; 
The wildest whims of fancy took 
A shape, if I but willed. 

I saw my every wish fulfilled, 

But ah ! the lamp were rubbed in vain ; 
No genius hath the power to fetch 
Those golden days again. 

Sweet boyhood days! they come no more, — 

Long days in limpid sunshine drawn, 
When I lay in the cooling shade 

That flecked my father's lawn, 

And let my wayward fancy float 

Upon Imagination's sea, 
Seeking the wonders of elf-land, 

And bringing them to me. 



THE SIGNAL LIGHT. 

On highest top of mountain range 

Which rears its head in gloomy night, 
Environed with mystery, 

There gleams the Signal Light. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 651 

Far, far beneath, the angry tide 

Of battle surges to and fro ; 
Its fierce waves beat the mountain side 
Whereon that Light doth glow . 

And over all the battle ground 

The thick smoke rises like a pall, 
Yet naught disturbs its steady blaze; 
It shineth throughout all. 

Like that famed star of Bethlehem 

Which showed the wise men where he lay, 
The distant Signal Light doth guide 
Our army on its way. 

Thus when we cross the vale of death 

That borders on the Silent Land, 
Oh, may there be a Signal Light 
To guide us to his hand. 

MIST AT MORN. 

Belts of woodland circling around 

Luxuriant masses of green ; 
Zone after zone of rolling mist 

Wavering up between. 

Zephyrs dancing down through its depths, 
While the sweep of their dresses whirl 

The rolling mist in a thousand 
Eddies of graceful curl. 

Like him who dipped in the Lydian stream, 

The morning beams bathe in the mist; 
Like him, turns to molten gold 

The vapory amethyst. 

Marshalled in many columns it rolls, 

Resists the attacks of the sun ; 
Down becomes with his golden lances, 

Piercing them one by one. 

Backward they roll, upward they glide, 

Dissolve in the ambient air; 
The sun is victor, holds the world ; 

His beams are everywhere. 

Only belts of woodland around 

Luxuriant masses of green ; 
Gone are the zones of rolling mist 

That wavered up between . 

E. BURKE FISHER. 

E. Burke Fisher was born in Philadelphia. At an early age he 
evinced a great taste for reading and an ardent love of literature, 
and never wearied in the acquisition of knowledge. Before he was 
15 years of age he was contributor to several periodicals. He was 
carefully educated, commencing the study of the classics at nine 



052 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

years of age. At 15 years of age he engaged as clerk in the office 
of the Saturday Evening Post, then published and edited by 
Samuel C. Atkinson, of Philadelphia, where he remained a few 
years, when he became associated with Horace Greeley in The New 
Yorker. This paper not proving a financial success, it became 
merged into the New York Tribune. 

Mr. Fisher then located in Pittsburg, becoming publisher and 
editor of The Saturday Evening Visitor (afterward edited by Mrs. 
Swisshelm). Here he had control of a large steam printing-office, 
publishing several periodicals, among them The Witness, edited by 
Win. H. Burleigh, of Abolition fame; also a magazine edited by 
himself, The Literary Examiner and Monthly Review. The 
publication of this heavy and expensive undertaking brought 
financial ruin. 

He was soon after admitted to the Bar, and commenced practice 
in Cleveland, Ohio, at the same time being connected with several 
periodicals in that city and Columbus, Ohio. 

In 1853 Mr. Fisher located in South Bend, Iudiana, engaging in 
the practice of the law, devoting much of his time to literary pur- 
suits. 

Mr. F. was a man of rare abilities, his mind was widely com- 
prehensive and his temperament highly poetic. He had no ambi- 
tion for literary fame, and wrote more cheerfully for others than 
for himself. Many who have been distinguished in the literary 
world owe much of their fame to the productions of his pen. 

His death occurred in South Bend April 12, 1863. The fol- 
lowing selections evince rare poetic talent: 

A PvEAN, AS ON THE HEART. 

A psean, as on the heart, 

Hope pencils its magical beams 
While Fancy's hand, with Promethean art; 

The deail from their thrall redeems — 
Clothes Ambition anew in the garments of youth, 

And woos us again to believe in its truth. 

A smile for the fondly lov'd, 

And a hand for the tried and true ; 
The year that has pass'd, their friendship prov'd 

And we greet with them the New; 
They are with us now, and their presence throws 
O'er the wild sea of life a serene repose. 

A welcome as 'round us rise 

The delusive beams of joy; 
The present is ours, — its light let us prize, 

For why should we destroy 
The hues of Hope in seeming so fair? 
Better slumber deceived than wake to despair. 

A shout, a psan, and a hymn 

For the seasons and joys to come ! 
The past year's colors are misty and dim; 

Let us over the Future roam, 
And send out from the heart the joy-seeking dove 
To search for the flowers of Friendship and Love. 

The Neto Yorker. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 653 

LUCUBRATIONS. 

A wail for the passing year 

As its funeral train sweeps by, 
While the northern blast, with its sounds of fear, 

Howls along the darken'd sky, 
And Winter its peal of triumph rings 
'Mong the crashing boughs of the forest kings! 

A dirge for the seasons dead. 

For Spring with its opening flowers, 
Fair Summer, whose verdant sheen was spread 

Over hill-side, vales and bowers, 
And Autumn, magnificent Autumn, too, 
With its waving fields of golden hue. 

A sigh, as memory's hand 

From the Past its trophies tears 
And before us in solemn mockery stand 

The hopes of our earlier years; 
The "hopes that were angels at their birth," 
But perished as perished the joys of earth. 

A tear for the loved and dead — 

The young and the gentle hearted ! 
They were with us, but now the year has sped, 

Alas ! they have all departed ! 
And the ruthless wind that 'round us raves 
Stirs the lifeless grass on their lonely graves. 

A lament for pleasures gone, 

For the gladsome dreams of youth, 
When the heart was young, and around us was thrown 

The mantle, we thought, of truth, 
Till Time swept o'er the spot where we stood, 
And the mantle was borne on its restless flood. 

A wail, a dirge, and a sigh, 

For the seasons and hopes that have flown! 

A lament for the pleasures of youth that lie 
On the bier of the old year strown ! 

But the tear for the dead, the loved of yore, 

Let it freely gush ! we shall see them no more. 

A shout for the coming year, 

As the north wind fans its brow ! 
Let the eye, lately dimmed with a tear, 

Wear a glad smile of triumph now ; 
For the conqueror comes like a prince to his throne 
And the garlands of hope o'er his pathway are strown. 

A hymn to the sister band ! 

For Spring will resume its reign, 
And Summer re-clothe, with liberal hand, 

Her favorite haunts again ; 
Mild Autumn, the season of fruits, will come 
And the reaper gather his harvest home. 

During the war F. R Tutt, of South Bend, was made Provost 
Marshal for St. Joseph county, and in the discharge of his duty 
arrested a deserter named Christy, and while taking him to 
Indianapolis, he escaped from the train at La Porte. Mr. Fisher, 



654 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

whose sense of the ridiculous was keen, penned the following lines 
and had them mailed at Chicago addressed to Mr. Tutt: 

TO THE EIGHT HON. F. E. TDTT, PROVOST MAESHAL. 

" Hark ! to the Marshal's question ot despair: 
Where is Jack Christy? Echo answers, Where?" 

Dear Provost Marshal, you may think 

In vamosing I was to blame, 
But bless your soul, if in my place, 

I rather think you'd do the same. 

A soldier's life it suits me not, 

Whether on foot or in the saddle ; 
Believing so, when at La Porte, 

I judged it wiser to skedaddle. 

But, Frank, with you I will be frank; 

My bowels yearned when you did utter 
Words evidently aimed at me, 

" Ho! stop that man — he's a deserter!" 

Your legs are not like Elliot's, Frank ; 

You amble somewhat in your paces, 
Whilst I, as you must have perceived, 

Am quite 2 :40 in tight races. 

But now, alas! I hear no more 

Your voice narrating funrjy stories ; 
No longer view your warrior phiz, 

Whence gleam your eyes like morning-glories. 

Farewell ! our routes are wide apart, 

You go — I don't — to Indianapolis; 
1 wend my way to spread your praise 

In that Confederate metropolis. 

When I see Jeff, and " smile " with him, 

I'll tell him how I dodged your notice, 
And beg him, when he bags the North, 

To give you — for my sake — an office. 

Yea, if — such things have happ'd ere now — 

He ranks me Secretary of State, 
I'll choose you my right bower of hearts, 

With Lowell for your rich estate. 

And when in time death stops his grog, 

And Satan claims his well- won price, 
I'll be King President myself, 

And you shall act the part of " Vice." 

Lord ! won't we have a jolly time? 

You'll hug the women, I the barrel, 
While as to greenbacks and State stocks, 

In sharing them we will not quarrel. 

And when — it must be so, dear Frank ! — 

Our bodies in grave-mold recline, 
Your soul will sink its chosen rest : 

I'm somewhat doubtful as to mine ! 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 655 



MORAL. 



A word in closing ; lest some bite 

Against me in your duped mind rankles, 
When next with copperheads you train, 
• Put iron ribbons round their ankles ! 

The scalawags are traitors all, 

And will not keep faith with their betters, 

The foresworn recreants when inthrall 
Should either hang or wear stout fetters. 

Other residents of St. Joseph county have been distinguished as 
authors; as Prof. J. A. Lyon, author of the "Silver Jubilee," and 
"Lyon's Elocution;" T. G. Turner, author of the "Gazetteer of 
the St. Joseph Valley," and other works; Rev. A. Y. Moore, author 
of the "Life of Schuyler Colfax;" John D. Defrees, Rev. N. H. 
Gillespie, Rev. M. B. Brown, Rev. J. C. Carrier, Prof. A. J. Stace 
and Mrs. E. Kingsley. 




42 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. — COUNTY SEMINARY. STATE AND NATIONAL REPRE- 
SENTATION. COUNTY OFFICERS. — A RETROSPECT. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The first school-houses in this county were but rude affairs, and 
the schools taught therein were but little better than the houses. 
" Subscription schools " were the custom, the teacher receiving a 
small sum per month and boarding around among the scholars, or 
receiving a certain amount per scholar, collecting the same from 
the parent or guardian of the child — if he could. The first school 
taught in the county was in South Bend in 1S31, Elisha Egbert, a 
young attorney who had just settled in the place, being the teacher. 
The school-house, which had just been erected, was of logs, about 
eighteen feet square and seven feet high. Slab seats were provided 
for the scholars, with a board nailed against the wall for a writing 
desk. In this house, for some time, the various religious bodies 
met for public worship. 

The cause of education in this county made but limited progress 
for some years, the common schools of the day, in which only the 
rudiments of an English education were taught, were thought by 
many to be all-sufficient. Still there were a few who aspired to 
something higher, and when the county seminary fund was thought 
to be sufficient for the erection of a building, there was quite a 
strife between the towns of South Bend and Mishawaka for its loca- 
tion. In order to secure its location private subscriptions were 
made for a large amount, and South Bend was selected by the 
authorities. This building was erected in 1S45 on the site of the 
present high-school building on Washington street, its location 
then being described by the Register as " west of town." The spot 
is now the heart of the city. The building was torn down in 1872. 
A. B. Miller, editor of the Tribune, who received his education in 
that old building, thus speaks of it in the issue of his paper bear- 
ing date April 20,1872: 

" Nothing remains of the ' old seminary ' building on Washing- 
ton street but a pile of debris, and in a few days it will have no 
trace left. The South-Bender now absent will miss on his return 
the familiar structure which, homely though it was, has been iden- 
tified with the histor} 7 of our place from its earlier years. The 
building was erected in 1845, and the first term of school was 
taught by Prof. Wright, who we hear numbered among his pupils, 
A. S. Dunbar, Daniel Witter, Mark McClelland, D. R. Sample, R. 

(656) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 657 

B. Miller, and others of their age we do not now call to rnind. 
Prof. Wright was succeeded by Mr. Coggswell. Then followed 
Professors Smith, Sperbeck, McLafferty, Miss Barrett, Miss Bacon 
and Professor Wilcox, in chronological order. When first built, 
the seminary was surmounted by a tin-domed and pillared cupola, 
in which the boys used to take delight in lodging balls while play- 
ing ' ante-over,' that they might have some excuse for shinning up 
the lightning rod and playing havoc with the nests of pigeons that 
made their homes there. But the lightning knocked all the beauty 
and utility out of the cnpola one afternoon in 1847, and in course 
of time it was taken down entirely, and since then the structure 
was familiar in outline to all our citizens as it is seen in the excel- 
lent photograph Mr. Bonney took just previous to its destruction. 
Although to be replaced by one of the handsomest school buildings 
in this part of the State there are many, particularly absent South- 
.Benders who received their education in it, who will not hear of 
the destruction of that 'old seminary' without a pang of regret." 

The present system of common schools, with some modifications, 
was adopted in 1852. The constitutional convention of that year 
had incorporated in the constitution the following provisions rela- 
tive to common schools: 

Section 1. Knowledge and learning generally diffused through- 
out a community being essential to the preservation of a free gov- 
ernment, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to encourage, 
by all suitable means, moral, intellectual, scientific, and agricultu- 
ral improvement, and to provide by law, for a general and uniform 
system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge 
and equally open to all. 

Sec. 2. the common-school fund shall consist of the Congres- 
sional township fund, and the lands belonging thereto; the sur- 
plus revenue fund; the Salioe fund, and the lands belonging 
thereto; the bank tax funk, and the fund arising from the 114th 
section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana, the fund to be 
derived from the sale of county seminaries, and the moneys and 
property heretofore held for such seminaries; from the fines 
assessed for the breaches of the penal laws of the State, and from 
all forfeitures which may accrue; all lands and other estates which 
shall escheat to the State for want of heirs or kindred entitled to 
the inheritance; all lands which have been or may hereafter be 
granted to the State of Indiana by the act of Congress, of the 28th 
of Sept, 1850, after deducting the expenses of selecting and draining 
the same ; taxes on the property of corporations that may be 
assessed by the General Assembly for common school purposes. 

Sec. 3. The principal of the common-school fund shall remain 
a perpetual fund, which may be increased, but shall never be di- 
minished; and the income thereof shall be inviolably appropri- 
ated to the support of common schools, and to no other purpose 
whatever. 

Sec. 4. The General Assembly shall invest, in some safe and 
profitable manner, all such portions of the common-school fund as 



658 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

have not heretofore been entrusted to the several counties, and shall 
make provision by law, for the distribution among the several 
counties of the interest thereof. 

Sec. 5. If any county shall fail to demand its proportion of 
such interest for common-school purposes, the same shall be re- 
invested for the benefit of such county. 

Sec. 0. The several counties shall be held liable for the preser- 
vation of so much of said funds as may be entrusted to them, and 
for the payment of the annual interest thereon. 
^[Sec. 7. All trust funds held by the State shall remain inviolate 
and be faithfully and exclusively applied to the purposes for which 
the trust was created. 

The Legislatures of the State have, from time to time, passed 
such laws as was thought necessary to carry out the provisions of 
the Constitution. The school fund in the State has accumulated 
until it now amounts to about $5,000,000. 

St. Joseph county has kept pace with the balance of the State 
with respect to her public schools. In 1S53 there were 19 school 
houses in the entire county, the value of which could not have been 
more than $6,000. In 1S78 there were 115, valued at $250,827. 
In 1880 the number was further increased to 120, the estimated 
value of which was $252,560. In 1S7S there were 6,921 pupils 
admitted into the public schools, necessitating the employment of 
216 teachers, the average compensation of which was, for males, 
$1.6S£, for females $1.48 per day. In 1880 there were 7,088 
pupils in the public schools; teachers employed, 209; average com- 
pensation, per day, for males, $2.91$; for females, $1.81£. 

Since 1872 there has been a remarkable increase in the number 
of persons applying for license, and a more remarkable increase in 
the number of persons rejected by the County Superintendent. 
The large number of rejections is probably due to two facts: first, 
the standard of requirements has been raised; and second, under 
the free examination system, it is likely a larger number of young 
and inexperienced persons take the examinations as a matter ot 
experiment, without much expectation of securing a license. The 
hard times of the past six or seven years may also have something 
to do with the number of applicants, and in consequence, the re- 
jections. 

county examiners and superintendents. 

The following named are the County Examiners and Superin- 
tendents of Public Schools since 1860: 

William T. Van Doren was appointed June 7, 1861, and served 
but a few months. Mr. Yan Doren was a practical teacher, 
and is at present clerk in the Treasury Department, Washington. 

Alvin S. Dunbar, appointed Nov. 2, 1861. Mr. Dunbar was, 
previous to his appointment, and is now, one of the leading attor- 
neys of South 13end. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 659 

Charles A. Evans, a minister of the gospel, was appointed 
County Examiner, June 10, 1864, and served about eighteen 
months. 

Jacob Merrifield received his appointment as County Examiner 
Jan. 30, 1866. He was previous to his appointment, and is now, a 
minister of the gospel and engaged in active work in that field of 
labor. 

Elisha Sumption was appointed June 2, 1868, and was re-ap- 
pointed June 6, 1S71, and again June 7, 1873. Mr. Sumption is 
an old citizen of St. Joseph county, and was for some time Super- 
intendent of Public Schools at Mishawaka, Indiana, and is at pres- 
ent a bookkeeper for the South Bend Iron Company. During the 
last month of Mr. Sumption's term he was the County Superintend- 
ent — the first to receive that appointment. 

Andrew J. Foster was the successor of Mr. Sumption and was 
appointed July 1, 1873, and served about two years. Previous to 
his appointment he was the local agent at South Bend of the Mc- 
Corraick Reaper Company, and after his retirement he accepted the 
position of agent of the same company, and is at present located at 
St. Joseph, Missouri. 

David A. Ewing received his appointment June 9, 1875, and 
served about thirteen months. He was subsecpiently principal of 
the high school at Virginia City, Montana, and died Feb. 11, 1880. 

Frank A. Norton was appointed Aug. 12, 1876, and served eleven 
months. Mr. Norton is a teacher by profession, and has been Su- 
perintendent of Public Schools at Newton, Kansas, and is at pres- 
ent the president of a business college in that city. 

Calvin Moon was appointed to succeed Mr. Norton, June 4, 1877, 
and was re-appointed June 2, 1879, and is the present occupant of the 
office. Mr. Moon has made a most efficient Superintendent, and has 
reduced the work of his office to a regular system. The present 
efficiency of the public schools of St. Joseph county is in a great 
measure due to him. 

COUNTY SEMINARY. 

The St. Joseph Valley Register, under date of Sept. 26, 1845, in 
speaking of this institution s"ays: " This building, on the north side 
of Washington street, west of town, is rapidly approaching com- 
pletion. It is of brick, two stories high, thirty feet wide by forty 
leet long, and is to be surmounted with a cupola. The expense of 
its erection is defrayed by the seminary fund (formed by the col- 
lection of fines for the breach of penal laws, thus making the penal- 
ties ot vice contribute to the advancement of virtue and intelli- 
gence), aided by the subscriptions of private individuals. No 
portion of its cost is paid out of the county treasury. A. M. La 
Pierre, C. Caldwell and James M. Matthews are the builders; Gil- 
man Towlei the superintendent. The seminary stands near the 
center of the acre-and-a-half lot which belongs to it, and which is 



660 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

to be enclosed and improved. There will be two rooms in the build- 
ing, one below and the other above. The one in the second story 
is to be the full size of the building, undivided at present by any 
partition; and the two rooms at present will comfortably contain 
all the pupils of the institution for many years to come. The loca- 
tion of the building spoken of as being west of town is now in the 
heart of the city. 

The school was first opened Monday, Dec. 7, 1846, under the 
management of II. Wheeler, a graduate of the Indiana University, 
as principal, and Miss L. C. Merritt as instructress in the female 
department. Prof. Wright came next and was succeeded by Mr. 
Cogswell. Then followed Professors Smith, Sperbeck, McLafierty, 
Miss Barrett, Miss Bacon, and Prof. Wilcox, in chronological order. 
The old seminary building, so eloquently referred to on a preced- 
ing page, became associate! in the minds of the neighbors with 
many pleasant experiences, so that after its removal in 1872, dis- 
tance of time began to lend enchantment to the view. In April, 
1872, the building itself was taken down and replaced by the present 
handsome structure known as the high-school building. 



STATE AND NATIONAL REPRESENTATION. — CONGRESSIONAL. 



The first election for Representative in Congress after the organ- 
ization of St. Joseph county occurred in August, 1831, when Ed- 
ward A. Hannegan, Democrat, was elected. Mr. Hannegan was 
re-elected in 1833 and 1835. In 1S37 Albert S. White, Whig, 
was elected and served two years. He was succeeded in 1839 by 
Tillman A. Howard, Democrat. In 1841 Henry S. Lane, Whig, 
was the successful candidate. 

The Legislature in 1842 re-districted the State, and St. Joseph 
county was made to form part of the Ninth Congressional district, 
composed of the following named counties: St. Joseph, Jasper, 
White, Cass, Miami, Fulton, Pulaski, Kosciusko, Marshal!, Starke, 
Elkhart, La Porte, Porter, Lake, Wabash and Benton. Samuel C. 
Sample, Whig, of St. Joseph, was the "first Representative of this 
district. In 1845 Charles W. Cathcart, Democrat, was elected 
and re-elected in 1847. Mr. Cathcart was succeeded in 1S49 by 
Graham N. Fitch, Democrat, who was re-elected in 1851. 

In 1851 the Legislature again re-districted the State, this county 
still forming a part of the Ninth District, which was now composed 
of the counties of St. Joseph, Miami, Cass, Fulton, Marshall, La 
Porte, Starke, Pulaski, Jasper, Porter, Lake, Benton and AYliite. 
Normau Eddy, Whig, was the first Representative of this district. 
He was succeeded by Schuyler Colfax, Republican, who was elect- 
ed in 1854, and re-elected in 1S56, 1858, 1860, 1862, 1804 and 1S66. 

The Legislature in 1S67 formed new districts, and St. Joseph 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 661 

county then formed apart of the Eleventh district, composed of the 
counties of St. Joseph, White, Newton, Jasper, Pulaski, Fulton, 
Marshall, Starke, La Porte, Porter, and Lake. Jasper Packard, 
Republican, was elected in 1868, and re-elected in 1870 and 1872. 

In 1872, by the Legislature of the State, a new district was formed 
composed of the counties of St. Joseph, La Porte, Porter. Lake, 
Newton, Jasper, Starke, Pulaski, White and Carroll, and named 
the Tenth district. William II. Calkins, Republican, was the first 
Representative, and was elected in 1874. He was re-elected in 
1S76 and 1878. 

SENATORIAL. 

On its organization St. Joseph county, together with Allen, 
Huntington, Elkhart, La Grange and La Porte, were made a Sena- 
torial district. The district was represented from 1830 to 1836 by 
Samuel Hanna and David H. Colerick. 

In 1836 Wabash county was attached to the district, and Jona- 
than A. Listen was elected Senator, and served one year, being 
succeeded by Thomas D. Baird. The Legislature this year changed 
the Senatorial districts, St. Joseph, Marshall, Kosciusko, and Starke 
forming one. In 1837 Thomas D. Baird was re-elected in 1839 
and 1S41. Before the expiration of his last term he was removed 
by death, and John D. Defrees was elected to fill the vacancy. 
Mr. Defrees was elected again in 1S43 for the full term. 
He has been succeeded in order by William C. Pomeroy, Lot" 
Day, Norman Eddy, A. P. Richardson, Hugh Miller, John 
Reynolds, John F. Miller, Horace Corbin, Lucius Hubbard, Joseph 
Henderson, David R. Leeper. 

REPRESENTATIVE. 

St. Joseph county was first placed in a Representative District 
composed of the counties of Allen, La Porte, Elkhart, LaGrange and 
Huntington, and was represented in 1833 by David H. Colerick, 
who was re-elected in 1834. 

In 1834 the counties of St. Joseph and La Porte were made a 
joint Representative District which was continued for two j'ears, 
being represented by Jonathan A. Listen and Thomas D. Baird. 

In 1836 the county was alone made a Representative District 
which has continued to the present time. It has been represented 
from that time to the present by John A. Henricks, Elisha Egbert, 

Leonard Rush, John D. Defrees, , Hugh C. Flanne- 

gan, Harris E. Hurlbut, William Miller, Thomas S. Stanfield, 
Mark Whinery, John Reynolds, Jeremiah H. Service, George C. 
Merrifield, Andrew Anderson, Jr., Nelson Ferris, J. C. Williams, 

W. W. Butterworth, David R Leeper, Ging. Of the 

foregoing Representatives, Stanfield served four terms, Miller three, 
Merrifield, Henricks, Butterworth and Leeper two each. 



662 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



UNITED STATES SENATE. 



Schuyler Colfax was elected Vice-President of the United States 
in 1868, and presided over the Senate from March 4, 1869, to March 
4, 1873. 

COUNTY OFFICERS. — CIRCUIT COURT PRESIDING JUDGES. 



John R. Porter, 
Gustavus A. Everts, 
Samuel C. Sample, 
Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, 
Thomas S. Stanfield, 



Albert G Deavitt, 
John B. Niles, 
Andrew S. Osborne, 
Daniel Noyes. 



ASSOCIATE JUDGES. 



John Banker, 
Chapel W. Brown, 
William McCartney, 
John Ireland, 



Reynolds Dunn, 
Powers Greene, 
Peter Johnson, 
John D. Robertson. 



PROBATE JUDGES. 



James P. Antrim, 
John J. Deming. 



Elisha Egbert, 
Edward P. Dibble. 



Elisha Egbert, 
Edward J. Wood, 



COMMON PLEAS. 

1 Daniel Noyes. 



CLERKS. 



Lathi op M. Taylor 1830 to 1837 

Tyra W. Bray 1837 to 1844 

John F. Lindsay 1844 to 1851 

Samuel M. Chord 1851 to 1859 



Elias V. Clark 1859 to 1867 

George W. Matthews 1867 to 1875 

Edwin Nicar 1875 to 1879 

Timothy E. Howard 1879 



SHERIFFS. 



Benjamin McCarty 1831 

Samuel L. Cottrell 1831 to 1832 

Scott West 1832 

Daniel A. Fullerton 1832 to 1833 

Samuel L. Cottrell 1833 to 1838 

Charles M. Tutt 1838 to 1842 

Lot Day, Sr 1842 to 1846 

Lot Day, Jr 1846 to 1850 

Ralph Staples 1850 to 1852 



Benjamin F. Miller 1852 to 1856 

Evan C. Johnson 1856 to 1860 

Nelson Ferris 1860 to 1864 

Solomon W. Palmer 1864 to 1868 

George V. Glover 1808 to 1872 

Joseph Turnock 1872 to 1876 

Robert Hardy 1876 to 1878 

James Daugherty 1878 



PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS — CIRCUIT COURT. 

Andrew Ingram 1832 to 1834 I George Pierson 1848 to — 

Samuel C. Sample 1834 to 18.48 | 



PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS — COMMON PLEAS COURT. 

John L. Foster 1854 I Andrew Anderson, Jr. . . .1856 to 1857 

Joseph Henderson 1854 to 1856 | Reuben L. Farnsworth 1857 to 



FIISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



663 



CORONERS. 



Samuel L. Cottrell 1834 to 1835 

E. P. Taylor 1835 to 1841 

Leonard B. Rush 1841 to 1842 

Jacob Hardman 1842 to 1843 

Israel DeCarnp 1843 to 1845 

Truman Fox 1845 to 1847 

Richmond Tuttle 1847 to 1852 



Allen Bassett 1852 to 1854 

Aaron A. Webster 1854 to 1856 

Andrew H. Long 1856 to 1874 

Daniel Layton 1874 to 1876 

Israel Underwood 1876 to 1878 

John C. Miller 1878 to 1880 



EECOEDERS. 



L. M. Taylor 1830 to 1837 

William H. Patterson 1837 to 1851 

Lot Dav, Jr 1851 to 1858 

R.J. Chestnutwood 1858 to 1867 



Alexander N. Thomas 1867 to 1875 

John Groff 1875 to 1879 

Harrison G. Beemer 1879 



AUDITORS. 



L. M. Taylor 1830 to 1837 

Tyra W. Bray 1837 to 1844 

George W. Matthews 1845 to 1849 

Aaron B. Ellsworth 1849 to 1859 



Woodman J. Holloway. . . .1859 to 1867 

Alfred Wheeler 1867 to 1875 

William D. Smith 1875 



TREASURERS. 



John D. Lasly 1830 to 1831 

Aaron Miller 1831 to 1833 

John T. McLelland 1833 to 1840 

Albert Monson 1841 to ls:,0 

John K. Wright 1850 to 1851 

Robert B. Nicar 1851 to 1856 

Solomon Miller 1856 to I860 



John H. Harper 1860 to 1864 

Ezekiel Green 1864 to 1868 

Hiram Miller 1868 to 1872 

David B.Creviston 1872 to 1876 

C. Henry Sheerer 1876 to 1878 

John Hay 1878 



COUNTY SURVEYORS. 



William Clark 1831 to 1832 

Tyra W. Bray 1832 to 1836 

Thomas P. Bulla 1836 to 1856 

Milton W. Stokes 1856 to 1864 

William D. Bulla 1864 to 1865 



William M. Whitten 1865 to 1866 

William D. Bulla 1866 to 1868 

Milton V. Bulla 1868 to 1872 

William M. Whitten 1872 to 1874 

Arthur J. Stace 1874 



COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 



1830— Adam Smith, Lambert McComb, Levi T. Arnold, (Acting Commission 
ers, old Iustic.es' Court.) 

1831 — David Miller, Joseph Rohrer, Aaron Stanton. 

1832 — John Ireland, Benjamin Hardman, John Martindale. 

1833 — John Ireland, Lot Day, Reynolds Dunn. 

1834— Same as for 1833. 

1835— Lot Day, Reynolds Dunn, Orlando M. Hurd. 

1836— Reynolds Dunn, Orl indo M. Hurd, William H. Patteson. 

1837— Lot Day, George Holloway, Orlando M. Hurd. (Mr. Hurd failed to qual- 
ify, and Alonzo Delano was appointed to fill vacancy). 

183S— Same as for 1837. 

1839- -Same . as tor 1838. 

1840— Lot Day, Alonzo Delano, Thomas D. Vail. 

1841— Lot Day, Thomas D. Vail, Gilman Towle. 

1842— Thomas D. Vail, Gilman Towle, M. B. Hammond. 



664 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

1843— Thomas D. Vail, Oilman Towle, M. B. Hammond. 
1844— Same as for 1843. 
1845 — Same as for 1844. 

1846— Gilman Towle, M.B. Hammond, R. Hubbard. 
1847— Same as for 1846. 

1848— Gilman Towle, Ransom Hubbard, Samuel M. Chord 
1849— Gilman Towle, John Druliner, Samuel M. Chord. 
1850— Same as for 1849. 

1851 — John Druliner, Gilman Towle, Edwin Pickett. 
1853— Same as for 1851. 

1853 — John Druliner, John Hammond, Gilmau Towle. 
1854 — Same as for 1853. 
1855 — Same as for 1854. 
1856— Same as for 1855. 
1857 — Same as for 1856. 

1858 — Gilman Towle, John Hammond, J. C. Williams. 
1859 — John Hammond, J. C. Williams, William F. Bulla. 
1860— J. C. Williams, F. R. Tutt, W. F. Bulla. 
1861— Same as for 1860. 

1863— F. R. Tutt, Gilman Towle, J. C. Williams. 
1863 — J. C. Williams, C. Studebaker, Gilman Towle. 
M864 — C. Studebaker, Nathaniel Frame, Gilman Towle. • 
1865— Same as for ism. 

1866— Gilman Towle, J. C. Knoblock, Nathaniel Frame. 
l.wiT— Same as for 1800. 
1868— Same as for 1867. 
1869— Same as for 1868. 

1870 — Nathaniel Frame, Gilman Towle, Dwight Deming. 
1871 — Nathaniel Frame, Albert Cass, Dwight Deming. 
1873— Same as for 1871. 
1873— Same as for 1873 

1874 — John Emsperger, Nathaniel Frame, Dwight Deming. 
1875 — Same as for 1874. 

1876 — Dwight Deming, William D. Rockhill, John Emsperger. 
18T7— Same as for 1876. 
1878 — Same as for 1S77. 
1879— Same as for 1878. 

A RETROSPECT. 

More than two centuries have passed since the first white man 
trod the soil of St. Joseph county. After Father Marquette and 
La Salle, what other " pale faces" were within its borders until 
Pierre Navarre came iu 1S20, history is silent. It is possible, and 
quite probable, that the county was visited by many French traders 
and Catholic priests, but of this nothing is known. When Navarre 
came, and even for some years after Alexis Coquillard and Lathrop 
M. Taylor established their trading posts on the banks of the beau- 
tiful St. Joseph river, there was nothing to break the solemn still- 
ness of nature save the growl of the wild beast, the whoop of the 
savage, or the rush and roar of winds as they passed over the 
prairie and woodland. The soil was unvexed by the plow, and the 
woodman's ax had never been heard previous to this time. Nature 
had done her best to make the county a beautiful one, fit indeed 
for those who were destined to possess it. The various prairies 
were in the summer decked in beautiful green, while the prairie 
flowers exhibited colors that only the hand of the Creator could 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 665 

form, so that it could well be said that even " Solomon in all his 
glory was not arrayed like one of these." 

These the gardens of the desert — these 

The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful, 

And fresh as the young earth ere man had sinned. 
Lo ! they stretch 

In airy undulations far away, 
As if the ocean in the genllest swell 

Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed, 
And motionless forever. 

The forests, too, were grand. The giant oak, the stately elm, 
and the useful hickory seemingly pierced the very heavens, and 
stood as faithful sentinels over the entire surroundings. No fallen 
timber or .undergrowth of any kind obstructed the passage, the 
annual prairie lire making a clean path for all. A prairie fire! The 
sight is a magnificent one indeed. An early writer who was look- 
ing at the country and enjoying the unfamiliar sight, was startled 
by a flash of light, and thus sketched a prairie on fire: 

"Whilst enjoying the sublimity of the scene, night threw her man- 
tle o'er the earth, and the sentinel stars set their watch in the skies, 
when suddenly the scene was lighted by a blaze of light illumi- 
nating every object around. It was the prairie on fire. Language 
cannot convey, words cannot express to you the faintest idea of the 
grandeur and splendor of that mighty conflagration. Me thought 
that the pale Queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed 
place in the heavens, had dispatched ten thousand messengers to 
light their torches at the altar of the setting sun, and that now they 
were speeding on the wings of the wind to their appointed stations. 
As I gazed on that mighty conflagration, my thoughts recurred to 
those immured in the walls of a city, and I exclaimed in the full- 
ness of my heart: 

Oh, fly to the prairie in wonder, and gaze, 
As o'er the grass sweeps the magnificent blaze ! 
The world cannot boast so romantic a sight, 
A continent flaming, 'mid oceans of light." 

How changed the scene now! The timber in many places has 
been cleared away, and beautiful farms appear in its stead. The 
broad prairies have been shorn of their native beauty, and the hand 
of man has endeavored to excel in their decoration. The iron horse 
now courses over the prairie and through the timber where once 
only the trail of the red man was known. Villages, towns and 
cities appear where the wigwam was once seen. All this change 
has taken place in one-half century. What will the next fifty years 
bring forth? Who can tell? 

Every old settler now living — those that were here prior to 1832 
— can realize fully the picture drawn; and as they sit by their fire- 
sides in old age, their minds wander back to the scenes of the long 
ago. They see that grand old man, with a heart tender and sympa- 
thizing as a child, one always ready and willing to relieve the cry 



666 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

of distress — Alexis Coquillard; they see the quiet, unobtrusive 
Lathrop M. Taylor as he was when not bowed down by the weight 
of years; they again take by the hand that bluff old Samuel Cot- 
trell; quickly pass in imagination Elisha Egbert, Dr. Henricke, 
Horatio Chapin, and a host of others, who have passed on to the 
other shore. All this seems to them a reality; and when they gaze 
out upon the living, active throng that is continually moving to 
and fro, they rub their eyes and imagine it all a dream. But the 
old days have passed away, never to be recalled. 

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY OF TO-DAY. 

As it is impossible for the pen of the historian to do justice to the 
past, even so will he fail to properly present the St. Joseph of to-day. 
No county in Northern Indiana or Southern Michigan has made 
greater progress in the same length of time. In its churches, its 
schools, its manufacturing interests, its public and private buildings, 
in fact every thing that goes to show a progressive people, it has 
taken a leading position. It has to-day an incorporated city, two 
incorporated towns, and several villages numbering from one hun- 
dred and fifty to eight hundred inhabitants. It has a total popula- 
tion of upward of 33,000, and increasing rapidly. The great power 
of the St. Joseph river has been developed and utilized, and scores 
of manufacturing institutions profit by what has been done. 

In the early day citizens of St. Joseph county met for worship 
in school-houses, barns or private dwelling-houses, — anywhere they 
could find a place, and glad were they of the opportunity; to-day 
churches are upon every hand, from the plain, unpretending frame, 
where a few zealous men and women gather together "in the name 
of Jesus,"" to the imposing brick or stone, with bells pealing forth a 
joy fid welcome to one and all to come "drink of the waters of 
life." 

The old log school-house has long since been displaced, and to- 
day are found, especially in the larger towns and cities, school 
buildings of handsome architectural appearance, costing many 
thousands of dollars each, and equipped with every appliance that 
can promote the cause of education. The comfort of pupils has 
been secured by the introduction of suitable seats and desks, maps, 
globes, philosophical apparatus, music, libraries, commodious play 
grounds, well ventilated apartments, beautiful plants and flowers, 
are all used as accessories, and the result is a humanizing influence. 
A large revenue derived from taxation is annually raised sufficient 
to maintain a scholarly corps of teachers. In addition to the pub- 
lic schools there are in the county two institutions of learning that 
have a world-wide fame, Notre Dame University and St. Mary's 
Academy, the one for males, the other for females. Under the 
most patient, persistent efforts they have been made what they are, 
a credit to the county and State, no less than to the religious body 
whose zeal has taken such practical shape. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 667 

St. Joseph county of to-day boasts of another civilizing influence 
in her newspapers, twelve weekly and two daily; all of which are 
well and ably edited. 

In manufactures St. Joseph county of to-day leads every other 
county in the north part of the State. Three thousand men are at 
present engaged in the various manufactories. 

In agriculture nowhere in the Union are more sure crops than 
here annually raised, and little vacant land is to be found in any 
part of the county; many acres which a few years ago were thought 
to be valueless on account of swamps, are to-day the most produc- 
tive farms in the State. 

The St. Joseph river, though not to-day used for purposes of 
navigation, is doing better in affording power for the manufactories 
already mentioned. 

.Railroads traverse almost every part of the county to-day, carry- 
ing away the productions of the soil and of the skillful mechanics 
variously employed. The telegraphic wire takes a message and 
carries it hundreds, nay thousands, of miles, in a moment's time; 
while the telephone wire is placed in the private houses of many, 
enabling them to converse with ease with those who are miles 
away. 

Peace and plenty are enjoyed by every inhabitant of St. Joseph 
county to-day. Labor is in demand at remunerative wages; every 
manufactory is run to its full capacity, many of them finding diffi- 
culty in filling their orders. 

The assessed value of real and personal property to-day is about 
$15,000,000, about one-third the real value. The county owes 
neither bonded, floating, nor any other kind of debt whatever. 
Gentlemanly and accommodating men tiil the public offices. In 
fact, everything goes to prove that St. Joseph of to-day is a model 
county in every respect. 



TOWNSHIP HISTORIES. 
CENTRE TOWNSHIP. 

As we look over this beautiful part of St. Joseph county, we can 
hardly realize that so few years have elapsed since it was a howling 
wilderness, inhabited only by the wild beasts of the forests, and a 
race of people almost equally wild. 

Centre township is bounded on the north by Portage, on the 
east by Penn and Madison, on the south by Union, and on the 
west by Greene. It is four miles from east to west, and five from 
north to south, and contains 20 square miles. It was laid out Sept. 
7, 1831, at which time there were only two or three settlers in what 
is now Centre township. The following spring a few more adven- 
turers settled in different parts of the township, and of the six men 
then living here but one remains, Col. Smith. Nathan Rose was 
the first to contract for land. He first came here in the summer of 
1829, and purchased his land of the Pottawatomie Indians. He 
then returned and worked in a saw-mill on the Tippecanoe river 
near Rochester, Ind., to pay for the land. It was located in sec- 
tion 36, and is now owned by I. Roseberry, J. K. Dice, and Jon. 
Forneman. Mr. Rose moved his family in the fall of 1830 on the 
place now owned by J. K. Dice. Here he lived, enduring all the 
privations of pioneer life, until 1852, when he removed his family 
to St. Joseph, Missouri. He lived but a few years after this; he 
and his wife both died on the same day, and were buried in the 
same grave. Their children are now scattered over different parts 
of the West. James and Ashur Palmer came in the summer of 
1830 and settled on Palmer's Prairie, thus giving it the name. 
They and their families have all left the township, removing to 
Lake county , where they died a few years ago. Andrew Milling 
came about the same time and located on section 35, where Mr. 
Hilderbrand now lives. He seems to have been a man of energy 
and intelligence, but has long since passed away. The family have 
all gone, and the name once so familiar in this community, will 
perhaps in another generation be almost forgotten. 

In September, 1830, Henry Stull bought this land in the north 
part of the township. The land office at this time was at Fort 
Wayne. He came here by the way of Elkhart and Goshen. It 
must be remembered that at this time the city of Elkhart had not 
made its appearance, and Goshen contained but one house. There 
were no wagon roads north of Logansport. Mr. Stull was a native 
of Virginia, but becoming dissatisfied with his native State, and be- 
ing of a daring, yet careful disposition he loaded a boat with what he 

(668) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 669 

called skillets and pots, and started down the Ohio river, landing 
in the southern part of this State. This was while Indiana was 
yet a Territory. For a number of years afterward Mr. Stull was 
engaged in buying stock in' Kentucky, and driving them to Eastern 
Pennsylvania for market. After lie came to this county he engaged 
in farming. He was a man of good business talent, very careful 
and accurate in all his transactions, and respected and honored 
by all that knew him. It is said that be never had his name on any 
man's books, bis motto being "Pay as you go." Being a man of 
temperate habits be lived to be a very old man, and died but a few 
years ago, in this township. 

John Rose settled the same year, on section 36. His son William 
is still living in this township. It was about this time that the 
Rupels came to the county. They came from Pennsylvania, and 
stopped at Elkhart in 1S30. While there, Peter Rupel secured his 
patent for his land in section 26. His son, E. H. Rupel, still has 
the original deeds made at the land office in Fort Wayne, and 
signed by Andrew Jackson. He lives on the old home farm. 
They removed from Elkhart to this township in 1831. They had a 
family of 7 children, most of whom are still living near the old 
farm . 

After the year 1831 settlers began to come to the township very 
fast. In the year 1832-'3 the Smiths came; Isaac Lamb, Abiel 
Hungerford, Tyra N. Bray in 1833; James and Richard Inwood 
came in 1835 and settled in the southwestern part of the township. 
William Phillips came about the same time; Wm. H. Roerston 
settled on section 2, in October, 1S36. It was about this time that 
the Odells, Ulerys and Rushes came; and it was not long after 
this time till the giant forests began to disappear very fast from 
the hills and vales of Centre tp., and in their place came well culti- 
vated fields, bringing forth their bounteous harvests to reward the 
hardy woodman for his long and patient toiling. The narrow, 
winding wood road gradually disappeared; and in its place came 
the beautiful broad highway which now traverses the township in 
every direction. 

The first child that was born in the township was Elizabeth Rose, 
daughter of Nathan Rose, and was born where J. K. Dice now lives, 
on section 36. 

The first election was held in Smith's school-house on section 2. 
The elections are still held at the same place. The first Justice of 
the Peace was Mathias Stover. 

The people of this township are very quiet and social, — so much 
so that they have not needed a Justice of the Peace or Constable 
for the past 20 years, although they comply with the requirements 
of the law and elect them. They do not qualify them: so they do 
not serve. 



670 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

EDUCATION. 

The people at an early day saw the need of education, for we see 
the little band of pioneers as early as 1835 joining together and 
erecting a school-house on section 36, between the section line and 
the Michigan road, on Nathan Rose's farm. This building, although 
it may have been rude in appearance, showed the progressive char- 
acter of the minds that these few hardy pioneers possessed. The 
building was built of round logs, with cabin roof; was small, and 
had a puncheon floor. The seats were rough benches made of slabs. 
For desks they had pins around the walls with boards on them. 
Blackboards, now considered so indispensable to a school-room, were 
not dreamed of. Stove it had none, but in its stead at the end of 
the room was a large fire-place; and on the outside could be 6een 
the chimney towering above the roof, built of sticks and mortar. 
No doubt that many of these pioneer children who have grown to 
manhood often think of the merry faces and the laughing jokes that 
passed around the merry party as they stood about that fire-place 
on a frosty winter morning warming their fingers and toes. This 
building was used for six or seven years, when the country, becom- 
ing more densely settled, demanded something better and larger; 
and a frame was erected on J. Smith's land in section 2. This 
stood till the brick house was built some years ago. The first 
teacher in the log school-house was Mary Mellings. After her 
came Benjamin Gibbons and Daniel Robertson, now living in 
Greene township. 

The second district was organized in about 1840 or 1842, and the 
house was built on section 36, on the farm now owned by I. Rose- 
berry. It was of logs but soon gave way to a frame, and this to a 
beautiful brick structure which now occupies the old site. 

The township now has five school-houses; and the education of 
the young receives a great deal of attention. 

CHURCHES. 

At present the township contains but one church organization, — 
the German Baptist. They built their church house in the sum- 
mer of 1859, on section 2. It is known as the Palmer Prairie 
church, in the South Bend district. The elders at the time the 
church was built were David Miller and Christian Winger. At 
that time they had about 70 members: now they have 120. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

The personal history of Centre tp. is both interesting and instruc- 
tive, and we will not fail to record it. It would give us pleasure 
to speak even at greater length than we do, but the large number 
and limited space forbid. 

Francis Donaghue was born in Ireland, April 4, 1828; came to 
America some time in 1844; lived in Brooklyn about a year, then 
removed to Cincinnati, where he clerked in a grocery for another 
year. The next year he spent in Southern Michigan. He came to 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 671 

this tp. in 1847) and married Miss Rosann, daughter of John and 
Elizabeth Henson, of this tp., both natives of Virginia. They had 
10 children, 5 of whom are living: John, Bridget, Mahala, Louisa 
and Rhoda. Mr. Donaghue was with the first company that went 
to the Golden State to seek their fortunes. He was also at Pike's 
Peak in 1860. When Mr. D. was a young man in his native 
country, he had made preparations to go t) Van Diemen's Land, 
but on account of the wishes of his mother he changed his plans 
and came to America. He used to tell his family that he could not 
be too thankful that he did so. Mr. D. was a member of theCath- 
olic Church in South Bend. He died in April, 1876. Mrs. Don- 
aghue still lives on the farm on which they first settled when they 
came to this tp. She is a lady respected by all. 

Abraham B. Frick, son of Henry and Mary (Colder) Frick, ol 
Westmoreland county, Pa., was born July 5, 1820, and was. mar- 
ried Sept. 2, 1841, to Sarah Cring, daughter of Frederick and Eliza- 
beth Cring, both natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. Frick came with his 
parents to Stark county, 0., in 1826, where his father died in 1849, 
and his mother in 1860. He came to this tp. in 185-1. They have 
10 children: Samuel, Polly, Joseph, Manuel, Alfred, Mary E., 
Frederick, Willard, Emma E. and Harvey. Mr. Frick is a Demo- 
crat and served three years in the 21st Ind. Battery in our late war; 
has been Justice of the Peace several terms; owns a well improved 
farm of 236 acres. 

Michael Himebaugh, son of George and Christina Himebaugh, 
of Pennsylvania, was born in the same State Sept. 16, 181S. His 
great-grandfather came from Germany and settled in the Keystone 
State. The subject of this sketch came with his parents to Stark 
county, O., when a boy nine years old, where he was married in 
1842 to Margaret Fouse, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Fouse, 
of the same county. Mrs. H. was born in 1817. This marriage 
was blessed with 6 children, viz.: Mary, William. Jacob, Catharine, 
Simon and Benjamin. Of these all are now dead except Catharine. 
Mr. Himebaugh was married a second time, to Mary Weaver, 
daughter of Michael and Catharine (Coleman) Weaver; she was 
born in Pennsylvania, April 21, 1823. Mr. Himebaugh's son, 
Jacob, was in the 73d Regiment in the late civil war. He went 
from South Bend and was under Colonel Wade, of La Porte. He 
died in the house of a rebel near Glasgow, Ky. Mr. H. has now 
been a resident of St. Joseph county for 24 years, and is a man 
respected by all that know him. In his religious belief he isa firm 
Presbyterian, and is now living a contented and happy life on his 
pleasant farm of 46 acres in sec. 35. P. O., South Bend. 

William Inwood, son of Richard and Katy A. (Rush) Inwood, 
was born Oct. 1, 1847, on the farm on which he now resides, in 
Centre tp., and has ever since made this his home. Sept. 7, 1875, 
he was married to Maggie Byers, daughter of John and Anna Eliza 
Byers, of Greene tp., the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of 
New Jersey. They have 2 children: John R., born Oct. 28, 1876, 

43 



672 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

and Nellie, born May 27, 1SS0. Mr. Inwood's father came from 
England and was one of the first settlers in the tp. (Seepage 669.) 
Mr. Inwood received his education in the common school, and has, 
at different times, traveled over the greater part of our country, 
thus gaining a practical education which distinguishes him in his 
business. At the time of the war he was a member of the Union 
League, andalso of the Home Guard. In politics he is a Republi- 
can. Both Mr. and Mrs. Inwood are members, in high standing, 
of the M. E. Church at Maple Grove. Live on sec. 10. 

Frederic Wm. Klinhner was born Aug. 26, 1S27, in Kaiser- 
scseh, Prussia. His parents were John and Sophia (Stull) Klinkner. 
He was married Feb. 17, 1852, to Katherine Schmits, of the same 
place, who was born June 16, 1827. In the spring following their 
marriage thev came to New York, and subsequently to Detroit, and 
finally to Centre tp., in November, 1854. This couple have 3 chil- 
dren: Jacob, born in April, 1856, Pauline, born in June, 1861, and 
Willie, born April 9, 1864. His vocation is farming. He kept 
a grocery on his farm for several years, and had a very good busi- 
ness. Sept. S, 1874, his sou Jacob, while out in the woods hunting 
with some of his companions a mile or two from his home, accident- 
ally discharged his gun, the shot taking effect in his side, from which 
he did not recover for several years. Mr. Klinkner being the 
seventh son born in his family, he received $100 in gold from his 
king, according to the custom of the country. Mr. K. owns 119 
acres in sec. IS. 

Samuel Kreisher was born in Lebanon county, Pa., in April. 
1S59. His parents, William and Elizabeth Kreisher, removed to 
this county in 1862. They were married in 1840, and have 6 chil- 
dren, William, Samuel, Amelia, Susan, Elizabeth and Emma. All 
are living in the county except Emma, who lives in Napoleon, O. 
Mr. K. died in February, 1879. They own several hundred acres 
of fine farming land. Samuel, the subject of this sketch, is living 
on the old farm with his mother, and follows farming. P. O., 
South Bend. 

William Kreisher, brother of the preceding, was born Jan. 2, 
1851; was married Jan. 5, 1S75, to Lydia Warner, daughter of 
George and Elizabeth (Hartman) Warner, of this county. She 
was born Jan. 10, 1S55. They have 3 children, Frank, born July 
15, 1877; Charley, born March IS, 1S76; and Bertha, Aug. 9, 
1879. Mr. K. is a Republican, and owns 204 acres in sec. 34, 
Union tp. 

Catharine Miller was born in Hanover tp., Lebanon county, 
Pa., Dec. 18, 1812, a daughter of Martln"~and Elizabeth Wanger. 
She was married Sept. 15, 1S31, to John Miller, in Lancaster 
county, Pa., who was born April IS, 1807, a son of William C. and 
Mary M. Miller. They removed to Ohio in 1S31, and in May, 
1847, came to this county and settled on the farm, which she still 
owns, in sec. 30, consisting of 160 acres, valued at $100 an acre. 
Mrs. Miller still lives in the same house into which they moved 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 673 

when they first came to the county 33 years ago, but they have 
added many improvements. They have 10 children, Sarah. Mary 
M., Martin, Elizabeth, William C, John EL, Susan A., Ellen and 
Sylvania C. Mrs. Miller is a member of the German Baptist 
Church, as was also her husband. P. O., South Bend. 

Sarah Ann. Bobbins was born June 18, 1S19, in Washington 
county, Ind.; came to Morgan county in 1829, and married Thomas 
Robbins in 1S42, of the same county; he was born June 5, 
181S. They came to this county in 1849 and settled near South 
Bend on the farm now owned by Henry Studebaker; came to the 
place on which she now lives in 1850. Mr. Bobbins was a mem- 
ber of the 48th Begiment in the late war. He died in 1863. 
They have 4 children living, Harrison B., Martha J., Isabel and 
Francis M. Mrs. B. has a farm of 80 acres in sec. 3. For many years 
she has been a good and respected member of the Christian 
Church. 

Mrs. Charlotte T. Rohrer, daughter of David and Martha (Cow- 
en) Picket, who came from near Rochester, N. Y., and settled in 
the township about 1843, and now reside in Minnesota, was mar- 
ried to John Bohrer, Dec. 29, 1S40, who was born Jan. 27, 1816, 
the son of John and Mary Bohrer, early settlers of this county. 
They have one child, Laura (now Mrs. W. H. Stall), born Dec. 13, 
1843. Mrs. Bohrer has a farm of 101 acres, worth §100 per acre, 
in sec. 25. 

William Rose. Among the first settlers of this county were 
the parents of the subject of this notice, John M. and Evaline 
Rose, the former a native of Woodstown, X. J., and the latter of 
Butler county, Ohio. They were married in March 1S31, and re- 
moved to this county in September, 1832. They had eight children, 
of which only two lived to attain the age of manhood, Bichard and 
William. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bose died very suddenly, the former 
on May 4, 1866, aged 67 years, and the latter Sept. 9, 1862, aged 
51 years. Bichard is now living in Cass county, Mich. William, 
the subject of this sketch, was born Sept. 9, 1832, and was married 
.Nov. 30, 1854, to Mary A. Barnes, daughter of John E. and Har- 
riet (Trit) Barnes, natives of Maryland. Their children are: 
Frank A., born July 15, 1855; Schuyler C, born Feb. 22, 1860; 
Lillian B., born Oct., 5, 1866. Frank A. was married to Mary 
Bond, May 23, 1878. They have one child. They are living on 
his father's farm. Mr. Bose obtained his education in the common 
schools of the county. Has traveled through the West a great deal, 
and visited numerous tribes of Indians. His politics are Bepubli- 
can; he was formerly a Whig. He has 73 acres of land on sec. 35, 
valued at $S0 per acre; P. O., South Bend. 

Isaiah Roseberry was born in Clermont county. Pa., Aug. 5, 
1809. His parents, William and Sophia (Bease) Boseberry, came 
from New Jersey and settled in Pennsylvania about 1800. He was 
married in October, 1836, to Sarah Ann Cribling, daughter of Wil- 
liam Cribling, of Pennsylvania; she was born Dec. 11, 1813, and they 



674 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

had nine children, five of whom are living: Sophia, Mary E., William 
H., Melvina and Sarah A. Lemuel, born Jan. 3, 1841, was a 
member of Co. B, 48th Ind. Vol. Inf., and was killed at Dallas, 
Georgia, while working on an entrenchment. Mr. R. came to Ohio 
in 1837, moved to this township in April, 1850; owns a well im- 
proved farm of 137^ acres in sec. 36, valued at $100 per acre; P. 
O., South Bend. 

Bazel Rupel, son of Peter and Christina Rupel, of this county, 
was born Jan. 29, 1833. He was married May 25, 1854, to Sarah 
J. Bronson, of this tp. Her parents are George..W. and Mary (Cor- 
cons) Bronson. They have 3 children, James T., born Oct. 20, 
1855; M. L., born Oct. 3, 1857; and N. I., born Oct. 15, 1864. 
Mrs. Rupel was born Dec. 6, 183S. They are worthy members of 
Pleasant Grove Grange, No. 1550. Mr. R. is a Democrat. He 
received his education in the common schools of the count}'. Was at 
Pike's Peak in 1S60. Owns 50 acres of land. Mrs. Rupel's 
mother, nee Mary Calkins, was born in Jamestown, N. Y., June 21, 
1S18, and her father, Caleb Calkins, was born in Vermont, Aug. 
27, 1790, and her mother, nee Susan Beardsley, was born in Rhode 
Island, Nov. 27, 1790; they were married in 1812. Geo. W. Bron- 
son was born in Wayne county, O., Aug. 25, 1814, and was married 
in 1835, in Cass county, Mich. Mr. Bronson's mother, nee Nancy 
Cathcart, was born in New Jersey March 6, 1786, and his father, 
Reuben Bronson, was horn in Vermont Sept. 7, 1781; the two lat- 
ter were married in 1804. Mr. R's P. O. is South Bend. 

Elixha II. Rupel, son of Peter and Christina Rupel, formerly ot 
Pennsylvania, but later of this county, was born Oct. 29, 1827, in 
Somerset county, Pa.; moved to this tp. in 1S30; was married in 
1853 to Jane Vanderhoof, daughter of Jules and Catherine Vander- 
hoof, of this tp. They have 2 children, Clarissa, born in 1S55, and 
Harrietta, born in 1860. Mr. R. is a Democrat; his first vote was 
cast for Andrew Jackson. He owns 187 acres of fine land, worth 
about $100 an acre, in sec. 26. 

Hiram Rupel, living on sec. 26, was born in Elkhart county, in 
September, 1.830; his parents, Peter and Christina (Simma!) Rupel, 
were natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rupel was married in 1S54 to 
Laura Creedvell, formerly of New York State. They have 3 chil- 
dren, Dicintha, Oscar William and Louis Edyker. Mr. Rupel is a 
farmer and has a beautiful and well tilled farm of 26-f acres, valued 
at $100 per acre; P. O., South Bend. 

Martin, Slough, son of Martin and Barbara Slough, who emigrated 
to America from Wirtemburg, Germany, in 1832, and settled in 
Portage county, Ohio. Here, Sept. 28, 1832, the subject of this 
sketch was born. He came to Woodland, this county, in 1850. In 
1853 he removed to Union tp., where he ran a saw-mill till 1868, 
when he removed to his farm in sec. 18, this tp., where he still 
resides. His father died at the age of 75 years, in the spring of 
1877; his mother died in July, 1869, aged 63, both in this tp. Mr. 
Slough was married in October, 1868, to Jane Gibbens, daughter 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 675 

of William and Ann Gibbens, of this county. They have 5 children: 
Alvira C, Melvina A., John W., Charles II. and Etta M. Mr. 
Slough is a Republican. His business is fanning, and he owns 80 
acres in this tp., on sec. 18, and SO acres in Madison tp; P. O., 
South Bend. 

John S. Stall, son of Henry and Rebecca Stull, late of this 
county, was born in Jennings county, this State, Nov. 21, 1821; 
was married in 1857 to Margaret Lock, daughter of George W. 
and Mary Lock, who came to the count}' in 1842, the former a 
native of Virginia and the latter of North Carolina. They have 
2 children, Mary It. and Edward C. Mr. Stull came with his folks 
to this county in 1830, and has witnessed it change from a dreary 
wilderness to as beautiful a county as America can boast of. He 
owns a good farm, on sec. 26, and has it well improved. P. O., 
South Bend. 

W. II. Stull was born in Jennings county, Inch, in 1826. He 
came with his parents, Henry and Rebecca Stull, to the county in 
1830. His father entered the farm he now lives on in 1830, the 
land office at that time being at Fort Wayne. Mr. Stull was mar- 
ried in November, 1850, to SophrOnia Day. She died, and left 2 
children, Josephine and Mary. Mr. S. was married again, in 
1865, to Louisa Rohrer, daughter of John and Charlotte Rohrer, 
of this tp. They have 2 children, John and Agnes L. Mr. S. is 
a farmer, a Granger and a Democrat. Has several fine, farms. 
Residence, sec. 20. P. O., South Bend. 

D'tv/'d Whitman, son of Abraham and Elizabeth Whitman, the 
former of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Germany, but now of 
this county, was born in Ohio, Oct. 3, 1852; was married Oct. 3, 
1876, to Christina Loring, of this tp. Her parents, Fred and 
Mary Loring, were among the early settlers of the county. They 
have one child, Edna, born Jan. 13,1879. Mr. W. is a farmer, 
and received his education in the common schools of the county. 
P. O., South Bend. 



CLAY TOWNSHIP. 

For three manifest reasons, the history of Clay township must 
necessarily be short. First, the township itself is small, and unless 
something remarkable be connected with it, it could not have a 
length}' and elaborate history. Secondly, it was not organized as a 
township until 1S40, and therefore everything concerning its early 
history, particularly concerning the names of early settlers of the 
township up to that year, will be included in the history of 
German township. And thirdly, the most important thing in con- 
nection with Clay township, and indeed, in all probability, in con- 
nection with St. Joseph county, namely its educational interests, 
including Notre Dame University and St. Mary's Academy, has 
been included in the State and county history of this work. 

At the June session of the Board of County Commissioners in 
1840, an order was passed constituting Clay a separate township, 
and it was named after Henry Clay, who was just in the prime 
of his political glory. The first election in the township was 
held in "Brooks' barn," now burned down, then on section 30. 
The first justices of the peace of Clay township were Jonathan 
Hardy and Samuel Brooks. 

During the early settlement of German township, that part of it 
lying east of the St. Joseph river, which is now Clay township, did 
not settle very rapidly until about 1837-'S. The first settlement 
was along the eastern bank of the St. Joseph river, where John 
Eyler, Lambert McCombs and John Weaver, a German Baptist 
preacher, together with a few other families, located. From that 
time to the present the population has gradually increased, and at 
the last census it was 1,476? At present the citizens are mostly 
Germans. 

Clay township is 3S north, range 3 east, is situated in the north- 
ern part of St. Joseph county, and is bounded on the north by the 
State of Michigan, on the east by Harris and Penn townships, on 
the south by Penn and Portage, and on the west by the St. Joseph 
river, beyond which lies German township. Nearly all of the 
land is broken, or marsh, or timbered land, and across the south- 
western part flows a small stream branching off from the St. Joseph 
river on the west. Across the western part runs a branch of the 
Michigan Central railroad, connecting South Bend and Niles, Mich. 
The sections of the township are somewhat irregular, a part of the 
northern road being in Michigan; and od the west the line is very 
irregular, owing to the fact that when the township was organized, 
the St. Joseph river was made the western boundary. At present 
a large and substantial wooden bridge is in process of erection 

(67G) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. G77 

across the river, from section 23, connecting Clay and German 
townships. 

There is a grist-mill on section 23, on the river, owned by John 
F. Curly, of South Bend. At present the mill is not running: it 
was built several years ago by Jonas Harris. Prior to the erection 
of the grist-mill by Mr. Harris, Mr. Weaver had built a saw- 
mill on the same location; Mr. Weaver also had a carding- 
machine and fulling-mill, and for a time did quite an extensive 
business; but tbese were afterward removed, and their place sup- 
plied by the present grist-mill. There was also at one time a full- 
ing-mill near where St. Maiw's college now stands, run by a mau 
named Graham. And at one time in the history of the township, 
S. Ulery ran a carding-machine. But these have all long since 
been dispensed with, and to-day there is very little or nothing to 
add to the business interests of the township by way of mills or 
villages, there being but one of the former, and none of the 
latter. But villages in Clay township are not necessary, as it is 
conveniently and closely situated to South Bend. Politically, the 
township is Democratic. 

CHUECHES AND CEMETERIES. 

There is only one church in Clay township besides the Catholic, a 
history of which is given in connection with its college. It is a 
German Baptist organization, and the church building is located on 
section 2i. It was erected in 1868 by means of individual donations. 
The first pastors of the church were Jacob Cripe and Christian 
Wenger. The present pastor is John B. Wrightsman. The con- 
gregation at first was quite small, but is now respectable in number, 
and is increasing, including many of the highly respected citizens 
of Clay township. 

There are three public cemeteries in the township; one on sec- 
tion 25 near the German Baptist church; one on section 30, known 
as the Township Cemetery, and another in connection with Notre 
Dame University, situated near it and on the land owned by that 
institution. 

EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS. 

The first school ever taught in the township was on section 23, 
in Mr. Eyler's house. Charles Murray, a married man from " Dutch 
Island," in Harris township, whom the patrons of the immediate 
neighborhood hired, was the first teacher. The first school-house 
in the township was built on section 28, and Daniel A. Yeasey was 
probably the first teacher. However, the scarcity of school-houses 
and school funds did not long continue in Clay township; and to- 
day its citizens can say without hesitation, and without any fear of 
contradiction, that the}' have better school-houses than any town- 
ship in the county, and indeed as good as any in the State. In the 



67S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTV. 

township there are six excellent school buildings, all brick, with 
stone foundations. They are conveniently located throughout the 
entire township, and are known by number and b} T name. In them 
are furnished to the children nine months of school annually. 
Although a great part of the farming land of the township is rather 
poor, yet this one distinctive characteristic of it will suffice to place 
Clay township among the foremost ones in the county, and the 
inhabitants may justly attribute this to the unceasing labors of their 
last two school trustees, namely, Thomas Eaton, who held that office 
for a number of years, and George Stover, the present incumbent. 

But here, in the progress of this subject, let the reader stop and 
reflect. Were he unacquainted with the edncational interests of 
the township, he would doubtless think that what had already been 
said concerning them, was in part flattery, but not so. What 
would be his surprise upon learning that not one tithe has yet been 
mentioned; for here in the southwestern part of this township are lo- 
cated two mighty literary institutions. St. Mary's and Notre Dame, 
two powerful dispensaries of charity and intelligence, whose names 
are household words throughout all the neighboring States. 

But here we forbear from making further mention and giving a 
more elaborate history of those institutions, as it is given complete 
in the State and county history of this volume. And then, includ- 
ing these institutions under the head of schools, we can now safely 
say that the educational interests of Clay township are second to 
none in the State of Indiana. 

BIOGKArHIES. 

We find personal sketches of those who have made the history 
of the town and township, and are to-day thus engaged, to be 
quite interesting, and fully as good history as we can give. We 
will therefore speak briefly of some of the old settlers and promi- 
nent persons of the township: 

Thomas B. Cholfant, a prominent farmer on sec. 31; P. O., 
South Bend; is the son of Evan and Anna (Bulla) Chalfant, and 
was born in AVayne county, Ind., Feb. IS. 1820, and is of English- 
Irish- Welsh Dutch descent. He came to this county with his 
parents Nov. 1, 1S32, and settled on the farm on which he still 
resides; here his father and mother both died, the former, who was 
a native of Pennsylvania, in 1870, the latter, a native of North 
Carolina, in 1849. In 1848 Mr. C. was united in marriage to Jane 
Melling, a native of Ohio, born in 1S25 and died in 1861; she was 
the mother of 4 children, of whom 2 are now living: Nancy J. and 
Evan P. Mr. C. was married the second time in 1864, to Eleanor 
C. Alford, a native of Indiana, who was born in 1841 ; from this 
union they have been blessed with 2 children: Anna L. and Mary 
L. Mr. C. has held the office of Tp. Trustee; he is a member of 
the Grange, of which organization he is Treasurer. Politically, he 
is a Republican . ^His wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 679 

His education was limited, but lie reads a great deal now, and takes 
nine or ten papers. He owns 236 acres of land, 175 of which are 
under cultivation; he values it at $75 per acre. Mr. C. is a suc- 
cessful farmer, and an industrious man. 

J. R. Chirhart, a farmer on sec. 30; P. O., Notre Dame ; son of 
Apollinaris and Mary (Meyer) Chirhart, was born in Ohio in 1836, 
and is of German descent. He came to this county in 1845, with 
his mother, and first located in Harris tp., where they lived till 
1865. During that year he was married to Mary M. Palley, a native 
of Connecticut, who was born in 1S34; they have the 6 following 
named children: Mary M., Alfred M., Edward S., Cecelia J., Anna 
C. and Joseph. Mr. C. and wife are members of the Catholic 
Church. Politically, he is a Democrat. He owns 276 acres of 
land, worth about $80 per acre. 

Peter Cr'tpe, the subject of this sketch, is a very old settler and 
farmer in sec. 26; P. O., South Bend. He is the son of John and 
Eva (Poof) Cripe, both of whom are now deceased, and were natives 
of Pennsylvania; and was born in Ohio in 1824, of German 
descent. He was brought by his parents to this coiinty in the fall 
of 1830, and they first located in German tp., where they died and 
are buried. Peter, the subject of this sketch, came to this tp. in 
1852, and was married in '1855 to Philistia A. Skiles, a native of 
Indiana, who was born in 1S36: she is now the mother of chil- 
dren, all of whom are living: Jane, the wife of Aaron Ulery, a 
farmer of Clay tp.; Fannie, the wife of John Wrightsman, a minis- 
ter and teacher of the same tp. ; John, Edward, David, Jacob, 
Eveline, Elsie and Mary. Politically, Mr. C. is a Kepublican. He 
and his wife are members of the German Baptist Church. Mr. C's 
education, in early life, was limited to subscription schools, in log 
houses. He owns 137 acres of land on sec. 26, which he values at 
about $80 per acre. He has been a hard-working, industrious man 
all his life, and is a highly respected citizen of his community. 

Jacob Eaton, a farmer on sec. 13; P. 0., South Bend; is a son 
of Isaac and Margaret (Metzger) Eaton, both of whom died in this 
tp., — the former Dec. 25, 1869, at the age of 94 years, and the late 
ter, April 23, 1863, at the age of 81 years; his father was a native 
of Virginia, and his mother of Maryland. Mr. E. was born in 
Maryland, May 1, 1819. His parents came to this county in Sep- 
tember, 1831. and first settled in this tp., afterward entering land 
on sec. 17, where they resided for a number of years. He was mar- 
ried in 1846 to Elizabeth Barnes, a native of Maryland, born Oct. 
27, 1820; she is the mother of 7 children, of whom 6 are now liv- 
ing: Emma F., Clarissa M., the wife of Charles Jennings, a farmer 
of this tp.; Edwin D., Joanna W., Norman E. and Mark B. Mr. 
E. is a Democrat; he held the office of Tp. Trustee for 17 years. 
His education, when young, was limited, attending subscription 
schools, in log houses. He owns 225 acres of land, worth $50 per 
acre, all of which he has earned by hard work and judicious man- 
agement. He is the oldest permanent living settler in the tp. at 
present; he fished and swam in the lakes of this tp. with ex-Judge 






680 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Stanfield, and helped to clear the ground on which St. Mary's 
Academy now stands. 

Theobold Guli, son of Theobold and Barbara Guli, was born in 
France in 1821 and came to this country about 1831. He was mar- 
ried in 1847 to Mary Chokar, a native of Germany, who died in 
1853, leaving 4 children. He was married the second time in 1855 
to Terace (Theresa) Emily, a native of Germany, who is now the 
mother of 4 children, all of whom are living: Edmond, Michael, 
Lora and William. Mr. G. and wife are members of the Catholic 
Church. He owns on sec. 20, 250 acres of land, worth about $70 
per acre, and 100 acres of land in Penn tp. He is an industrious 
man and respectable citizen. 

Samuel Jennings, a fanner on sec. 30; P. O., South Bend; is a 
son of Samuel and Matilda (Bargdoll) Jennings, and was born in 
this tp. in 1815; li3 is of English-German descent. His father, who 
died in 1874, was a native of Xew York; his mother, a native of 
Virginia, died in 1S64. Mr. J. was married in 1870 to Mary Mil- 
ton, a native of Missouri, born in 1856; she is the mother of 3 chil- 
dren: Lillian M., Harry S. and Asher M. He owns on sec. 30, 80 
acres of land, worth about $60 per acre. His wife is a member of 
the Catholic Church. Politically, he is a Democrat. His educa- 
tional advantages were a;ood, attended college at Xotre Dame for 
several years. Mr. J. is now Assessor of the tp. In 1*63 he 
enlisted in the army at South Bend, as a private, under the com- 
mand of Capt. W. W. Andrews, in the 21st Indiana Battery; he 
was in the service until the close of the war, when he was dis- 
charged, June 27, 1865. 

JohnO. Kots, a fanner on sec. 29; P. O., South Bend; Mr. K. 
is a son of Jacob and Anna (App) Kotz, both now deceased, and 
was born in Germany in 1822. He came to this country Aug. 11, 
1M0. and first settled in Ohio, where he lived about five years, and 
in the spring ot 1846 came to this county; he became a resident of 
Clay tp. in 1847. In 1S44 he was married to Christina Blind, a 
native of Germain', who was born in 1S23; from this marriage they 
have 10 children, all of whom are living. Jacob, a wagon-maker in 
South Bend; George, a blacksmith in the same place; William, a 
farmer in this tp.; Daniel, an artist in Chicago; the following are 
still at home: John, Charles, David, Mary, Elizabeth and Matilda. 
Mr. K. and his wife are devoted members of the Evangelical Church. 
Politically, he is a Republican. His educational advantages in 
Germany were good; lie now reads fluently both the English and 
the German languages. He owns 160 acres of land, on sec. 29, 
worth about $75 per acre. Mr. K. is an enterprising, successful 
farmer. He built a large, two-story frame house in 1879, at a cost 
of §1,500. 

Win. McCombs, son of Lambert and Hannah t Hague) McCombs, 
was born in Wayne county, O., in 1818 and is of Irish-English 
descent. His father died in 1849, and his mother is now living in 
California. 92 years of age; they were natives of Pennsylvania and 
came to this county Julv 5, 1829. They first settled in German tp., 



HISTOEY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 681 

where they lived for a short time and then came to this tp. In 
1839 Mr. McCombs was married to Eva Cripe, a native of Ohio, 
born Nov. 2, 1816; she is the mother of 9 children, of whom all are 
living: Betsy, John, Lambert, Maria, Samuel, Ellen, Hannah, 
Amanda and William. His wife is a member of the Dunkard 
Church. Politically he is a Democrat. He owns 217 acres of land, 
which he values at $60 per acre. Mr. McCombs was a very early 
settler of this tp., and is an honest, industrious man. 

Thomas J. Sossomen, son of David and Elizabeth (Savidge) 
Sossomen, was born in this county in 1846, and is of Dutch 
descent. His parents, now living in Mishawaka, are natives of 
Pennsylvania, and came to this county about 1810. In 1874 Mr. 
S. was married to Salinda Shearer, a native of Indiana, and is now 
the mother of 2 children, Harvey and Harlow. He and his wife 
are members of the Dunkard Church. Politically, he is a Repub- 
lican. 

George H. Stover, School Trustee and farmer on sec. 28; P. O., 
South Bend; was born in Virginia in 1839, and is of German 
descent. His father, Jacob, a native of Virginia, was born in 1S07, 
and is now living with him; his mother, also a native of Virginia, 
whose maiden name was Sarah Nofsinger, died in 1871. Mr. S. 
came with his parents to this county in 1850 and settled in this 
tp., where he has lived ever since, and where his mother died. He 
was united in marriage in 1862 to Sophia Meyers, a native ot 
Indiana, who was born in 1837, and they have 2 children, both 
living, William C. and Ella V. Mr. S. is a member of the Masonic 
lodge at South Bend, No. 15. Politically, he is a Democrat. His 
educational advantages were fair; he taught several terms of school 
and attended college at Franklin, Ind. He owns 40 acres of land, 
which he considers worth about $75 per acre. Mr. S. is now School 
Trustee, and the high esteem in which he is held as a citizen of the 
tp. is manifested by the fact that he has held every other office in 
the tp. He is an industrious, enterprising man. 

John B. Wrlghfsnvm, a minister and teacher, located on sec. 26; 
P. O., South Bend; he is a son of Samuel and Mary (Redpath) 
Wrightsman, natives of Virginia, and was born in Pulaski county, 
Virginia, in 1853; he is of German descent. His father is living 
in Botetourt county, Virginia, and his mother died when he was 
only an infant. He came to this county in 1875, and first stopped 
in South Bend, where he remained about two years, in the mean 
time, attending high school at that place; he also attended college 
at Huntingdon, Penn. lie afterward moved into Clay tp., where 
he was united in marriage in 1S79 to Miss Fannie Cripe, a native 
of this tp., born in 1850; she is the mother of one child, John 
Earl Cripe. Politically, Mr. W. is a Republican; his educational 
advantages were poor, being compelled to depend upon his own 
resources for his education. He has been a minister of the gospel 
ever since lie was 15 years old, having united with the Church at 
the age of 14. He is now pastor of the German Baptist Church in 
Clay tp., and is a zealous Christian and an upright man. 



GERMAN TOWNSHIP. 

There is a peculiar, instinctive characteristic of man which 
seems to lead him, as it were unconsciously and imperceptibly, in 
the footsteps of progress and direct him to locate in that part of an 
unsettled country which is destined to become in the near future a 
country the most highly civilized, the most beautiful and fertile. 
It is probably to be attributed to this innate feature of finite 
man that German was among the earliest settled townships in 
St. Joseph county. Taken as a whole, there can surely be no 
more desirable locality in the county in which to live than German 
township. Here everything exists in abundance, and the country 
is richly embellished with all the beauties of nature; and, all in 
all, it seems to be one grand and lovely combination of nature and 
art in which the former largely predominates; for, civilize the 
country all you may, improve it all you can, and then bring to bear 
upon it the inventions wrought out by all the skill and ingenuity 
of man; then compare its condition with what it was in its early, 
pristine state, when the timbered land was inhabited by the red 
man, and the prairies were covered with tall and waving grass, 
interspersed here and there with wild flowers .which sent forth 
their sweet perfume as a presentiment of the coming future, — yes, 
do all this, strain your imagination to conceive and comprehend 
all these, and you will find the two conditions almost incomparable, 
with the present one gradually fading away like the rays of the set- 
ting sun. But no commendatory prelude can do justice to the history 
of German township; plain facts must be presented. 

Nov. 25, 1830, at a special session of the Board of Justices, the 
following order was passed: " Ordered by the Board aforesaid that 
from the second principal meridian of the State until the center of 
range 2 east, shall form and constitute a township in said county, 
to be known by the name of German township; and that the 
sheriff is hereby ordered to give public notice to the citizens of said 
township, according to law, for the qualified voters to meet at the 
house of David Miller in said township, to elect one Justice of the 
Peace in and for said township, on the 18th day of December 
next." 

On the appointed day the citizens of said township met at the 
house of David Miller, and at that meeting elected Lambert 
McCombs the first Justice of the Peace of German township. 

We have been unable to ascertain definitely why the name " Ger- 
man " was proposed for this township; but all supposition in 
regard to the subject is based upon the fact that at the time of the 

(682) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 683 

organization of the township nearly all the inhabitants of it were 
Germans o,r of German descent. 

From the order passed by the Board of Justices it would be diffi- 
cult for one to imagine the size of the township. Suffice it to say 
that it is quite small, being little more than half of a full township. 
It is township 33 north, range 2 east; is bounded on the north by 
the State of Michigan, on the east by the St. Joseph river (and 
beyond it lies Clay township), on the south by Portage, and on the 
west by Warren township. About one-third of the northern tier 
of sections of this township lies in Michigan, and on the east the 
line is quite irregular, owing to the indentations made by the St. 
Joseph river which marks the eastern boundary. 

In noticing early settlements the greatest care must necessarily 
be exercised, for it is of the greatest difficulty to avoid all mistakes. 
Upon a few of the pioneer settlers of this township, who have long 
survived their contemporaries, we are dependent for the authen- 
ticity of this part of the history. Their statements differ; hence 
we kindly ask all those interested to overlook all unavoidable er- 
rors. Judging from the best authorities, Lambert McCombs, John 
Hague and William Brookfield were the earliest permanent set- 
tlers of the township; the former two came from Wayne county, 
Ohio, and settled in this township as early as 1829 or '30; the lat- 
ter, who was at that time the surveyor of all the Government land 
throughout this community, chose a situation in the township 
about 1829, bought land on sections 34 and 35, and laid out a town, 
mention of which will be made hereafter. 

j About 1S31 Brookfield's family went down the Kankakee river 
in a boat, aud probably went to Texas. John Hague and wife died 
in Warren township, this county, and are probably buried in Ger- 
man township. Lambert McCombs went to Oregon and died there. 
Such has been the fate of the three pioneer settlers of German 
township. 

In 1830 a great many made German township their home, of 
whom the following are a few: J ohn Smit h, who settled on sec- 
tion 32; David Miller, also on section 32; Christian Holler, on 
section 7; Joshua and Benjamin Hardman, who came either in 
1830 or in 1831. However, as much as two decades prior to the 
earliest settlement of the township, in the year 1810, a man passed 
through the territory, not then known as German township, com- 
ing from Detroit, Mich., who declared at that time that if ever this 
country was settled by white men he would be one of them; sure 
enough, in comparatively a short time the country, once wild and 
uncultivated, was settled by white men, and the Indians were 
thereafter soon removed; aud true to his firm resolve, that man did 
come in 1831, and settle on section 27, where he remained two years 
and then went to La Porte county, and finally died in Wills town- 
ship; that man was John Cissne, father of Robert G. Cissne, now 
a very old settler of the township, and to whom we are indebted 
for a great deal of its early history. 




684 HISTORY OF ST. JOSKPH C'OUNTT. 

During the same year came Aaron Miller, brother of David, be- 
fore mentioned, and settled on section 23; in the same } r ear came 
also J. D. Miller, son of Aaron Miller; Samuel Witter, who settled 
on section 16, and Samuel Good, on section 28; in the year 1S32 
came Jesse K. Platts, who settled on section 21, John Witter on 
section 20, Daniel Wagner on section 16, Jacob and Samuel Ritter. 
In 1833 came Jacob Miller, a nephew of Aaron Miller, who settled 
on section 18. Simultaneous with him, and even before, came num- 
bers of others whose names it is not easy to obtain ; suffice it to say, 
that from this date onward the township settled very rapidly, and 
a country soon began to don the robes of improvement, civiliza- 
tion and progress. Of the old settlers not yet mentioned, the fol- 
lowing may be named as having come prior to the year 1836: Jesse 
Frame, Prosper Nichols, James Nixon, Jacob Ritter, John and 
James Huston, Henry Denslow, James Good, David Hoover, 
Michael Sjuith^William Roe, Charles Roe, John Marti ndale, Eli 
— Rae T Henry Brown, James R. McGee, Chris tian Smithy Mr. Over- 
acker,__S£0lt-W-£si_and John Cripe. "rTerTceforward the township 
became rapidly settled by^^n^roTTest, intelligent, industrious class 
of people who loved the " sons of toil," and who, like them, earned 
their daily pittance by the "sweat of their face," and many of whose 
posterity still survive, well-situated citizens, reaping the reward of 
their ancestors. 

It is altogether probable that Henry Smith, son of John and 

ancy (Miller) Smith, was the first white child born in the township 
and, indeed, even in the county; he was born Sept. 15, 1829, and is 
now a farmer in the township on sec. 16; P. O., South Bend. The 
first marriage in the township was probably that of John Harris and 
Lavina Eiler; they were married, however, in Michigan, but were 
residents of this township. The first frame house iu the township 
was built by Christian Holler, and is now standing on section 7, on 
the farm now owned by Jacob M. Whitmer. John Hague is said 
to have plowed the first furrow in the township. 

In the winter of 1832, quite a remarkable little episode occurred, 
which for a time greatly frightened the few scattering inhabitants 
of German township: Jacob M. Whitmer, now a resident on section 
7, then only a little child three and one half years old, went out one 
morning in pursuit of bis father and accidently became lost. Search 
for him was immediately instituted by his parents and the neigh- 
bors; but all seemed in vain, and for three long days and two nights 
the lost child still wandered, enduring the bleak winds of winter. 
His sorrowful parents and 200 anxious friends who were in search of 
him, had given him up as lost forever and supposed him to have 
been captured by the Indians. But about this time, when despond- 
ency and gloom had settled upon many anxious hearts of that 
community, Judge McCartney, now deceased, continued the search 
on horseback, when lo! by him the child was found and returned to 
its anxious, awaiting parents; and where before had been the shadow 
of gloom and sorrow, was now the sunshine of gladness. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 6S5 

Some time prior to 1836 a grist-mill was built on the St. Joseph 
river, on section 27, by Shank ife Downs, two millwrights; the mill 
was owned and controlled by William McCartney, who ran it for a 
while, doing a good business; but the mill did not long stand, on 
account of difficulty in securing water-power. 

A very sad accident happened a short time prior to 1S44. Jesse 
K. Platts, who has been already mentioned as a very early settler 
of the township, was killed by runaway horses. Upon a certain 
appointed day all his children.were coming home to have a re-union; 
the day previous Mr. Platts went out into the timber to get some 
wood; his horses becoming frightened ran away. His cries of anguish 
were heard by Mr. Good's family, residing near by, who started 
immediately for his rescue, but only to find the man dead. No one 
was able to ascertain definitely how he met his sad fate, but they sup- 
posed him to have been killed by being crushed between the sled 
and a log. The following day all his children did come, but oh, 
what a spectacle met their view! oh, what a change! for in lieu of 
a happy re-union of parents and children there was a sad and sor- 
rowful funeral of a man bemoaned by weeping children and hosts 
of sympathizing friends. 

VILLAGES AND BUSINESS INTERESTS. 

There is very little within the limits of German township which 
adds in any way to its business interests. By a careful examina- 
tion of statistical records and the removal of the dust from the 
pages of history of the days of by-gone years, it is found that there 
were at one time in German township three places which deserved 
the name of a town. An elaborate history of these towns it is 
impossible to give, as nothing can be obtained from the records, and 
very little from the old settlers now living. 

Aug. 19, 1836, the town of Mount Pleasant was laid out, on what 
is called the Michigan road, on sections 31 and 32. At this place, 
during the same year, the first and only postofHce that ever existed 
in the township was established, with Levi Wills as postmaster. 
There was once a dry-goods and grocery store kept by a man named 
Mar; there was also in the place at one time another small store; 
also two blacksmith shops, the first one of which was run by Joseph 
Barker. At one time in the history of the town John Tipton 
opened a boot and shoe store; and two hotels, the proprietors of 
which were Christopher Lentz and James R. McGee, once graced 
the little country village. But all these were of short duration, for 
the town was soon after vacated, and to-day not even a trace of its 
ruins remain to mark its former existence. 

July 12, 1834, the town of Portage was laid out along the St. 
Joseph river on section 26. This place never became noted as a 
town. At one time in its history there were two stores in the place, 
one of which was run by Elisha Egbert; and there was also once a 
tavern in the place,— an institution very common in those days. 



686 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

And still another place is yet to be mentioned; though last and 
least in size, it is by no means least in reputation; this place was 
St. Joseph, at one time the county-seat. In May, 1S30, the Board 
of Justices located the comity-seat of St. Joseph county at this 
place. Sept. 14, 1830, the town was laid out on the St. Joseph 
river, about two and a half or three miles northwest of South Bend, 
either on section 27, or on sections 34 and 35. The land on which 
the town was located was then owned by "William Brookfield, the 
Government surveyor. Nov. 25, 1S30, an order was passed by the 
Board aforesaid for William Brookfield to sell lots in the town of 
St. Joseph; and one would naturally suppose, upon reading that 
order, that sales of real estate would be rife for a season; but how 
different must have been their expectations when not a single house 
was ever erected in the place. And at the meeting of the Board of 
County Commissioners, on the second Monday of May, 1S31, an 
order was passed to have the county-seat re-located, the County 
Commissioners testifying that they were " of the opinion that pub- 
lic interest requires a removal of said seat of justice;" and after 
careful examination and due deliberation, the place selected was 
South Bend, then a mere village, uow a prosperous city. 

" A petition had been circulated among the settlers, and over 125 
names were secured in favor of South Bend. The friends were very 
active and finally triumphed. Bonds were given by L. M. Taylor, 
Alexis Coquillard, Joseph Bohrer, Samuel Studebaker , Samuel 
Hanna and David H. Coldrick, in which" they obligated Uiemselves 
to pay the sum of $3,000, if the county r -seat be permanently located 
at South Bend. Fifteen lots were donated b} 7 Taylor and Coquil- 
lard for the use of the county 7 , and lots No. 341, on said town plat, 
for the use of the United Brethren to build a church thereon, and 
lot No. 403 to the German Baptist denomination, and lot No. 234 
for the Presbyterians, and four acres of land for a public grave- 
yard." 

These liberal offers carried the day, and South Bend became the 
capital of St. Joseph county permanently, and the town of St. 
Joseph was vacated, to be remembered only as a thing of the past, 
bearing the lamentable motto, " It might have been." To-day 
nothing remains to mark the former existence of any of these 
towns. 

There is a steam saw-mill in the northwestern part of this town- 
ship, on section 18. There are two dairies in the township: one 
on section 34, rnn by John Beyrer, established in 1879. Mr. B. 
keeps IS cows, runs one wagon, and sells milk at South Bend; this 
is known as the " Portage " dairy. The other one is on section 26, 
on the St. Joseph river, and is conducted by Francis Johnson. He 
keeps 75 cows, sells milk at South Bend, and runs two wagons, 
making two trips daily each way; this is known as the " Riverside " 
dairy. Both are doing a good business. 

No railroads cross the township; no lakes of sparkling water 
dot the prairies; no creeks water the low and timbered land save 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 687 

one; this is a small branch of the river which cuts off a very small 
portion of the southeastern part of the township. But the sur- 
face throughout is beautifully diversified, and the tilled land 
responds richly and bountifully to the labor of the industrious 
husbandman. There is just timber enough in the township ade- 
quately to supply the wants of the inhabitants and make it one of 
the best townships in the county. Along its eastern line flows 

fently and ever onward the beautiful little St. Joseph river, which 
rains the St. Joseph valley and washes the shore on the eastern 
boundary of German township. 

SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES. 

As regards the first school taught in the township, there are 
some conflicting statements. Some say it was held in an old log 
house on section 27, and was taught by D wight Dennings; others 
say it was on section 21, in the house of John Martindale, who 
was the teacher in the winter of 1831. The first school-house in 
the township was a log structure, erected on section 19 by the peo- 
ple of the immediate neighborhood; this was about 1832, and 
Judge Farreii was probably the first teacher in this house. But 
the '' days of small things " in the direction of log houses in Ger- 
man township have long since passed away, and to-day they have 
five good, substantial buildings, conveniently located throughout 
the township, where the children of the citizens are afforded eight 
months' school annually. The present school trustee is W. H. H. 
Bitter, also a farmer on section 29. 

The first minsters of the township were Aaron and David Miller, 
who settled here very early and were members of the German Bap- 
tist Church. John Martindale, a Christian minister, and Robert 
Martindale, his brother, a Baptist minister, were early settlers and 
preachers of the gospel. Here in this small township, in its early 
history, these four good men preached the gospel in school-houses 
and in private houses where their hearers were wont to go and 
worship God " according to the dictates of their own conscience." 

The first church built in the township was the German Baptist, 
which is a brick building, situated on section IS, and was built in 
1851. The first pastor was Elder David Miller, who had organized 
the congregation about the year 1831. The following are a few of 
the charter members: David Miller and wife, Benjamin Hard man 
and wife, Christian Holler and wife, John Ritter and wife, Samuel 
Jones and wife, Joshua Hardman and wife and Samuel McMullen 
and wife. The present pastor is James H. Miller, who holds regu- 
lar services in the church every two weeks. At present the con- 
gregation numbers about 100. 

Baptist Church. — There was a man by the name of Zigler, a 
Methodist, who built the church about 1854. The building was 
put up by the Methodists, but there being some incumbrance up- 
on it the Baptists took it off their hands and now control it. The 

44 



688 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Baptist congregation in this township is quite small, and is only a 
part of the general congregation at South Bend. J. G. Keltner is 
now trustee of the Church. There is a Sunday-school in the church, 
of which Mrs. Caldwell and Mr. Sweet are Superintendents. Rev. 
Mr. Egbert, of South Bend, is the regular pastor and holds services 
there every two weeks. Elder Campbell was probably the first 
Baptist minister who ever held regular meetings in the church. 

Universalist Church. — An elaborate and complete history of 
the Universalist Church it is impossible to give, on account of the 
want of records; suffice it to say that it is located on section 32. 
The first pastor of the Church was Rev. Jacob Maryfield, from 
Mishawaka. The Church proper was organized about 185S. At 
present they have no regular pastor and no regular services. 

TOWNSHIP OFFICERS. 

Politically, German township is Republican. J. G. Keltner was 
appointed census enumerator for the year 1880, and the population 
of the township was 579. The present justice of the peace is Mr. 
Wallace, but he has never qualified, as the business to be transacted 
does not justify it. The present assessor of the township is William 
Dietrich, and the office of school trustee, the highest in the town- 
ship, is held by W. H. H. Ritter. 

c EMETERIES. 

Although the farming land of German township, most of which 
is included under the name of Portage Prairie, in the shape of a 
horse shoe, is most salubrious, yet the cold and icy hand of 
death, the common leveler of time, the reprover of all humanity, 
has left its trace, and three grave\ - ards, with tombstones and slabs 
of marble pointing upward to heaven, whicli mark the final resting 
place of many of the pioneer settlers, are found in the township. 
One, known as Portage Cemetery, is on section IS; in it lie buried 
the following of the early settlers of the township: Jacob Miller and J. 
D. Miller and wife. TheWitter Cemetery, on section 22, was named 
after W. Witter, already mentioned as an old settler, who donated the 
ground. The last remains of four old settlers, Samuel Witter and 
Aaron Miller, Daniel Wagner and wife, lie buried in it. Mount 
Pleasant Cemetery is located on section 32, near the Universalist 
church and near where the town bearing the same name was once 
laid out. Within its limits lie the last remains of the following 
pioneers of German township: David Miller and wife, John Smith 
and wife, John Witter and wife. The above named are only aTewT" 
many more sleep here too, but the final resting place of many is 
unmarked by man; yet somewhere they sleep, and let them sleep 
on; for disturb them, we cannot; but cherish their memory forever 
we will. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 689 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

As a very important portion of the history of the township we 
give personal sketches of the following representative citizens: 

Godfrey Bestle, a farmer on sec. 10 ; P. O., South Bend ; is the 
son of David and Elizabeth (Slagel)Bestle, and was born in Ger- 
many in 1826; coming to this country in 1852, he first settled in 
Michigan, near the Indiana State line, where he lived until 1864, 
when he came to this tp. He was married in 1855 to Dora Beyrer, 
a native of Germany, born in 1835; they have 9 children, all 
living: Mary, John, William, David, Henry, Charles, Emma, 
Adolphns and Frederick. Mr. B. and wife are members of the 
German Lutheran Church. His school advantages in Germany 
where he received his education, were good; he now reads both 
German and English. He owns in this tp. 140 acres of land and 
115 acres in Michigan. Mr. B. has been a hard-working, indus- 
trious man all his life. 

Tho?has Calvert, farmer, sec. 27; P. O., South Bend; is the 
son of Isaac and Isabella (Bird) Calvert, and was born in England 
in 1815; was brought by his parents to America when only four 
years old; his father first settled in Pennsylvania, where they 
remained till 1834, when they came to this county. He was mar- 
ried in this county to Sarah Curry, a native of Ohio. The)' have 4 
children living: Isaac, Daniel, Mary J. and Sarah E. Mr. C.'s 
educational advantages were limited. Politically, he is a Democrat. 
He owns here 183 acres of good land worth about $100 per acre. 
He had no start in life, and has succeeded remarkably well. 

Eli Chamberlain, a farmer on sec. 19, was born in Ohio in 
1832; his parents were William and Julia A. (Rush) Chamberlain; 
came to this county Aug. <>, 1848. His educational advantages in 
youth were quite limited. He is a Democrat, owns 183 acres of 
land on sec. 19, which he values at $85 per acre, and is a man who 
is faithful to the demands of industry and frugality. 

Robert G. Cissne, a very old settler and prominent man, is a 
farmer on sec. 32; P. O., South Bend; is the son of John and Jane 
(Glass) Cissne, both of whom died in La Porte county; the former 
was a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of New Jersey; he 
was born Oct. 23, 1811, and is of French descent on his father's 
side and Welsh-Irish on his mother's side. He came to this county 
with his parents in 1831, and located in this tp. Here they stopped 
two years and then movedto La Porte county, where they remained 
until 1839, when they returned to this tp. ' In 1836 Mr. C. was 
married to Anna Miller, a native of Ohio, born in 1817; they have 
had 11 children, of whom 8 are now living: Sarah J., Mary, Adelia, 
John, Joseph, Oliver, Orrilla and George. Mr. C. has held the 
office of Justice of the Peace and Constable in this tp.; he is a 
Republican. He and his estimable wife are devoted members of 
the German Baptist Church. His educational advantages were 
somewhat inferior to those of to-day, being compelled to attend 



690 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

subscription schools in log houses with paper for windows. He 
owns 160 acres of land, which he values at $85 per acre. He is an 
industrious man, trying now to take life easy; and the greatest of 
all, he has enjoyed Nature's best blessing, good health, not having 
been sick over half a day at a time since he was 16 years old. 

Win. B. Dietrich, a farmer, on sec. 2S; P. O., South Bend; 
was born in Pennsylvania in 1S38, and is of Dutch descent. His 
parents, Gideon and Boutch (Royel) Dietrich, were natives of 
Pennsylvania. He came to this State in 1867 and settled in this 
county. He was married in 1859 to Amelia Meyers, a native of 
Pennsylvania, born in. 1837, and is now the mother of 6 children, 
3 of whom are living: Edward C, Katie and Charles W. He owns 
170 acres of well-improved land, worth $80 per acre. He has held 
the office of Assessor in this tp. He and his wife are members of 
the Evangelical Church. Politically, he is a Republican. Mr. D. 
has been a laboring, industrious man all his life. 

Chas.B. Farnam is a successful farmer on sec. 31; P. 0., South 
Bend; is the son of Lyman and Ruth (Dean) Farnam, and 
was born in New York in 1836, of Welsh descent. His father died 
in 1840, and his mother is living with her son, the subject of this 
sketch. Mr. F. came to this county in 1851, with an older brother. 
In 1865 he was married to Miss Sarah Cissno. who is now 42 years 
old, a native of this tp. and the mother of 6 children; of 
these 4 are living: Anna, Mary, Fred and Lyman. Mr. B. has 
been a resident of this township about 10 years, and has held the 
office of Assessor. Politically, he is a Republican. Having been 
left upon his own resources at an early age, his education was nec- 
essarily somewhat neglected. He owns, on sec. 31, 74 acres of land, 
worth about $100 per acre. He has worked hard all his life and 
has been a careful manager, a liberal and successful farmer. 

John Gillis, a farmer on sec. 22, was born in Ohio in 1822, and 
is of Dutch-Irish descent; his parents were Arthur and Elizabeth 
Gillis, now both deceased, who were natives of Virginia. Coming 
to this county in 1S65, he settled in this tp. He was married in 
1843 to Margaret Pool, a native of O., who was born in 1820, and 
is the mother of 8 children; 7 of these are living: George A., 
Martha, Robert, Lewis, John, Manda and Ella. Mr. G. and wife 
are members of the Baptist Church. Politically, he is a Democrat. 
He owns 150 acres of land in this tp., worth about $60 per acre. 
He had no start in life, and has earned all he has by honest dili- 
gence. 

John Huston, a farmer on sec. 15; P. O., South Bend. Mr. H. 
is the son of Jacob and Catharine (Kingery) Huston, and was born 
in Indiana, Feb. 7, 1814, of Dutch-English descent; came to this 
county with his parents in 1833; was married in 1835 to Rhoda 
Johnson, a native of Ohio, who died at the age of 27 years: she was 
the mother of 10 children, of whom 6 are now living: Harriet, 
Harrison, Susanna, Caroline, Sarah and Abram. He was married 
the second time in 1863, to Harriet Johnson, a sister to his former 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 691 

wife; she is the mother of 7 children, of whom only one is now liv- 
ing, Luke. Mr. H. is a member of the Dunkard Church, and his 
wife is a Methodist. He is a Republican. His education at an 
early age was neglected. He owns 8S acres of land, all of which is 
under cultivation, except IS acres of timber. The only start in life 
which Mr. H. had when he began for himself was $50 in money 
and a yoke of cattle which his father gave him. 

Amos N. Irvin, a farmer on sec. 16; P. O., South Bend; was 
born in Ohio in 1831, the son of Amos and Minerva (Munger) 
Irvin, both of whom are now deceased. Mr. I. came to this county 
in 1855. In 1S5S he was united in marriage to Nancy Whitsle, a 
native of Indiana, born in 1841. Politically, Mr. I. is a Republi- 
can. His educational advantages were ordinary; reads a good deal 
now. He owns 84-J acres of land, on sec. 15, nearly all of which is 
under cultivation, worth about $80 per acre. 

George Keller, farmer, sec. 20; P. O. , South Bend; was born in 
Ohio, in 1841; is the son of Jacob and Rosina (Beyrer) Keller. He 
came to this county about 22 years ago; he was married in 1868 to 
Rica E. Currly, who is the mother of 4 children: Clara, Fred, Het- 
tie and Dora. He owns here 330 acres of good land, worth about 
$75 per acre. Politically, he is a Democrat; wife is a member of 
the Methodist Church. 

Jacob Keller, brother of the preceding, is a farmer ou sec. 20; 
was born in Ohio in 1S35, and came to this county in 1856. He 
was married in 1872 to Mary Snyder, a native of Pennsylvania, who 
is now the mother of 3 children: Daniel, Frank and Fiola. His 
wife is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. K. is a Dem- 
ocrat, He owns 180 acres of land, which he values at $75 per acre, 
and all of which is under cultivation except 20 acres of timber. 

J. G. Kollar, a farmer; P. O., South Bend; was born in Ohio in 
1824; is the son of Adam and Hester (Snihart) Kollar, both now 
deceased. He came to this county in 1S52. In 1851 he was mar- 
ried to Elizabeth R. Leach, who is now the mother of 7 children, all 
living: Melissa, Adam, Charles, William, Harvey, Clara and Laura. 
Mr. K. and wife are members of the Dunkard Church. He owns 
220 acres of land, which he values at $100 per acre, all of which is 
under cultivation except 10 acres of timber. 

James R. Miller, a farmer on sec. 27; P. 0. ; South Bend; is the 
son of Jacob and Sarah (Backus) Miller, and was born in this tp. in 
1834, of German descent. His father, a native of Ohio, died in 
1871 ; his mother, who is a native of Massachusetts, is now living 
in this tp. They came to this tp. in May, 1833. In 1854 James, 
the subject of this sketch, was married to Amanda E. Ritter, also a 
native of this tp., who was born in 1S37. She is the daughter of 
Jacob and Elizabeth (Miller) Ritter, and is the mother of 5 chil- 
dren, of whom 4 are living: Flora E., the wife of Jno. Beyrer, a 
resident of this tp.; Dora B., Homer J. and Byron B. Mr. Miller 
and wife are members of the Universalist Church. Politically, he is 
a Republican. His educational advantages were somewhat inferior 



692 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

to those of modern times, being limited to a few months during the 
winter. He owns here 157 acres of excellent farming land, as good 
a farm as there is in the county, which he values at $125 per acre. 
His land is well improved, having a beautiful residence which he 
built in 1S70 at a cost of $4,000, situated but a short distance from 
St. Joseph river. The latter is a most beautiful little stream, car- 
rying onward its bright, pure, sparkling water. 

Madison Miller is the son of James H. and Mary (Huston) 
Miller, both of whom are now living in this tp., and was born in 
this tp. in 1847; he has been a resident here all his life. In 186S 
he was married to Miss Addie Broadhurst, a native of Michigan, 
who is now 20 years old and the mother of one child, Edith. Mr. 
M. owns on sec. 18, 100 acres of land, all under an excellent state 
of cultivation, worth about $100 per acre. He and wife are mem- 
bers of the Christian Church. Politically, he is a Republican. His 
educational advantages were fair; he has been a hard-working, suc- 
cessful farmer all his life. 

Ehvood Peak, a gardener on sec. 34; P. O., South Bend; is the 
son of Samuel and Margaret (Cox) Peak, both of whom are now 
living in New Jersey, and was born in New York in 1820; he is of 
Scotch-English descent. He came to this county in 1S52. Married 
the first time Adaliue King, a native of New Jersey, who died in 
1865; during the same year he was married the second time to 
Sarah J. Crane, a native of Ohio, who is now 44 years old. Politi- 
cally, Mi 1 . P. is a Republican. He owns, on sec. 34, 20 acres of 
laud, worth about $100 per acre. He has been industrious all his 
life; was formerly a carpenter. He is now a gardener, raising all 
kinds of fruit and vegetables. 

George Rinehurt, a farmer on sec. 10; P. O., South Bend; is the 
son of George and Julia A. Rinehart, and was born in Ohio in 1818. 
He came to this county about 21 years ago. He was married to 
Sarah A. Ruth, who died in 1877. He owns 135 acres of good land, 
some being timber, which is worth abont $00 per acre. Mr. R. is 
a member of the Baptist Church; his wife was also a member of 
the same. Politically, he is a Democrat. His early education was 
limited, but he reads considerable now. 

John P. Ritter, farmer, sec. 31; P. O., South Bend; was born in 
this tp. in 1833, and is of German descent. He is the son of 
Michael and Rachel (Parsons) Ritter, both of whom are now living 
in Greene county, Mo.; his father is a native of Ohio, and mother 
of New Jersey. They came to this tp. in 1831. In 1861 Mr. R. 
was married to Roxana (Depew) Sweet, a native of New York, born 
in 1S34 and died April 3, 1S75; she was the mother of one child, 
Clara J. Sweet. He was married the second time in 1S77, to Mabel 
Brown, a native of Ohio, born in 1855; she is a Methodist. Politi- 
cally, Mr. It. is a Republican. His education was limited to about 
three months' winter school annually. He owns 5'.>£ acres of land 
in tin's tp., and 70 acres in Portage, worth about $100 per acre. 



/ 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 693 

W. E. H. Bitter, School Trustee, and farmer on sec. 29; P. 0., 
South Bend. Mr. Ritter was born in this tp. in 1840, and is of 
German descent; he is the seventh in a family of 14 children, of 
whom 10 are now living. Their parents are Jacob and Elizabeth 
(Miller) Ritter. They came to this tp. at a very early day. Here 
they made their home until 14 years ago, when they retired from 
farming and removed to South Bend, where his mother died shortly 
after their location there. In 1865 Mr. R. was united in marriage 
to Helen M. Suenplion, a native of Indiana, born in 1844; she is 
now the mother of 2 children : Gertrude and Bessie. Mr. R. is now 
living on his father's place, but owns 100 acres in Portage tp., which 
he values at about $60 per acre. He is a Republican, a member of 
the Odd Fellows lodge, and he and wife are members of the Uni- 
versalist Church. In 1862 he enlisted in the army at South Bend, 
under the command of W. W. Andrews, of La Porte. He enlisted 
as a volunteer in the 21st Battery of Indiana, and was in the service 
until 1S65, when he was discharged. He engaged in the battles of 
Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Nashville and several others. 

W. S. Robertson, son of James W. and Mary A. Cord, was born 
in this county in 1850, and is of Scotch descent. His father, who 
is now living in South Bend, is a native of Ohio; his mother, who 
died in 1858, was a native of Indiana. In 1876 Mr. R. was united 
in marriage to Josephine Sweet, a native of New York, and is now 
25 years old. He owns 100 acres of good land, worth about $100 
per acre. 

Henry Smith, a farmer on sec. 16; P. O., South Bend; was born 
in this tp. Sept. 15, 1S29, and is said to be the first white child 
born in the county. He is a son of John and Nancy (Miller) 
Smith, both of whom are now deceased; they were natives of Penn- 
sylvania and were of Dutch descent. Mr. S. was married in 1855 to 
Mary J. Roof, a native of Pennsylvania, who died in 1877 leaving 5 
living children to mourn her loss; Alice and Awilda (twins), Clara, 
James W. and Anna. His wife was a devoted member of the Bap- 
tist Church, and all her children are also members of the same. 
Politically, Mr. S. is a Republican. His early educational advan- 
tages were quite limited. He owns 120 acres of good land on sec. 
16, which he values at about $80 per acre. He had no start in life, 
but has earned all he now possesses by hard work and careful and 
industrious management. Since lie was 20 years of age, he has 
crossed the Western plains five times. 

'Jonathan Smith was born in Ohio in 1817, and is of Dutch 
descent; he is the 6th in a family of 14 children, whose parents 
were John and Nancy (Miller) Smith. Mr. S. came with his 
lather's family to this county in 1833; his father had come the 
year previous and put in a crop. He was married in 1S38 to Susan 
J. Runion, a native of Virginia, who is now 61 years old and the 
mother of 9 children; 6 of these are living: David, Mary, Henry, 
William, Harriet and Jane. He and his wife are members of the 
Dunkard Church, and Mr. S. is a Democrat. He owns 410 acres 



694 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

of land, worth about $90 per acre; lie also owns 46 acres in Portage 
tp., worth about $100 per acre. 

Oliver H. Smith, son of Abraru and Mary A. (Hoover) Smith, 
now living in this tp., was born here in 1853, and is of Dutch 
descent. In 1871 he was married to Mary M. "Williams, a native 
of Michigan, who is now 27 years old and the mother of 2 children: 
Frank and Bird. Mr. S. is a Republican. His education when 
young was limited. He is a hard-working, industrious man. 

John ]? . Ulery, an old settler, a prominent and successful farmer 
on sec. 30; P. O., South Bend; was born in Germany in 1820. His 
parents, Adam and Mary M. (Wittig) Ulery, now both dead, were 
natives of Prussia. Mr. U. came to this country when quite young; 
his parents first settled in Pennsylvania, and after a few years 
moved into Ohio, where they died. He came to this county in 
1851, and settled in this tp. In 1S40 he was married to Mary D. 
Stinchcomb, a native of Ohio, who is now 58 years old and the 
mother of 12 children, and 10 of these are living: John O, George 
A., David T., William H, Joseph F., Schuyler C, Horace G., 
Mary, wife of Abram Miller, of Michigan; Martha, wife of J. A. 
Cissne, a farmer of this tp.; Laura, wife of John Dunn, Superin- 
tendent of County Poor Farm. Mr. U. has been Tp. Trustee. He 
and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. His education 
when young was limited, but he has acquired a great deal since by 
reading and general observation. He has been an industrious man 
all his life, and a careful manager; he now owns 505 acres of excel- 
lent land, worth about $75 per acre. He had no start in life; at 
the time of his marriage, after paying his expenses he had only 
$1.50. Politically, he is a prominent Greenbacker, and was one of 
the first in the county. He takes an active part in politics and 
manifests an interest in the Government. 

John Wertz was born in Ohio in 1831; his parents are George 
and Catharine (Raff) "Wertz. He came to this county in 1853 and 
settled in Centre tp. ; he came to this tp. in 1872. In 1855 he was 
married to Belinda Kollar, a native of Ohio; she is the mother of 
6 children, 5 boys and one girl. Politically, Mr. W. is a Republi- 
can; his wife is a member of the Baptist Church. His educational 
advantages were limited. He owns SO acres of good land, worth 
about $05 per acre. He is an industrious man, upright and honest. 

Jacob If. Whitmer, a farmer on sec. 1 ; P. 0., So uth Bend ; is 
the son of Abram and Catharine (Bowman) Whitmer; was born 
Oct. 20, 182S, and is of German descent. His father, who was a 
native of Pennsylvania, died in 1873; his mother, who is a native of 
Ohio, is now living in this county. Mr. W. was brought to this 
county by his parents when only three years old; they first settled 
near South Bend, and came to this tp. about 22 years ago. He was 
married in 1857 to Miss Nancy Miller, a native of Indiana. They 
have had 4 children, of whom 2 are now living: Elmer J. and 
Martha E. Mr. W. and wife are earnest members of the German 
Baptist Church. His early education was somewhat limited, on 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



695 



account of being compelled to attend subscription schools in log 
houses. Mr. W. owns 193^ acres of well improved, excellent farm- 
ing land, nearly all of which is'under cultivation; he values it at 
$125 per acre; he has worked hard all his life, having had very lit- 
tle start when he began life for himself. He and his excellent wife 
are highly respected citizens of their community, who live a life 
consistent with their Christian profession. 




GREENE TOWNSHIP. 

This township consists of various kinds of soil, the marsh, prairie, 
barrens, and the thick woodland soil. The eastern part is some- 
what broken and hilly. The soil here is a sand and clay mixed, 
and is very productive for any of the cereals. In the southern part 
the surface is about the same as in the eastern. As the Kankakee 
river forms the western and northern boundaries of the tp., that 
part of it for about two miles of the margin is known as marsh 
land. It consists of a black loam or peat, which has been formed 
by the decaying of the rich and luxuriant vegetation of the marsh 
for ages in the past. The land, it is said, is becoming more dry and 
solid every year, and there is no doubt that in the future this almost 
worthless tract of land will become one of the richest in the county. 
At present it is worth nothing, but for the pasture, hay and huckle- 
berries which it produces. South of this and in the central part of 
the township is Sumption's Prairie. This is a beautiful rolling prai- 
rie, several miles in extent, and around it is the land which is 
known as the barrens. The soil here appears to be a black sand, 
mixed with gravel. In this part of the township is located some 
of the best farms in the county, or, we might say without boasting, 
in the State. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

The first settler in this township was George Sumption, after 
whom the prairie took its name. He lived here for many years. 
The family have all left now, but some are still living in the county. 
Mr. Sumption came here in April, 1830, and settled on section 32. 
The second to come into the township was John Rupel, who came 
from Pennsylvania to Elkhart count\- in 1830, and while living 
there he bought his present farm in sections 30 and 31 of this town- 
ship, at the land office, then located in Fort Wayne, paying $1.25 
per acre. In March, 1831, Mr. Rupel brought his family and all 
his property to this point. There was no honse on the place, but 
he soon procured some clapboards and constructed what he called a 
little shanty. Rude as it may have been, it served as a shelter 
from the spring storms, and made a home for him and his family. 
His property consisted of two yoke of oxen, four cows, some young 
cattle, one horse, a few hogs, a few chickens, two dogs and about $2 
in money. This, together with a large and strong body, plenty of 
muscle, a firm and resolute will to conquer and put aside all obsta- 
cles, which he had acquired in the mountain air of Pennsylvania, 
was the capital he had. A week or two after he came, it began 
to snow, and continued for a week. The snow lay a week and was 

(G96) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 697 

about sixteen inches deep. The only food he had for his stock at 
this time was the timber that he cut for them to browse upon. At 
night the numerous wolves would venture up to the door. His 
two dogs would chase them off a little waj', when they in turn would 
turn and chase the dogs. Thus many a night would be spent and 
nothing to be heard but the bowlings of the wolves and the barking 
of the dogs. 

The same year that Mr. Rupel came (1831), John Birt settled on 
section 31, William Antrim on section 14, Abraham Whitmer on 
section 36, George Holway on section 1, and Stacy Garwood on 
section 7. 

In 1832 came Jacob Rupe, the father of Henry, Samuel, Martin, 
Daniel and Jacob, and settled on section 7, Jonathan Wharton and 
Mr. Barton on section 8, and George Baker on section 5. In 1S33, 
Mr. E. Hammond settled on section 6, John McCullough on section 
6, George Fender on section 6, Samuel Pearson on section 8, and 
David Barrett on section 31. From this time on settlers came in 
fast. The country soon began to change for the better as the farms 
were improved. 

OHUECHES. 

We often judge of the character of the people of a city or coun- 
try by its churches, schools and other public institutions. If we 
are allowed this rule to judge the people of Greene township, we can 
but speak highly of their moral and social character. In talking 
with the people we discover in every family an inherent love for 
their church and schools; and but little wonder when we think that 
it was almost the first thought that came to the minds of their 
fathers, when they first began the settlement of the township, after 
they had erected their log shanty and put a crop into the ground 
for their future subsistence. The first Church organization was 
effected in 1S32, by the Episcopal Methodists, under the superin- 
tendence of Rev. N. B. Griffith, of the Indiana conference. There 
were 15 members of this first class, of whom Geo. Baker was 
appointed class leader; he served until 1838, and from that time to 
1879 — over 40 years ! — John Rudduck served as class-leader. The 
society held their meetings in a log school-house and in cabins until 
1841, when a church building was dedicated by the presiding elder 
of South Bend district. That building served until 15 years ago, 
when the present one was erected. Very few are now living who 
remember the labors of Revs. James Armstrong, R. T. Robinson, 
G. M. Beswick, Richard Ilargrave, Warren Griffith and several 
others. For the last 30 years the preachers have been : Elias Cook, 
1852-'3; Mr. Moore and E. Cook, 1853-'4; J. S. Donelson, 1854-'6; 
Hiram Ball, 1856-'7; Thomas Hackney, 1857-'8; Albion Fellows, 
1858-'9; P. H. Bradley, 1859- '60; John Mahon, 1860-'l; George 
Gnion, 1861-'2; A. Byers, 1862-'3; A. Hayes, 1863-'4; Jesse Hill 
1864-'.j; J. H. Clypool, 1865-'7; JohnE. Newhouse, 1867-'9; E 



698 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

W. Lowhouse, 1867-'71; J. J. Hines, 1871-'3; J. Robertson and E. 
Cook. 1873-'4;B. H. Bradberry, 1874-'5; Reuben Saunders, 1S75- 
'8; Francis Cox, 1878-'9; and O. H. Beebe, 1879-'81. 

In 1865 the society felt the need of a new church building. By 
the urgent solicitation of their presiding elder, S. G. Cooper, a sub- 
scription was taken up to the amount of $2,500, and they decided 
to build a church 36 by 55 feet, with a basement, the upper story 
for an audience room. The basement is in three departments, one 
for the Sabbath-school, one for a class room and the third for the 
minister's study. The church when finished cost about $4,000. 
Mr. Holway had the general superintendency of the building, and 
the paying out of all money. The society at present is in a flour- 
ishing condition. 

The second religious organization was effected by the Presbyte- 
rians in 1836, Rev. Alfred Bryant, of South Bend, being the minis- 
ter. They had seven members, viz.: John McCullough, his wife 
and three daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Hammond. They met in an 
old school-house on the site now occupied by their church, on the 
farm of Mr. McCullough. Soon after they organized, Nathan 
Green and Mr. Hammond were made elders. Their church was 
built in 1S38 or '39. Mr. Bryant, the minister, did a great deal of 
the carpenter work himself. He would walk out from the Bend 
where he lived, and work on the building for a week at a time. 
The highest membership the church has ever attained has been 
about 65. It now has but about 12. Among the ministers who 
have officiated here were Revs. Tombley and Reeves. Mr. Brown 
was here when the war broke out, and left for a chaplaincy in the 
army. 

The Baptist Church was first organized on the prairie in a school- 
house about a mile from where their church now stands, on the 22d 
day of Februar3', 1846, under Elders Samuel Miller and Reter 
Hummer, with 10 members. They were Peter and Sarah Hummer, 
Obadiah and Susan Reeves, William and Sarah White, William and 
Elizabeth Ogle, Mary Hildreth and Rhoda Crannise. Their elders 
have been Hummer, McDonald, Hasting, Hitchcock, Miller and 
Craft. Mr. Vaughn was ordained here in November, 1865. March 
4, 1873, H. J. Finch was ordained minister of the Sumption's Prai- 
rie Church, J. P. Ash acting as moderator. April 24, 1852, three 
trustees were appointed to hold a meeting relative to building a 
church. They were P. Hummer, S. Huggard and C. Curtis. The 
church was completed in 1855. The society at one time numbered 
60 members. It now has about 17. 

On section 19, the Dunkards or the German Baptists built a 
church at an early day, which is generally known as the Oak Grove 
church. Mr. Whitmer was one of the first ministers. 

The next Church organization in the township was the Adventist, 
under the Rev. James Ferris, about the year 1868. They built 
their church about the same time. It is a beautiful brick structure, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 699 

costing about $1,800. The society at that time consisted of about 
30. It is now in quite a flourishing condition. 

The next church built in the township was the Maple Grove 
Church. The society here was first organized a mile or two north 
and west of where the church stands atf the Hummer school-house. 
After a course of years it grew small and the society was removed 
to Olive Branch, in Union township. In the spring of 1878 they 
built their church. It cost about $1,200, and for neatness, taste 
and design is excelled by none. The society is in a flourishing con- 
dition, and sustains a splendid Sunday-school. The same minister 
officiates at this society as at the M. E. Church on Sumption's 
Prairie. 

The Evangelical Church has a society also in the township, mak- 
ing^ in all seven societies and six church buildings. 

These hardy pioneers, although in a new country and compelled 
to toil from morning till night for a subsistence, never thought of 
giving up their educational privileges. As early as 1832 or 1S33, 
we find them joining together and erecting a school-house on the 
prai"ie, near where the Advent church now stands. These settlers 
met. bringing with them their axes and other implements needed 
for such work which they possessed, and with an ardor that meant 
business went to work building a house for school purposes. We 
can but look with admiration on the zeal which they displayed in 
this way when we consider that there was as yet no saw-mills in 
the country. Mr. Rupel says that those of them that had a spare 
board took it along. Thus we can easily imagine where the lum- 
ber came from to build the first school-house in Greene township. 
The floor was what is known as a puncheon floor, and the roof was 
of clapboards. About the time that this structure was done, the 
grass on the prairie being dry, as it was in the fall of the year, 
caught fire; as there were many chips and shavings lying around 
and under the building they also caught, and the new structure 
was soon in ashes. 

But these men had met with too many misfortunes in a new 
country to be daunted at this. We soon see them erecting another 
at the crossing of the roads on the site nowoccupied by the Presby- 
terian church. Here were held the first schools in the township. 
At this time there was no public money for a school fund. After 
they had built their school-house they had nothing but a subscrip- 
tion school for many years. Soon after this another building was 
erected in sec. 11, near where Mr. Knott resides. There are still 
many persons living in the township who well remember the 
wooden benches, puncheon floor, the creaking door with its wooden 
hinges, and string latch, and the board supported by pins that 
extended along the wall around the room. When they had a couple 
of books, a goose quill and a few sheets of paper, they thought that 
they were well equipped for school. Mrs. Hammond speaks of an old 
log house near where her son Seth's barn now stands, which was 



700 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

used for a school-house for a number of years after they came to the 
country. 

Among the pioneer teachers of the township were W. J. Hol- 
way, Matthias Rohn, Miss Green and Mr. Dwindle. At present, 
instead of log buildings we find beautiful brick structures, with all 
the modern improvements, while the teachers are among the best 
in the State. 

The first saw-mill in the township was on Potato creek, built by 
John Green, Jr. The' first birth was Andrew Bird, June 24, 1S32. 
The first death was that of Isaac Rudduck, Jan. 13, 1833. He was 
the first buried in Sumption's Prairie grave-yard. The first couples 
married were John Rudduck and Elizabeth Rupe, and Abijah 
Sumption and Rachel Rupe. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Personal mention of the leading and representative citizens of 
the township, of those who made and are making its history, we 
regard as a most important feature of local history and therefore 
give the following sketches. 

M. A. Aldrieh was born July 9, 1834, in Sandusky county, 
Ohio. His parents were David and Elizabeth (Bixler) Aldrieh, the 
former of New York and the latter of Lancaster county, Pennsyl- 
vania. They moved from New York about 1825, to Sandusky 
county, Ohio, and in 1854 they came from that place to this county, 
settling in Penn tp. The subject of this sketch was married Aug. 
1, 1858, to Mary Antrim, daughter of William and Sarah Antrim, 
of this county. They have 4 children: Henry. Matthew, William 
and Mary. Mrs. Aldrieh died in May, 1874. Mr. A. was again 
married in July, 1875, to Mary E. Garwood, daughter of Jonathan 
and Martha Garwood, who were among the first settlers in this 
county. Mrs. Garwood is still living. Her father was among the 
first settlers of Indiana. Mr. Aldrieh is a member of the Baptist 
Church, has a farm well cultivated; P. O. South Bend. 

William Bassett, sec. 9, is the son of Thoma,s and Nanc3 r (Hicks) 
Bassett, of Lorain county, Ohio, formerly of New York, but natives 
of Massachusetts. Mr. Bassett's grandmother on his father's side 
was a descendant of Miles Standish, about the fourth generation 
from the old Captain. Mr. B. was born in Genesee county, N. Y., 
May 16, 1828; removed with his parents to Lorain county, Ohio, 
in 1835. He came to this county when 19 years of age, and has 
made it his home ever since. He was married in the spring of 
1849, to Amie Ann Auten, daughter of William and Sarah (Whar- 
ton) Auten, of this county, who came here in 1S35. They have 9 
children: Charles IL, Cordelia, Mary (dec), Arminda, Martha, 
William, Miles S. and Willis Edward. Mr. and Mrs. Bassett are 
worthy members of the M. E. Church at Maple Grove; P. O., 
South Bend. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 701 

L. E. Coder, farmer, sec. 15; P. 0., Sumption Prairie; was 
born in Ashland county, Ohio, June 5, 1839. His parents, Peter 
and Catharine Coder, were natives of Westmoreland county, Penn- 
sylvania. They came to Elkhart county, Indiana, in 1854. His 
father died in Marshall county in 1866, and his mother is now liv- 
ing in Hanover, county, Ohio. Mr. C. came to this tp. from Elk- 
hart county in 1859; married Oct. 22, 1866, Martha A. Eizer, 
daughter of William and Sarah Antrim, of this county, but natives 
of Ohio. They have 5 children: Ernest, Cora O, John, Asa and 
Sylvester. [Mr. Coder was Corporal in our late civil war, in a Co. B, 
9th Mich. He has a farm of 130 acres. 

A. J. Crocker, son of Ezra and Julia Crocker, the former a native 
of Virginia and the latter of Massachusetts, was born in Summit 
county, Ohio, Dec. 4, 1S32. He came to St. Joseph county and 
settled in Penn tp. in 1813; in 1860 he removed to Union tp., and 
in 1873 came to the farm on which he now resides; was married in 
1860 to Miss Christina Slick, of Starke Co., Ohio. Her parents, 
Samuel and Mary Slick, are now living in South Bend. They 
have 3 children: Ernest, aged 19; Grace, aged 17; and Charles, 
aged 9. Mrs. Crocker is a member of the M. E. Church. Mr. C. 
is a farmei , owning 102^ acres; P. O., South Bend. 

Joseph E. Davis was born in Montgomery county, Pa., in 1811. 
His parents were Mordecai and Eleanor (Brodson) Davis, natives 
of the same county. Mr. Davis left the paternal roof when 16 
years of age, going to Roxbury, now a part of Philadelphia, to 
learn the blacksmith trade. He served five years' apprenticeship, 
worked at journeyman work one year, and ran a shop of his own for 
the next 2 years. He was married April 7, 1835, in Germantown, 
to Mary Hogland, who was born Nov. 9, 1814. She is the daugh- 
ter of Elias and Elizabeth (Evermore) Hogland, natives of Philadel- 
phia county, Pa. Mrs. Davis' family met in Philadelphia in 1S7i>. 
She had five uncles and aunts assembled, the youngest of whom 
was 71, and the eldest (her mother) 83 years. They are all living 
yet, except one. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have 5 children: Elizabeth, 
born in 1S36; Martha J., born in 1839; Sarah, born Dec. 8, 1841; 
Lucinda, born Aug. 20, 1S44; George, born May 25, 184S. They 
arrived in this county in June, 1835, coming all the way from 
Pennsylvania in a one-horse wagon. He setup a shop on his farm 
on the site now occupied by the school-house; has been working at 
his trade and farming ever since. Is a member of the M. E. 
Church. P. O., South Bend. 

Elisha D, fair, son of Jacob and Eve Fair, natives of Somerset 
county, Pa., was born in December, 1827; came to Holmes county, 
Ohio, in the fall of 1837, from there to this county in fall of 1858, 
and to his present farm on sec. 17 in spring of 1863. He was mar- 
ried in March, 1851, to Susan Barnett, daughter of Jacob and 
Elizabeth Barnett, also of Somerset county, Pa., but later of Ohio. 
She was born Aug. 24, 1831. This couple have 8 children: Har- 
vey, Elizabeth, Leander, Alvilda A., Thomas M., John B., Eosa A. 



702 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and Cora M. Mr. Fair has been a carpenter, teacher and farmer; 
now has 320 acres of well-improved land. P. O., North Liberty. 

Clarissa Garwood was born May 1, 1821; she is the daughter of 
William and Sarah Throckmorton, of this tp. In 1840 she 
was married to Stacy Garwood, who was born in Ohio in 1816. 
His parents were Stacy and Joicy ^Wharton) Garwood, natives of 
New Jersey, who came to this tp. in 1831, and settled on sec. 7, 
the farm which Mrs. Garwood still owns. They have 7 children, 6 
living: Matthew, born in 1843; Mary J., born in 18-45; Sarah, born 
in 1850 and died May, 1880; Margaret M., born in 1852; Lydia 
Ann, born in 1854; Ezekiel, born in 1857, and Stacy M., born in 
1859. Mr. G. was a farmer. lie and all of his family are mem- 
bers of the M. E. Church. He had been a member for over 30 
years, at the time of his death, which occurred in May, 1877. 

Mathew B. Hammond was born March 8, 1791; his parents 
were James and Mary (Brown) Hammond. He was married Jan. 
7, 1823, to Susan McCormac, of Lycoming county, Pa., daughter 
of Seth and Margaret (Simons) McCormac, formerly of Lancaster 
county, Pa. Their children are as follows: William, born Feb. 25, 
1S24; Sarah M., Dec. 6, 1S26; Margaret A., March 28, 1828, died 
Jan. 11,1834; Angeline, Jan. 6, 1830, died, Feb. 11, 1840; Sam- 
uel M., Jan. 9, 1832, died, Aug. 16, 1852; Eliza E., Feb. 26, 1834; 
Seth, Jan. 5, 1836; Cynthia A., Jan. 25, 183S,died in October, 1839; 
and Caroline, Oct. 20, 1833. Mr. Hammond came to this county in 
October, 1833, stopping in the Bend that winter, and came on their 
farm in this tp. the, following spring, where he died Oct. 16, 1S67. 
Mrs. Hammond and two of her daughters still live on the old farm. 
She and her husband united with the Presbyterian Church while 
young, and sheas well as the children are still strong pillars in the 
Church. Mrs. H. has seen much of the hardships of pioneer life; 
has seen her country change from a howling wilderness to a beauti- 
ful and fertile land that calls forth the praise and admiration from 
all that behold it. 

William Hoke was born in Richland county, Ohio, July 19, 
1833. His parents, Emanuel and Magdelina Hoke, were from 
Pennsylvania, and of Dutch descent. They left Ohio about 1840, 
going near Union City in the southern part of this State. He was 
married to Margaret Guard, daughter of Samuel and Priscilla 
Guard, of this county, May 12, 1856. She was born December, 
1835. They have 2 children: J. I., born July 4, 1857: and Ida P., 
born Dec. 7, 1861. J. I. Hoke was married to Nellie Rush, of this 
tp., in April, 1877. They are now living in South Bend. Mr. 
Hoke is engaged in farming. He followed lumbering for a num- 
ber of years while young. Mr. Hoke and family are all worthy 
members of the M. E. Church. Ida received her education in Val- 
paraiso Normal, and Fort Wayne Musical Conservatory. John I. 
was educated in North Liberty and South Bend. Mr. H. has a 
farm of 160 acres, well improved, in sec. 1; P. O., South Bend. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 705 

T. L. Holloway was born in February, 1S1C, in Clarke county, 
Ohio. His parents, William and Phebe (Crispin) Holloway, the 
former a native of Virginia, and the latter of New Jersey, came 
about 1790 to Ross county, Ohio. In 1816 they removed to Clarke 
county, in that State, where they died, his mother in October, 1839, 
and his father in April, 1S40. Mr. Holloway came to this county, 
and in 18i2 married Miss Ducilla McCullough, daughter of John 
and Eleanor McCullough, residents of this tp. They removed to 
Clarke county, Ohio, but returned in 1845 and settled on the farm 
which Mr. Holloway still occupies. They had 5 children, 4 of 
whom are yet living: Edward B., born in August, 1843; John H., 
March, 1845; Alice, September, 184S; Helen, September, 1851. 
Mrs. Holloway died in March, 1856. Edward is now a dentist in 
Sturgis, Mich.; John H. is in Buchanan, Mich., dealing in live- 
stock; Alice married Wm. Reese, who is farming near Vermillion, 
111.; Helen married Willis Warner who has a grocery in South 
Bend. Mr. Holloway was again married in June, 185S, to Ann 
(Heaton) Rush, and they have 2 children: Kittie, born March, 
1861, and Lizzie, February, 1864. Edward served three years in 
the 21st Ind. Battery, and took part in battle of Lookout Moun- 
tain. Mr. H. united with the M. E. Church when 18 years of age, 
and has been a member ever since. Business, farming; P. 0., 
South Bend . 

Peter J. Howell, farmer, sec. 8; P. O., South Bend. Among the 
industrious and intelligent farmers of this county, we find Mr. 
Howell. He was born in Ohio in 1851, removed with his parents, 
Peter and Rebecca Howell, to this tp. in 1855; was married 
in the spring of 1873 to Helen Woofter, daughter of James Woof- 
ter, late of this tp., and they have 2 children : James Peter, aged 
three years, and George L)., aged four months. Mr. Howell is a 
Catholic. 

William Hummer, son of Washington and Mary Hummer, for- 
merly of this township, but now living in Walkerton, was born 
in March, 1S43. He was married in April, 1869, to Miss A. 
Rupe, daughter of Samuel Rupe of this tp. They have 2 
children: Arthur, born Jan. 10, 1870, and Delbert, born Feb. 15, 
1873. Mr. H. is a farmer, and received his education in the com- 
mon schools of the tp.; is a member of the Methodist Church 
at Maple Grove. Has 80 acres of land in sec. 17; P. O., South 
Bend. 

Asa Knott was brought by his father to this section when he 
was but four years old, and he has seen the country change from 
a wilderness populated with wolves, panthers and Indians, to the 
blooming country that delights the traveler's eyes to-day as he 
rides over it. Mr. Knott was born in Greene county, Ohio, May 
27, 1834; his father came to Marshall county in 1838, and to this 
tp. in 1839. He followed lumbering in Marshall county. 
Mr. Knott removed his family back in 1842 or '43, but staid for 
a few years only, when he again removed to the old farm, on which 

45 



706 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. Knott still resides. Jan. 7, 1868, be was married to Caroline 
E. Dooffield, daughter of John and Sarah Dooffield, of South Bend, 
who was born in 1841. They have 4 children: Willie, bora 
Aug. 25, 1870; Charlie. Jan. 16, 1SG9; Asa Guy, July 13, 1873; 
and Nellie, Nov. 10, 1878. Air. Knott is engaged extensively in 
farming and stock-raising; has 890 acres of land, 700 of which is 
under good cultivation. He resides on sec. 10. He was First 
Lieutenant in Co. B, 48th Indiana, in our late war. At present is 
one of the five directors and the treasurer of the Farmers' Mutual 
Insurance Company of St. Joseph county. Is a Granger and Repub- 
lican. P. O., South Bend. 

John H. Mad', son of the late John Mack, of South Bend, came 
to La Porte in April, 1844. The next winter he engaged in teach- 
ing school. For a number of years he taught during the winter, and 
worked at his trade in the summer. In the fall of 1855 he bought 
an interest in a saw-mill in Green tp., and has been engaged in 
lumbering till about seven years ago, when he went to farming: has 
160 acres in sec. 4. The record ot their family is given here. John 
Mack, Sr., was born April 2, 1762, and died March 6, 1818; Silence 
Enos, born Oct. 14, 1771, died Oct. 30, 1799; Elizabeth, born June 
4, 1790, died April 25, 1873: married Richard Smith; Mary Polly, 
born Nov. 3, 1792; she married Samuel G. Barr, who died Jan. 24, 
ls7(i, aged 84; she died April 6, 1835; John Ma?k, Jr., born Nov. 
15, 1794, died April S, 187S; James E., born Dec. 6, 1797, died 
March 20, 1832; Experience Joyner, second wife of John Mack, 
Sr.. was born in August, 177">, and died in 1S57. Their children 
are: Pauline E., born Feb. 6, 1801, married Mr. Hall, and died May 
4,1861; Charlotte, born May 11, 1803, married Mr. Gillett, and 
died Dec. 29, 1873; William J., born Sept. 30, 1805, and resides in 
Buffalo; Hiram, born May 19, 1808, left Buffalo May 16, 1S34, 
starting for St. Louis, and was never heard of afterward; James 
Huggins, second husband of Experience Joyner, was born July 4, 
1766, and died Oct. 31, 1842; Joseph Hanford, father of Clarissa 
W. Hanford, was born in 1739, and died May 2, 1826; Clarissa W. 
Hanford was born Feb. S, 1793, and died Sept. 6, 1841; John H. 
was born Oct. 26, 1820; an infant was born Aug. 17, 1822, which 
died the next day; Helen, born April 10, 1824; Elizabeth M., 
born Oct. 26, 1825, and died July 30, 1826; Walter B., born May 
6, 1827, residence Cedar Rapids, Iowa; William, born Oct. 9, 1828, 
and resides in this county; Achsah M. Leland, second wife of John 
Mack, Jr., born Feb. 22, 1805, and died April 6, 1S75; a female 
infant was born March 6, 1846, which died the same day; James 
L., born June 2S, 1849. 

John Mack, Sr., married Silence Enos Sept. 16, 17S8; and for 
his second wife, Experience Joyner, Nov. 2, 1799. Children of 
John Mack, Sr.: Elizabeth, married Richard Smith Jan. 18, 1808; 
John Mack, Jr., married Clarissa W. Hanford March 7, 1819, and 
for his second wife, Achsah M. Leland, March 27, 1842; Pauline E. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 707 

Mack, married Asa Hall, Dec. 26, 1820; Mary Polly, married Sam- 
uel T. Barr Feb. 19, 1821; James E., married Marcia White Jan. 
14,1822; Charlotte, married Reynolds Gillett Dec. 2, 1827; Wil- 
liam J., married Ann Holbrook Nov. 28, 1833. Experience Mack, 
former wife of J. Mack, Sr., married James Higgins Dec. 11, 1825; 
Samuel T. Barr, former husband of Mary Mack, married Marcia 
Mack, former wife of James E. Mack. 

Children of John Mack, Jr.: William, married Lauretta Thurber 
Feb. 4, 1852; Walter B., married Rebecca Southerland June 28, 
1853; John H. Mack, married Sarah S. Wharton Feb. 7, 1866; 
James L. Mack, married Ella Funk March 30, 1871. 

Family of John H. Mack: Sarah L. Wharton Mack was born in 
1845, and their children are: John W., born Feb. 9, 1867; Franklin 
H., born Aug. 14, 1870; Walter J., born March 1, 1875; Reuben 
S., born July 20, 1877: and Clarissa W., born Oct. 30, 1879. 

John B. Mojfitt was born in Stark county, Ohio, May, 1840. 
His parents were Patrick and Susan (Galliger) Moffitt, the former 
a native of Sligo, Ireland, and the latter of Pennsylvania; his par- 
ents came to Ohio in 1812; his father died in Stark county, O., in 
1863; he came to this tp. in 1865, and settled on this farm in the 
fall of 1874; attended the high school at Louisville, O., and after- 
ward took a select course at the Francisca College at Luretta, Pa.; 
he is a member of the Catholic Church at South Bend, and follows 
farming and teaching; residence, sec. 12; P. O., South Bend. 

Peter Oberly, son of Peter and Juliet (Sofer) Oberly, of .New 
Cliatel, Switzerland, was born March 17, 1831. V\\ 1838 he came 
to Pennsylvania, and in the year 1839, to Canton, Ohio, where he 
married Catharine Walder, who was born in 1832, daughter of 
George Walder, of Wurtemburg, Germany. They have 3 children, 
Peter, born Nov. 17, 1855, married Mary Stein; Louisa B., born 
March 12, 1857, married John U. Hummer, and lives in Walker- 
ton; and Annie B., born Nov. 5, 1859, married James Skiles. Mr. 
Oberly came to this county in November, 1854, and settled in 
South Bend, and lived there till he came to his farm in Green tp. 
When the war broke out in 1861 he was among the first to go, and 
remained until it closed in 1865; was in 48th Reg., Co. H; he 
took part in a great many battles, among which are Corinth, Black 
River, Champion Hill, the siege at Vicksburg and Huntsville, 
Alabama, was with Sherman on his march to the sea; from there 
he went to Washington, and from there to Louisville, Ky. He is 
now cultivating his farm of 42 acres in this tp. He received his 
education in Switzerland, but afterward attended the English schools 
in Canton, Ohio. P. O., South Bend. 

W. I. Oliver, son of George and Bessie (Irvin) Oliver, was born 
in Roxboroughshire, Scotland, June 1, 1821; in the fall of 1834 he 
came to Genoa, N. Y., landing at Mishawaka in the fall of 1836; 
this has been his home until a few years since, when he moved on 
the farm on which he now lives. His father died in 1837, at the 
age of 74 or 75 years, and his mother died in Lagrange county, 



70S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

this State, at the age of 85, in June, 1867. Mr. Oliver was mar- 
ried in October, 184:2, to Lucinda D. Ford, daughter of John and 
Lois (Hammond) Ford, natives of New York, and they have 5 chil- 
dren, namely: Jennie, born in September, 1S44, now living in 
Mishawaka; Henry 13., now in Kansas, was born in 1847; Bessie, 
born in 1857; Ha'ttie, born in 1864, and Mollie in 1867. Mr. 
Oliver is a blacksmith by trade and swung his sledge hammer for 
many years in his shop at Mishawaka; he is now tilling one of the 
beautiful farms of Sumption's Prairie, on sec. 32. He received his 
education in Scotland. P. O., South Bend. 

Mahlon Pearson was born Aug. 16, 1 82S, and came to this tp.when 
but five years old, with his parents, Samuel and Mary (Wharton) 
Pearson, the former a native of North Carolina, and the latter of 
Virginia; the}' settled on the farm now owned by C. Schang in 
1833. Mahlon was married in 1849 to Sitha Jenkins, who was born 
in North Carolina; their children are as follows: Charles, now in 
the regular army; Lucetta, married to Mr. Hay and living in Frank- 
lin county, Neb. ; Ida, married Frank Hagerman, and living in 
Michigan. Mrs. Pearson died in 1867, and in 1S69 he married 
Betsey A. (Inman) Hummer, who by her former marriage had 4 
children: Lawrence, Louise E., Ada and Henrietta. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pearson have 2 children, William and Cora. Mrs. 
P. was born in this tp. Nov., 1836. Mr. P. was in the 12th Mich. 
Inf., Co. I, in our late war; is a member of the M. E. Church; 
was educated in the common school; is a carpenter and farmer, sec. 
]6. P. O., South Bend. 

John Phillips was born in Floyd county, Va., in 1S32; came to 
this county with his parents, William and Jane Phillips, in 1834; 
moved on his farm in this tp. in January, 1855. In December, 1854, 
he married Mary Shibily, daughter of John and Margaret Shibily, 
of Union tp., who was born Aug. 4, 1836; their children are: Francis 
A., born Oct. 7, 1855; John W., June 17, 1859; Theodore A., Dec. 
21, 1861; Mary V., July 1, 1864; Daniel M., June 1, 1867. Mr. 
Phillips is a farmer and mason; owns 80 acres in sec. 16. P. O., 
South Bend. 

Daniel Rupe, son of Jacob and Susanna (Long) Bupe, natives 
of North Carolina, was born in December, 1816, in Wayne county, 
Indiana; he came with his parents to Wayne county, Indiana, and 
from there to Pleasant Plain, in Elkhart county, in 1829; came 
to this tp. in the spring of 1831, and settled in sec. 1. His mother 
died in 1854, and the father in 1868. Mr. Rupe was married in 
December, 1840, to Martha Stull, who was born in Jennings county, 
Indiana, in 1820, and they have 5 children: William, Henry, Mar- 
garet, Melissa and George. Margaret married James Cook; Melissa 
married Linus Foot, Jr., Jan. 22, 1870, who was born in 1S50; his 
parents are William and Maria Foot, of Centre tp., who came to 
this county in lS51;they were natives of Connecticut. Mr. Foot 
lived in South Bend several years after his marriage, where he f ol- 
lowed teaming; he is now engaged in farming on sec. 7; they have 
one child, born in 1874. P. 0., South Bend. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 700 

John M. Rupe, son of Henry and Martha (Garwood) Rupe, 
natives of Ohio, was born in this tp. August, 1837. He was mar- 
ried April 16, 1857, to Miss Hannah M. Ball, daughter of Rev. H. 
B. Ball, of this conference of the M. E. Church, who was born in 
1S38, and they have 3 children: Henry F., born Feb. 3, 1858; 
Edward H, born Oct. 19, 1867; Mary M., born Jan. 10, 1S78. 
Mr. Ball removed to Wayne county Ind., in 1871, but returned 
again to this tp. in 1879; he has SO acres of land in sec. 13; was 
educated in the public schools of the county, and is a Republican. 
P. O., South Bend. 

Samuel Rupe was born in North Carolina, in the year 1808; his 
parents, Jacob and Susanna Rupe, came to Indiana about the year 
1812, and settled at Pleasant Plain, in Elkhart county, in 1S26. 
Mr. Rupe came to this tp. about 1832. Like most of the early set- 
tlers he came here poor, but by diligence and perseverance lie has 
made, for his old age, a pleasant home. His farm consists of 158 
acres of choice farming land, on sec. S. He was married at the age 
of 21 to Rachel Whitmer, of Wayne county, Ind., and they had 5 
children: Lovina, John B., Elizabeth, Franklin and Mary. Mrs. 
Rupe died about 1840, and Mr. Rupe married Sally Ann Owen, 
widow of the late Rev. T. Owen, and they have children: Susan, 
Martha Jane, Allie, Lucinda, William H. and Albert. Mr. Rupe 
has been a member of the M. E. Church for 54 years; was licensed 
to exhort about 47 years ago, and to preach about 25 years ago. 
He has been one of the pioneer Methodists of this country. P. O., 
South Bend. 

John J. Rupel was born in Virginia, Sept. 16, ISIS, the son of 
John and Elizabeth Rupel, who came to Elkhart county in 1S32. 
Dec. 27, 1849, he married Lydia Chord, daughter of Jacob and 
Susanna Chord, both of whom were natives of Montgomery county, 
Ohio. They settled in this county in 1831. Mrs. R. was born 
Jan. 11, 1827. They have 3 children, namely: Mary A., born 
March 3, 1851, married Jacob Wolverton and lives in South Bend; 
Nora M., born Nov. 18, 1853, married Arthur Invy, of South Bend; 
and Chord S., born Feb. 18, 185S, is married and living at home. 
Mr. Rupel worked at carpentering when j-oung, but has been a far- 
mer for the last 30 years. He left Elkhart county in 1839, and set- 
tled on his present farm in 1851. He owns 335 acres in this tp. 
He also has a line residence in South Bend. When Mr. Rupel 
came to this farm there was but little improvement on the place, 
but by hard work and careful management he has made it one of 
the finest farms in the county. Mr. and Mrs. Rupel are members of 
the Advent Church. P.O., South Bend. 

Christopher Schmig was born in France Sept. 14, 1816. He 
came to Stark county, Ohio, in 1847. In 1865 he removed to 
South Bend. He was married in Ohio to Margaret Fultz, who was 
born March 25, 1823. Their children areas follows: George, born 
Aug. 9, 1852; Mary A., June 8, 1854; Jacob F., Sept. 14. 1S56; 
Clara J., Oct. 25, 1862; and Ella M., Sept. 12, 1S65. Mary A. 



710 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

married Richard B. Moffitt, of this county. Mr. Schang, when 
young, learnt the blacksmith trade and that has been his business 
through life. He carried on a shop in South Bend for nine or ten 
years, when he removed to his farm in this tp., where he has been 
working on his farm and at his trade since. In the spring of 1878 
George went to Texas, but soon grew tired of the " land which 
flows with milk and honey," and concluded that St. Joseph county 
was not so bad a place after all; so procuring a pony and saddle he 
left the " Lone Star " State, came through Arkansas and Missouri, 
and made the trip home in about two months. During the gold 
fever in California Mr. Schang went thither, by way of the Gulf and 
crossing Central America, and thence on the Pacific to the land of 
gold. He returned in about IS months by way of the Isthmus 
and New York, to South Bend. Mr. Schang was educated in 
France, and belongs to the Catholic Church. P. O., South Bend; 
residence, sec. 8. 

J. M. Swim was born in Randolph county, N. C, dan. 26, 1822, 
where he worked on his father's farm until he reached his 23d year, 
when he removed with his family to Indiana in the autumn of 
1*4-1:. The first four years of his life in Indiana were spent in 
teaching school and the study of medicine. In the spring of 1847 
he was married to a daughter of Dr. Way, of Richmond. The 
next spring, with a number of his wife's relatives, he removed to 
the northern part of Illinois, then a comparatively new country, 
remaining, however, only one year, when he returned to Indiana, to 
the vicinity of South Bend, where he has since resided. Ancestry: 
Anthony Swaim came from Holland in 1700, and settled on Staten 
Island. Anthony had 3 sons: Michael, Mathias and William. 
The latter with his 3 sons, John, Moses and Michael, went 
southward and settled in North Carolina, then a British 
colony. John married Elizabeth Vickroy, by whom he had 8 sons 
and 3 daughters. The sons were Ashley, Christopher, William, 
Joshua, John, Marmaduke, Moses and Michael. Moses married 
Adda Swindell, by whom he had 7 sons and -1 daughters. Four of 
the sons are still living, one, the subject of this sketch, in Indiana, 
one in Illinois, one in Missouri, and one in North Carolina. Two 
of the daughters are still living in Indiana. The family is numer- 
ous and widely scattered over the United States. In some localities 
the name has degenerated into Swain, sometimes spelt Swayne; 
but they are all of the same family, and trace their ancestry back 
to Anthony, the Dutchman. 

Charity WJmrton was born in Warren county, Ohio, Oct. 3, 
1S25, the daughter of AVilliam and Sarah Throckmorton, who were 
early settlers in this county. The former was a native of New 
Jersey, and the latter of Pennsylvania, and came to this tp. from 
Warren county, O., in 1836. They settled on the farm now owned 
by W. A. Aldrich, where they both died in 1S64. The subject ot 
this sketcli was married to William Wharton Feb. 6, 18-1-t. He was 
born in Warren connty, O., June 23, 1815, and came to this tp. in 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 711 

1842. They have 4 children living: Sarah L., born Oct. 2, 1845; 
David F., Feb. 4, 1818; James G., Nov. 9, 1853; Henrietta, born 
Jan. 11, 1859. Mrs. Wharton has lived on her present farm for 31 
years. Mr. Wharton died May 11, 1877. He was a man honored 
and loved by all that knew him, and left a large circle of friends to 
mourn his departure. 

Margaret Whitman was born in Seneca county, O., Aug. 14, 
1S44. She is the daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Jones, of that 
place. She was married there May 26, 1856, to Daniel Whitman, 
son of Samuel and Rachel Whitman, of the same county. He was 
born in Pennsylvania, Feb. 5, 1821. They came to this county and 
settled on their farm in this tp. in March, 1861. This couple have 
5 children: Samuel N., born in August, 1S57; Ellen, born Sept. 9, 
1861; Clara A., born Nov. 12, 1863; Frank, born Nov. 30, 1865. 
Margaret, died in 1876, aged 19. By a former marriage Mr. Whit- 
man had several children, one oi whom is living: Newton J., born 
in August, 1S51. Jesse W. was born Oct. 10, 1844, and died Oct. 
23, 1863, at Chattanooga; was a member of the 21st Ind. Battery; 
went out in September, 1861. Samantha J., married George Cobb, 
and died Jan. 6, 1876. Mr. Whitman was a farmer. He died 
April 2, 1874. For many long years before his death his health had 
been very poor, but he bore all his affliction with a Christian forti- 
tude, waiting for his Master to call him to that blest home where 
sickness never comes. 

J. J. Whitman, son of Joel and Artemisia Whitman, was born 
in Lake county, Ohio, in September, 1834; was married in the fall 
of 1867, to Druzilla Bennett, daughter of Stephen Bennett, of this 
county, formerly of Morrow county, Ohio, but a native of Virginia. 
Their 9 children are: Lester J. (deceased), Eva May, Amelia E., 
Martin E., Alvia A., John M., Mary E., Carrie E. and Gertrude. 
Mr. Whitman is a carpenter and also attends to his farm of 65 acres 
in sec. 13. He served nine months in our late war in Co. E., 23d 
Ind. Inf. P. 0., South Bend. 

Joel Whitman, son of Jesse and Catharine (Vanderhoot) Whit- 
man, was born in New York Jan. 1, 1811. They left New York 
in 1830 and went to Erie county, Penn. There he married Arte- 
misia Hewitt, daughter of Daniel Hewitt, of that county r . She was 
born here in 1813. They had 10 children, 7 of whom are living: 
John J., Marcia (now Mrs. George Philips), Adelia (now Mrs. W. 
Inman, of Liberty tp.), Sylvia M. (now Mrs. Bownbork, of Centre tp.) 
James E., of Arkansas, Francis A. and Joseph A. Mrs.W. died in '52, 
and Mr. Whitman was again married in 1857, to Charity Cortril, 
daughter of John and Phebe Cortril, of this county. They have 3 chil- 
dren : Nettie, Ada M. and Belle. Mrs. Whitman died May 25, 1879. 
Mr. Whitman left Erie county, Pa., in '33 and moved to Ohio; in '36 
he came to St. Joseph county. He is a farmer, and owns 20 acres in 
sec. 18. By trade he is a carpenter and joiner. Is a member of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in North Liberty. Was land Assessor 






712 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



for the year 1880 and bad been Town Trustee for a number of terms. 
P. O., South Bend. 

Michael Woollet was born in Allen county, Ohio, April 7, 1840. 
His parents, Michael and Catharine Woollet, were natives of Penn- 
sylvania. He was married in May, 1863, to Mary E. Oyler, daughter 
of William and Elizabeth Oyler, of Green tp., but formerly of 
Shelby county, Ohio. They have 8 children: Lewis, Charles, Ellen, 
Alice, Marion, Clara, Melvin and Rosa. Mr. Woollet came to the 
county in 1853. He is a farmer. P. O., South Bend. 














HARRIS TOWNSHIP. 

This township lies in the extreme northeastern part of the county. 
It is bounded upon the north by Cass county, Mich., on the east by 
Elkhart county, Ind., on the south by Penn township, and on the 
west by Clay. There is much marsh land in the township, being 
in the middle and southeastern part, and running a southwest course 
into and through the northwest corner of Penn township. 

This land is unfit for agricultural purposes, except for grazing 
and haying. The State cut a ditch commencing at the south edge 
of J. Balwin's farm on section 17, and running a south course about 
160 rods, then turning southwest, which course it pursues through 
sections 20, 19, 30, 25, 26 and along the south line of the last named 
section, and also about 50 rods on the south line of section 27, where 
it takes a southwest course into and through Penn township. Great 
good has been accomplished, as this marsh was entirely covered 
with one continuous sheet of water, that lay upon the ground until 
late in the summer months, even after the abatement of the water, 
great portions of which was so boggy that it was inaccessible by 
man or beast; but this ditch has so drained this vast area that it 
has become solid footing, and hundreds of acres are mowed. Notre 
Dame University owns the largest farm in this township, most of 
which is marsh land, where they raise their beef and their milk 
supply for the University, of which further mention is made else- 
where. 

This township took its name from Jacob Harris,of Ohio, who came 
in 1830 and settled on Harris Prairie, where he raised the first wheat 
that was cut in the township, it being harvested in 1831. His 
neighbor, Jacob Meyer, who came the spring of 1831 and still re- 
sides in tin's township, on section 15, helped cut Mr. Harris' crop. 
Samuel Bell, a son-in-law of Mr. Harris, came with him in 1830. 
Adam Miller, a Baptist preacher, came in 1830 or '31, also Adam 
Eingle, and settled on section 15. Mr. Ringle died several years 
ago, and Miller either died or moved away. The first settlers erected 
cabins on this prairie. 

David and Josephus Baldwin and family were probably the first 
settlers in this township, though other historians speak of Mr. 
Harris being the first. Mr. Baldwin stated that he was here when 
Mr. Harris came, and said he and his brother David came in 1S28 
or '29. Joseph Buel came in 1831 and settled on section 15. Ar- 
bogast Zaehnle came in 1834, and settled on section 22, where he 
still resides. Henry Augustine put in his appearance on section 15 
in 1831; also Hartzel, the same year, on the same section. Robert 
Kennedy arrived in 1833 and built his cabin on section 14. * David 
• . (713) 



714 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Ringle and his sons Samuel and Levi came in 1833 or '34 and 
pitched their cabins on section 14. 

The first school-house was a log structure built on section 10, on 
the north edge of Harris Prairie. Though struggling through the 
pressure of poverty and privations, the settlers planted among thein 
the school-house at the earliest practical period. An object so im- 
portant as the education of their children they did not defer until 
they could build more comely and convenient houses; they were 
for a time content with such as corresponded with their rude dwell- 
ings; but soon better buildings were erected. As may readily be 
supposed, the accommodations of the earliest schools were not 
good. Stoves and the latest improved heating apparatuses were 
unknown. The house was built of round logs, 14x16 feet; cracks 
chinked and daubed with mud; door in the south end and a mud 
and stick chimney in the other; with earthen earth and fire-place 
wide enough to take in a los: nearlv as long as the width of the 
house, and smaller wood was used to ignite the larger; logs better 
known by the old pioneers as "backlogs." This rudely constructed 
chimney and fire-place served for warming purposes in winter 
and a kind of conservatory in summer. For windows part of a log 
was cut out in either side and a few lights of eight by ten glass set 
in. Their writing benches were made of wide split pieces of tim- 
ber puncheons, resting on pins or arms driven into two-inch-auger 
holes bored into the logs beneath the windows. The seats were 
made out of the same material; also the floor. The ceiling was ot 
round poles or logs, and covered or plastered with mud on top. 
Everything was rude and plain, but many of America's greatest 
men have gone out from just such school-houses to grapple with 
the world, and make names for themselves, and have come to be an 
honor to their country. 

Robert Kennedy taught the first school in the township, that being 
in such a house as just described. The first church built was the 
Presbyterian, which stands in the woods near Mr. Kennedy's resi- 
dence. There is but one other church, and that is owned by the 
Evangelical people. It is situated on the east side of section 21. The 
Christian Church was organized Jan. 7, 1S63, by Elder Green, con- 
sisting of 31 members. The Church has been prosperous. Many 
of its members have moved to the West, and in consequence its 
membership is but a few more than when it was first organized. 
Its present minister is Charles Hendershot, who holds service once 
in two weeks. Present deacons are Robert Savage and James 
Lowry. They occupy the Presbyterian building. They contem- 
plate erecting a house of worship as soon as the}' can secure a suit- 
able site. This portion is not affected by the marsh, is in fair state 
of cultivation, and at no distant day the marsh will become tillable 
and settled by an enterprising people, at which time it will compare 
favorably with other townships that are settled with more wealthy 
citizens to-day. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 715 

The Grand Trunk railroad passes through this township, running 
a northeast course. There is no town upon this line in this town- 
ship, — -nothing but a station, where there are a depot and postoffice, 
called Granger; no business of any kind is done. 

The Indian trail leading from La Porte, or rather from Chicago 
to Detroit, passes through the southeast corner. Mr. W. and E. 
M. Irvin and Jas. Lowry, extensive farmers, settled herein an early 
day. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

Following is a brief mention of several prominent residents and 
pioneers of Harris township. It will be of equal interest with the 
foregoing items, especially to the citizens of that community. 

Geo. Hassig, a native of Strasburg, France, born Nov. 17, 1S0S; 
was a son of John and Barbara Hassig; he was reared on the farm, 
and came to America in 1832; stayed three days in New York 
city; then came to Stark county, 0.,and in 1837, to this county. 
He returned to Ohio in 1839, and came back the same year. He 
married Mary Keiffer in 1840; 5 of their 7 children are living, to 
wit: Napoleon, Franklin, Emanuel, Israel and Mary. Mr. H. owns 
212 acres of land; is a farmer and stock-raiser in Harris tp., sec. 16. 
P. ()., Edwards. 

John Koker, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 22; was born in Switzer- 
land January, 1802, and is the son of Benedict and Mary Koker; 
he came to America in 1824, and located in Ohio, where he resided 
until 1S46, then came to this county, settling in Clay tp., thence to 
this tp in 1847. He married in 1825, Mary Becher, a native of 
Switzerland; 3 of their 5 children are living. He has had good 
success, having SO acres of land that he has been offered $5,200 for. 
Mrs. Koker died Dec. 31, 1879. Mr. K. is a member of the Pres- 
hyterian Church. P. O., South Bend. 

Joseph L. Kntpp was born in Germany Jan. 1, 1817, and is a 
son of Charles and Catharine Krupp, who removed to Seneca 
county, O., in 1S33. He came to this county in 1S39, and worked 
for several years at the blacksmith trade here and in Michigan. He 
was married in 1842 to Miss Sophia Smith; they have had 4 chil- 
dren: Eliza A., John, Mary and Louisa. Mrs. K. died October, 
1851, and in 1853 Mr. K. married Miss Susan Long, by whom he 
had 5 children; 4 are living: William, Perry, Clayton and Philo. 
He is engaged in farming and stock-raising on sec. 9, Harris tp., 
and owns 440 acres of land. 

Jacob Meyer was born in France July 17, 1S07; son of Jacob 
and Mary Meyer, also natives of France, who came to America in 
1828, and to this county soon after. Jacob came to this county in 
1831, and settled on the present farm. He married Miss Catharine 
Bueb in 1829, who was born in September, 1807; they have had 11 
children, 9 of whom are living, to-wit: Francis, Mary, Gracie, 
Jacob, Caroline, Joseph, Josephine, Clara and Sophia. Mr. Meyer 



716 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTF. 

commenced in life by working on the canal ; his first purchase of 
land was 160 acres, and at present owns 460 acres of beautiful 
land. He has held the office of Trustee and is a member of the 
Masonic order. His son Joseph was born July 26, 1S43, in this 
county; he married Miss Minerva Smith January, 1870, and they 
have 3 children, to-wit: Pliny E., Thomas A. and Henry E. Mrs. 
M. died April 26, 1873. He' married Miss Helen Smith Sept. 15, 
1874, who was born Sept. 30, 1853; their 2 children are Harry and 
Arthur. Mr. M. owns 21 acres of land, and is superintending his 
father's farm of 460 acres in Harris tp., sec. 15. P. O., South 
Bend. 

Christ. Schnech was born July 10, 1825, in Germany, and is 
the son of Adam and Margaret Schneck, now deceased. He left 
his native land in 1853; took passage in one of the New York 
steamships, and had a pleasant trip to New York, where he 
remained a short time, and then took up his march westward, 
stopping at Toledo; he located in Berrien county, Mich., in 1854, 
where he resided six years, then came to this tp., where he has 
been engaged in farming and stock-raising. In 1856 he married 
Miss Dora Streveal, a native of Germany, born in 1833, and came 
to America in 1851. Their 9 children are Caroline, Christine, 
Mary, Lydia, David, Emma. Mattie, Elizabeth and Ida. Mr. S. 
has been successful thus far through life, now owning 03 acres of 
good farming land on sec. 9; he and his wife are members of the 
Lutheran Church. P. O., Edwards. 

John M. Shimp was born Jan. 18, 1848, in this county, and is a 
son of Jacob and Hannah Shimp, the former a native of New Jersey, 
and the latter of Ohio, who came to this county in an early day. 
John was reared on the farm, and received a good education, attend- 
ing college two terms. He married Miss Sarah J. Longley March 
16, 1870; she was born in Elkhart county, this State, April 15, 
1849; 2 of their 3 children are living, to-wit: Delbert and Andrew. 
Mr. S. owns 60 acres of land, worth $65 an acre, in Harris tp., sec. 
11. P. O., South Bend. 

Michael Smith, a native of Germany, born Aug. 24, 1S24, is a 
son of Frederick and Elizabeth Smith, who came to New York in 
1826, staid there six months, then went to Buffalo and remained 
one year, thence to Canada, near Black Rock, where he resided three 
years, thence to Stark county, O., where he died. Michael was 
reared on the farm, received a common-school education and came 
to this county in 1842. He married, July, 1853, Mary E. Ander- 
son, daughter of Samuel Anderson, who came to this county in 
1836, and died in 1852. She was born Nov. 20, 1827, in Columbia 
county, Pa. Mr. S. owns 380 acres of valuable land in sec. 17; he 
also raises stock. Himself and wife are members of the Presbyte- 
rian Church. P. O., Granger. 

John A. Zaehnle was born in this county Jan. 7, 1843; his par- 
ents were Abogast and Rosa (Binder^ Zaehnle, natives of Germany; 
his father came to this countrv in 1830, locating in Ohio, and his 



« 
HISTORY OK ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 717 

mother in 1832, also locating in Ohio. They were married in 1834, 
moved to this county the same year, and have since had 8 children, 3 
of whom are living: Rosa, Samuel and John A. Mr. Z. first entered 
80 acres of land, and has since added 120 acres; April 29, 1S74, 
John A. married Theresa Schirk, who was born in Germany Sept. 
18, 1849; their 4 children are Emma, Clara, Edward L. and Otto 
A. Mr. Z. has been Assessor ten years, and is now holding the 
office of Trnstee the second term; he was Paymaster's Clerk in the 
army, and has been clerk in a wholesale house in Louisville, Ky. ; 
he is now working on his farm of 40 acres in Harris tp., sec. 22; 
also works his father's farm. In 1S74 he went to Germany, and 
when he returned, brought an aunt and the young lady whom he 
afterward married. After leaving the district school he entered 
the University of Notre Dame, where he continued three years, 
graduating in the commercial course. He then went to Louisville, 
Ky., and was Paymaster's Clerk under Major Camp, who was sta- 
tioned there. Afterward he went to Bowling Green and Nashville, 
acting in the same capacity, under Major Fell. He then was clerk 
in the sutler store of C. Henry Fink, where he remained until near 
the close of the war, then returned to his home in this county. 
P. O., South Bend. 




LIBERTY TOWNSHIP. 

Liberty township formerly embraced the territory included in 
Lincoln township, but being inconvenient for the settlers that 
resided in (now) Lincoln township to attend elections, in June, 
1SG6, according to petitions of Lincoln settlers, it was detached and 
made an independent township. Liberty is generally known as 
being among the first settled townships in St. Joseph county. The 
first settlements were made in 1S33 near North Liberty, by John 
Kane, John and Jacob Earhart and Isaac Townsend. But few 
other settlers came into the township till 1S36. John Rupel came 
in January, this year, soon followed by David Rupel, Jas. Cole, 
Jacob Rupel and Joseph Liggett. 

In May, 1837, the township was organized by the following per- 
sons: Daniel and James Antrim, John and David Rupel, Samuel 
Loring, James Cole, Jacob Rupel and Joseph Liggett. The first 
election was held the same spring, in North Liberty, at the house 
of Jas. P. Antrim, who was elected Justice of the Peace. In 1838 
Mr. Waldsmith, father of Geo. Waldsmith, a present resident of 
Liberty township, settled on section 30. 

Then the early settlers met with hardships the present settlers 
know nothing of. They had to go to Elkhart in order to get 
wheat or corn ground for bread, and sometimes would have to wait 
nearly a whole week before their turn would come, all the while 
their families at home subsisting on nothing but what we call 
"hardtack" and wild meat. The wives of the settlers shared 
their trying lot with great patience and boldness of spirit. Their 
husbands were compelled to go away from home and work, leasing 
home just as soon as the morn of Monday would break; go to a 
place ten or twelve miles distant, where he would labor all the 
week and not return home till the stars had lit the sky on Saturday 
evening; and as he would plod his weary way along the Indian 
trail bearing a piece of fresh beef, which was a part of the fruits 
of his week's labors, frequently the hungry wolves would get scent 
of the precious meat he had, and he could hear their howling in the 
distance, then a little nearer and a little nearer till their incessant 
howls only told that they were persistently too near. Then he 
would be compelled to drop his meat to be devoured by the angry 
wolves and would have to go home at last without meat for his 
family. At this. time the Pottawatomie Indians strolled in bands 
through the forests of this vicinity in search of "Big Injun's 
deer," which roamed in great herds through St. Joseph county. 
The Indians at this time were peaceable, but by their savage and 
warlike actions would frequent! v frighten the settlers' wives. At 

(718) 



HISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 719 

one time in mid-winter about a dozen of these red skins called at 
the house of Mr. Waldsmith, and he not being at home, Mrs. W. 
was greatly terrified. They (the Indians) would stand around the 
fire, and, scraping the snow off their "leggins," would stop and 
point their huge bowie knives at Mrs. Waldsmith' s children and 
say, " See, dat is de white man's pappoose; de white man's pap- 
poose." This frightened Mrs. W. almost to death and she treated 
them with great hospitality, — with a great deal more than human 
nature would do under any other circumstances. She gave tbem 
food and almost everything in that line, and finally they departed, 
much to the joy of their benefactor. But it was only a few years 
before the Indians were removed westward. 

In 1837 a grist mill was built in North Liberty, much to the 
convenience and accommodation of the settlers. In 1839 Hiram 
Bean and Alonzo Hill built a saw-mill not far from where the 
present grist-mill stands. 

The land of this township, as already stated, was very thickly 
and heavily timbered, and it was not till about 1*50 that the work 
of grubbing and clearing began to be faithfully prosecuted; but 
since that a great portion of it has been cleared up, thereby reduc- 
ing to cultivation a body of land unexcelled in fertility and pro- 
ductiveness of all kinds of grain. The leading industrial pursuits 
of the settlers are farming and lumbering. Five saw-mills are 
actively running in the township. Live-stock rearing is fast be- 
coming a leading feature of the industry of Liberty township. 

Among the leading farmers of this township we find the names 
of D. W. Eeece, V. S. Bulla, Henry .Reamer, Jacob D. Row, A. 
H. Price, Ort Cook, Samuel Williams, L. Decoutres, Geo. Wald- 
smith, C. Schroeder, Franklin Pearce and his two sons L. S. and 
N. W., who are stock-raisers; N. S. Miller is a merchant and far- 
mer; Isaac R. Cole, Jacob Geiger and Levi J. Knepp, farmers and 
mill sawyers. 

The inhabitants of Liberty township are mostly of German an- 
cestry, or what are called Pennsylvania Dutch, but they are a very 
enterprising class of people. 

The only village that Liberty township contains is 



NORTH LIBERTY. 



It is situated at the conjunction of sections 28, 29, 32 and 33, 
and contains a population of nearly 400. It was laid out in 1837 
by Daniel and James P. Antrim, and was surveyed by T. W. B ra y- 
No houses had yet been built on the site, but the "distant future 
lent enchantments," and soon after its location James Downey 
built a house; the same year four other houses were built. The 
first store in the place was opened by Daniel Antrim in 1S37. He 
did business one year, then sold his stock to E. S. Reynolds, and 
in 1840 he sold to A. P. Richardson, who kept the store till about 
1845, when James Harvey purchased the stock and started a general 



/ 



720 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

store. Mr. Harvey continued in business till 1867. In 1875 the 
Houser Brothers opened a general store. They still continue in 
business. In 1865 Mr. Norman S. Miller opened a large dry-goods 
establishment, which he continues. In 1866 Cole Brothers built a 
large planing mill and manufacturing establishment, which was 
burnt the winter of 1871. Jan. 1, 1S73, a company was formed 
named Cole, Ragon & Co., consisting of Cole brothers, Houser 
and Knepp, and they built the North Liberty manufacturing estab- 
lishment. They continued in business till 1875, when Houser & 
Knepp pnrchased Cole Bros.' interest in the establishment and 
have kept it in operation. 

The home manufacturing company started in business in the fall 
of 1873, hut has since discontinued, and the machinery was pur- 
chased by Schwartz & Tischer and moved to Walkerton, where 
they erected a planing-mill. 

The present business of North Liberty consists of two large dry- 
goods establishments, two boot and shoe stores, one drug and 
hardware store, one grocery and hardware store, one planing-mill 
and manufacturing establishment, one grist-mill, one millinery 
store, one butcher shop, one barber and four practicing physicians. 
There are also three churches and one school-house. 

The first church in Liberty tp., was erected by the Mehodists in 
North Liberty, in 1851, during the pastorate of Rev. A. Badley- 
This was used till 1878, when, during the administration of Rev. 
R. H. Sanders, a new and commodious structure was erected. The 
persons that aided principally in the founding of the Church at 
North Liberty in 1851, were: John Rupel (since deceased), Jas. 
Cole, John Qnigley, Henry Reamer, Samuel Williams, Sumner 
G-. Williams and D. W. Reece. The class-leaders of the North 
Liberty M. E. Church are Henry Reamer, Isaac R. Cole and Thos. 
Faulkner. Perhaps no other quarterly conference in Northern 
Indiana can boast of having sent more men from the private ranks to 
the active duties of the ministry, nor of men who under God have 
more faithfully wielded the weapons of Christian warfare, which in 
their hands have been mighty to " the pulling down" of "strong- 
holds," among whom are Revs. Samuel T. Cooper, H. B. Ball, 
Nelson Green, James Green, Samuel Godfrej', J. C. Metsker, S. 
Lamb and C.W. Miller, of the North Indiana conference, and John 
C. Baker, of the Illinois Conference. 

The second church in the township was the Seventh-Day Advent 
church at North Liberty, which was built in 1868 by donations 
from James Harvey, Elias Styles, Jacob Styles, Anson Worster, 
Adam Rupert and Russel Hoag, since deceased. 

The Episcopalians also built a church a few years ago. 

There are also five other churches outside of North Liberty, — two 
Dunkard churches, one Evangelical, one German Lutheran, and 
one United Brethren church. 

The first school-house in Liberty township was erected near the 
site of the Dunkard church, one-half mile south of the village, in 










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nil!" 

'Hllllll! 



iiliill'i! W 






■JF 



f ik 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPU COUNTY. 723 

1838. It was built of logs, and had a huge fire-place in oue end of 
the room. The windows were one sash with three lights. One 
was in each side of the room. In 184-0 a school-house was built in 
North Liberty, and in 1868 a high-school building was erected. A 
graded school lias since been kept. Mr. J. N. Reeee is the principal 
and George Sands is the teacher in the lower department. 

North Liberty is a very pleasant little town and is surrounded 
with wealthy men. All the disadvantage that this place meets 
with is the lack of railroad facilities; but should a railroad be con- 
structed through this place it would become one of the most 
fiourishing towns in the count}'. 

BIOGRAPHIES. 

The history of Liberty township is substantially continued in 
the brief personal sketches which follow, of leading pioneers and 
residents. 

Rev. Orlando M. Beebe, son of Samuel C. and Currence B. 
Beebe, was born near Salem, Porter county, Ind., Sept. 25, 1843. 
At the tender age of three years, his father died, and thenceforward 
his support and training devolved upon the widowed mother. Care 
was taken to secure for him the benefits of a common-school educa- 
tion. When about 16 years of age he began the struggle for larger 
advantages than the common school afforded. He accordingly 
became a student in the Valparaiso Collegiate Institute, where he 
was still at work with his books, when, in Aug., 1862, he enlisted in 
the Marine Artillery, and was soon with his command in North 
Carolina, where he obtained a transfer to the 3rd N. Y. Artillery. 
Shortly after this transfer the troops in North Carolina were 
removed in large part to South Carolina, to engage in the siege of 
Charleston. One year from his enlistment he was discharged, and, 
returning home, again enlisted in an Indiana Regiment, the 138th, 
where he served for a little more than one hundred days and was 
again discharged. This was followed by a third enlistment in the 
151st Ind. Infantry. Here he remained until the close of the war. 
After the war was over and following a year's residence in Chicago, 
he began business for himself in Hebron, Ind. Here he became 
acquainted with and married Miss Laura G. Cain, daughter of Wes- 
ley and Elizabeth Cain. As the fruit of this marriage they have 
1 daughter, born Nov. 15, 1875. On the 11th of May, 1872, having 
already been licensed by the Hebron Quarterly Conference as a local 
preacher, and having closed up his business affairs at Hebron, he 
began work in the Methodist ministry on Marmont Circuit, North- 
west Indiana Conference. At the conference held in the following 
September, he was re-appointed to the same work. In the follow- 
ing year he was appointed to the Winamac charge. After a year 
of labor at Winamac he became pastor at Argus, in Marshall county. 
From thence he removed to Wheeler in Porter county. After a 
three years' term at Wheeler, Union Mills, in Laporte county, 

46 



724 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

became his field of labor. His next appointment brought him into 
this county, to North Libert}' circuit, where he now lives and 
labors. 

V. S. Bulla was born in this county Feb. 14, 1S47. His par- 
ents, W. F. and Mary Bulla, were natives of Indiana. His father 
was one of the first settlers in St. Joseph county. (The biography 
of this earl}- pioneer appears in another place.) VS. was reared 
on a farm in Clay tp.. north of South Bend. He was educated in 
the Notre Dame schools; was married Jan. 8, 1874, to Elizabeth, 
daughter of Daniel and Adaline McKenzie; to them were born 2 
children, viz.: Mary A. and Lore. Mr. B. owns 240 acres of land 
in sees. 31 and 32. 

Alex. S. Campbell, M. D„ physician, North Liberty, was born 
i:i Baltimore county, Md., May 3, 1828. His parents were James 
H. and Elizabeth (Hattan) Campbell; he was reared on a farm and 
educated in the common schools of the country; in 1831 he, with 
his parents, moved to Zanesville, O., and in 1834, to McConnells- 
ville, O. ; remained there till 1845, then moved to Mt. Vernon, 
Ohio; in 1846 he went to Chesterville. O., and in 1852 went to 
Johnsville, and in 1855 to Iberia; in 1S53 he commenced studying 
medicine under Drs. Henry H. Duff and T. White, of Iberia; he 
commenced practicing in 1857 at Iberia; and in 1860 he went to 
Zanesfield, where he practiced till 1870; then came to North Judson, 
Ind.;in 1*71 he came to North Liberty, where he still resides, engag- 
ed in the practice of his profession. Mr. Campbell has been a mem- 
ber of the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Association since 1869. He 
was married in 1848 to Miss Elizabeth Wilson, daughter of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Ferris) Wilson, and they have had 9 chil- 
dren, viz.: James M., a physician at Burlinstou, Iowa; Harriet L., 
now Mrs. Albert Liggett; Anna, now Mrs. Elias Styles; Thos. W., 
Emma A., now Mrs. Joseph Lucado; Win. and Alice, twins, the 
latter now Mrs. Cyrus D. Houser; Amanda and Ada. Mrs. Camp- 
bell departed this life Sept. 9, 1877. Mr. Campbell was again 
married May 9, 1880, to Miss Sarah Gordon, daughter of John W. 
and Elizabeth Gordon, natives of Virginia. 

Isaac R. Cole was born in Darke county, O., June 13, 1S33; his 
parents were James and Sarah Cole, the former a native of New 
Jersey, and the latter of Pennsylvania; lie came with his parents 
to this county in 1836, and they settled two and a half miles south 
of ISIorth Liberty. His father's family were among the first settlers 
of Liberty tp. Hereon this frontier Isaac R. was reared to man- 
hood and educated in the pioneer or frontier school, as it may be 
called. He was married Sept. 16, 1S56, to Eliza J. Rush, daughter 
of Isaiah and Rebecca Rush, natives of Ohio. To this marriage was 
born one child, viz.: James Arthur. Mrs. Cole departed this life 
March 3, 1859. Mr. Cole was again married Oct. 21, 1861, to 
Mary E. Reamer, daughter of George and Rebecca Reamer, natives 
of Pennsylvania; their 3 living children are Alma A., Benj. F. and 
Mable B. Mr. C., in connection with his brother, owns 160 acres 




HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 725 

of land, also two saw-mills, one in Liberty tp. and the other at 
Crum's Point. Mr. C. also owns 102 acres more near North Lib- 
erty. 

Oi't Cook was born in this county Aug. 8, 1847, and is a son of 
the Rev. Elias and Sophia (Eberhart) Cook. He was reared on a 
farm, and educated in the South Bend College. His father came 
to this county in the early part of 1847, and was a minister of the 
M. E. Church. Mr. Cook was married Oct. 5, 1874, to Miss 
Arvilla Rupel, daughter of John Wesley and Elzada Rupel. Her 
father was a native of Ohio, and her mother of Indiana. Two chil- 
dren were born to this union, one living, viz.: Adolphus and Tutt. 
Mr. C.'s grandfather Cook was a soldier in the Revolution. 

Isaac Early was born in Rockingham county, Va., March 7, 
1S38; his parents, Jacob and Mary (Summons) Early, were natives 
of Virginia; he went to Allen county, O., when two years old, was 
educated in a common school, in a log house with slab seats, stick 
chimney, etc. In 1865 he came to this county where he still resides, 
engaged in farming and stock-raising; he followed school-teaching 
for awhile in Ohio. He was married April IS, 1861, to Mary E. 
Irvin, a native of Rockingham county, Va. To them were born 8 
children, viz.: Sarah M.. liattie E., Mary E., Charles E. and Ella M. 
(twins), Mattie A., William I. and John J. Mr. E. owns a farm of 
240 acres, worth $50 per acre. 

Martin Finch was born in Michigan June 19, 1S36, son of 
Ziinri and Hannah (Wright) Finch; he came to this county in 
1844, and, with his parents, settled near Mishawaka; his father was 
a forgeman by trade and worked in the Mishawaka iron works. 
Martin was married Dec. 12, 1869, to Elizabeth Rupel, by whom he 
has had 5 children, viz. : Samuel N\, Henry N., Ettie E., Ira A. and 
Ruth A. Mr. F. owns 91 acres of land in sees. 31 and 36. 

Geo. 11. Flood, harness-maker, keeps on hand a full stock of 
harness, whips, etc.; was born in Fairfield, Ind., Oct. 8, 1851, and 
is a son of James and Rachel E. Flood; he learned harness-making 
when 14 years of age, in Westville, his parents having moved there 
when he was young; his father was a merchant there for several 
years, and in 1S72 Geo. R. went to Iowa, returning in 1874. In 
1875 lie worked at Lafayette, and in 1876 he came to North Liberty. 
He was married Dec. 4. of the same year, to Miss Mary E. Mc- 
Kenzie, daughter of D. R. and E. A. McKenzie, and they have had 
2 children, viz.: Daniel R. and Mabel M. Mr. Flood's grandfather 
on his lather's side was born near Dublin, Ireland, and during the 
Irish insurrection he was compelled to flee to another " seaport," 
and came to the free American soil; his grandfather Best was the 
first white child born in Cincinnati, 0. 

Jacob Geiger was born in Seneca county, O., Jan. 27, 1840. 
His parents, Henry and Christina (Zeuderfau) Geiger, were natives 
of Baden, Germany; they came to this country in 1825. Mr. 
Geiger is the 3d child and 2d son of a family of 8 children; he was 
reared on a farm and educated in school-houses built of slabs, and 



726 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

furnished with slab seats and writing desks. He left Ohio in 1S63, 
and went to Jasper county, Ind. ; and in 1865 came to this county, 
and has since followed farming and lumbering. In 1877 he pur- 
chased an interest in a saw-mill which he has since kept in operation- 
He was married Oct. 28, 1862, to Maria Shaffner, daughter of Mar. 
tn and Susanna Shaffner, natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. 
G. have had 9 children 7 of whom are living, viz.: Theodosia, Vesta, 
Christiana, Madison F., Gertrude, Susanna and Ethel. )Mrs. Geiger 
was born Feb. 8, 1S43. Mr. G. owns 195 acres of land in sec. 36, 
also 200 acres in Marshall county. 

Henry Geyer was born in Dearborn county, Ind., Feb. 14, 1849. 
His parents, John G. and Anna H. Geyer, were natives of Germany, 
and emigrated to America in the year 1840, and settled in Dear- 
born countv where they resided till 1S50, when they came to this 
county. Mr. G. was married Sept. 11, 1874, to Margaret A. Mor- 
row, daughter of Andrew and Sarah Morrow, natives of Ohio. Mrs. 
Geyer died July 7, 1877, leaving one child. The 11th day of 
December following, Mr. G. married Sophia Stumble, daughter of 
Abram S. and Lydia Stumble; they have had one child, Chas. A. 
Mr. G. owns a farm of 230 acres in sees. 26 and 35, valued at $50 
per acre. 

John Hawbl'ttzel was born in Stark county, O., in the year 1833; 
his parents, John G. and Ann C. Hawblitzel, were natives of Ger- 
many. He came to this county in 1863; was married in 1858 to 
Anna C. Geiger, by whom he has had 4 children, of whom 3 are 
living, viz.: Nelson M., Henry G. and Anna C. Mr. H's father 
was a soldier in the war of 1812, and his grandfather on his father's 
side was in the Revolutionary war. He owns a farm of 144 acres. 

Rttssel Rodg was born in New York State, Feb. 17, 1836. His 
parents were Russel and Mary Hoag, the former a native of New 
York and the latter of Rhode Island. He was reared in the town 
of Coalsville, N. Y., and educated in the schools of that place; he 
went to Michigan in 1857, and in 1868 came to this county; he 
was married April 2, the same year, to Miss Emma Carpenter, 
daughter of William and Nancy Carpenter, natives of Rhode Island. 
To this marriage were born 3 children, viz.: William R., Joseph II. 
and Myrtie Bell. Mr. Hoag was one of the founders of the Seventh- 
Day Advent Church at North Liberty; he owns 35 acres of land 
near North Liberty, worth $100 per acre, and also a house and lot 
in the town. 

C. D. Houser, of the firm of Honser Bros., dealers in general 
merchandise, North Liberty, Ind.; was born Feb. IS, 1850, son of 
George and Lucy (Long) Houser, natives of Pennsylvania; he was 
reared on a farm, and educated in the Roanoke schools; followed 
farming till 1873, when he and his brother opened the store. He 
was married Sept. 22, 1878, to Alice Campbell, daughter of Dr. A. 
S. and Elizabeth Campbell, natives o." Ohio; they have had 1 child 
Grace. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 727 

* 

Daniel W. Houser, of the firm of Houser Bros., dry-goods 
dealers, and also of the North Liberty Manufacturing Company, is 
a brother of the preceding, and was born in Coshocton county, O., 
Dec. 7, 1842; he was reared on a farm, and educated in the common 
schools; he left Ohio in 1S58, and came to this county, where he 
followed farming till he was of age, then purchased an interest in a 
saw-mill; he followed milling until 1868. In 1872 he with his 
brother opened a manufacturing establishment. Mr. IT. was mar- 
ried Mar. 1, 1877, to Miss Ella Briggs, daughter of William and 
Charlotte Briggs; to them were born 2 children, Gail E. and 
Eva M. 

William Inman was born Feb. 7, 1832, in Clarke county, Ohio. 
His parents, John and Hannah Inman, were natives of England, 
and came to this country about the year 181?, settling in Ohio. 
His educational advantages were limited to the common schools of 
the country; in 1838 he came with his parents to this county when 
all was wild and unbroken, almost equal to his native place. His 
father purchased 235 acres of land at the Government price ($1.25 
per acre); they then moved on the land and began improving it. 
Our subject was married Jan. 3, 184S, to Miss Adelia Whitman, 
daughter of Joel and Artemisia (Hewitt) Whitman, and their 8 
children are: William O, Alma V., Ann M., Frances E., John A., 
George M., Martha M. and Artemisia. Mr. I. owns 158 acres of 
land, worth $45 per acre, and is a Republican. 

Levi J. Knepp was born in Ohio Jan. 7, 1835, and is a son of 
John and Mary (Price) Knepp; he was reared on a farm, and edu- 
cated in the common schools of the country. In 1S57, he came to 
this county, and soon after went to La Porte; here he followed his 
trade, carpentering, for about two years; in 1859 he returned to 
St. Joseph county and pursued his former vocation till 1865, when 
he purchased a saw-mill, which was burned in about two months; 
he rebuilt and ran it for about four years, when it was again de- 
stroyed by fire; he replaced this with another, and has since fol- 
lowed milling in connection with farming. He was married Oct. 
2, 1859, to Sarah Houser, daughter of George and Lucy Houser. 
To this marriage were born 4 children, of whom 3 are living, viz.: 
Jonathan D., Geo. F., Laura C. and Schuyler W. (dec). 

Elijah T. Lee, blacksmith and wagon-maker, North Liberty; 
was born in Wythe county, Va., Dec. 5, 1829; his parents, Martin 
and Mary Lee, were natives of Virginia; he lived on a farm till he 
was seventeen, then learned the blacksmith trade. In 1842 he went 
to Noble county, and worked at his trade till 1S54, when he went 
to La Porte; he followed his trade there till the war broke out; he 
enlisted in the military service Aug. 9, 1862, in Co. E, 4th Ind. 
Cavalry, and served in that capacity till the close of the war; he 
participated in the battle at Mt. Washington, Ky., and at Atlanta; 
he employed most of his time at General Wilson's headquarters, 
working at his trade. He was mustered out at Edgefield, Tenn., 
and immediately returned to La Porte. In 1865 he came to North 



728 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Liberty, where he still resides, working at his trade. lie was mar- 
ried in 1854, to Helen Nevins, daughter of Oscar Kevins; they 
have had 5 children, 4 of whom are living; viz.: Francis M., Ida 
Estella. Anna Laura and Mary Lizzie. Mr. L's father was in the 
war of 1812. 

John A. Long, deceased, — was born in Tennessee, Nov. 14, IS 13; 
was reared on a farm, and in November, 1841, he came to this 
county, and settled in Liberty tp. He was married Jan. 3, 1839, 
to Miss Elizabeth Troxell, daughter of Jacob and Catharine Troxell; 
9 of their children are living; viz.: Jacob, Sarah C. (now Mrs. 
Jacob Jemison), Lucinda (now Mrs. Adam Longacre), George M., 
"William, Francis M., Mary A. (now Mrs. Milton White), Margaret 
E., Benjamin A., Jonathan (dec.) and Thomas G. (dec.). Mr. 
Long followed the life of the honest farmer up to the time of his 
death, which occurred June 27, 1874. He had been a member of 
the German Baptist Church for fifteen years, and during this 
time lie led a life of fidelity and uprightness, and left the earth re- 
spected by all and at enmity with none. 

JVorman S. Miller, merchant, North Liberty, was born in Darke 
county, O., Feb. 25, 1832; his parents were Josiali and Martha Miller, 
natives of Somerset count} 7 , Penn.; he was reared on a farm and ed- 
ucated in the common schools of the country; he came to this coun- 
ty in the spring of 1855, with only $75 in money. He taught 
school three months the following winter, for which he received 
$105. The same year he purchased a farm of 95 acres, near North 
Liberty, for which he paid $1,000, a part cash and the remainder 
"on tick." The spring of 1859, he sold the same farm for $1,687.50, 
realizing a gain of $687.50. In the spring of 1860 he bought 
100 acres lying in sec. S, for which he paid $1,100, and sold the 
same farm in 1863 for $1,800. He then purchased 160 acres in 
sec. 5, paying $2,100, and in 1867 sold it for $4,100. In 1865 he 
entered into the mercantile business, with a stock of general mer- 
chandise invoiced at $9,000. In 1872 he purchased another farm of 
160 acres, paying $3,300. Mr. Miller has held many prominent 
township officer. In 1857 he was elected Justice of the Peace, and 
served three successive terms with general acceptability. In 1S69 
he was elected Township Trustee, which office he filled seven years. 
He was married in 1855 to Miss Mary Rupel, daughter of John and 
Anna (Loring i Rupel. To this union were born <; children, of whom 
4are living, viz., John H, Norman E., Anna M. andLorene. Mr. 
M. is Postmaster, was appointed by President Lincoln, and strongly 
adheres to the noblest truths of the Republican party. 

Gottlieb Prell was born in Germany Oct. 10, 1827, son of God- 
frey and Maria Prell; he came to this country in 1855, and settled 
in this count}', where he has since resided engaged in farming. Mr. 
Prell received an excellent education in the classics in the Univer- 
sities of Germany, before he emigrated to America. 

A. H. Price was born in Tuscarawas county, O., Sept. 2, 1831; 
his parents, Jonathan and Margaret (Deetz) Price, were natives of 



5 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 729 

Pennsylvania. In 1864 lie came to this county, where he has since 
resided, engaged in farming and stockraising. He also taught 
school for a term of years. Sept. 30, 1852, he married Miss Lydia 
A. Cordray, daughter of Nathan and Mary A. Cord ray; to them 
were born 10 children, viz.: Mary, now wife of A. R. Freeman; 
Margaret E., wife of Daniel Krigger; Ella, Angeline, Lorenzo D., 
John F.j Albert, Emma, Minerva A. and Laura. Mr.- Price owns 
a farm of 1-14 acres, valued at $45 per acre. He is a Democrat. 

D. W. Reece was born in Granger county, Tenn., Dec. 22,1811, 
son of Charles and Mary (Glascow) Reece; he was reared on a farm, 
and his educational facilities were limited, having to attend school 
in a log school-house without floor, furnished with slab seats, 
greased paper for window-lights, and a huge fire-place in one end 
of the room. In 1832 he went to Fayette county, Ind., where he 
lived till 1S-12; about 1835 he came to this tp. and purchased a 
farm; he made occasional visits to his farm, remaining only for a 
short time, and in 1842, as already stated, he moved upon it. Apr. 
26, 1838, he married Nancy M. Wilson, daughter of Jeremiah A. 
and Rebecca (Stubblefield) Wilson. Mr. Wilson was a very early 
settler in Fayette county, having moved there prior to the war 
of 1812, when that region was but a howling wilderness. Mr. 
and Mrs. R. have had 8 children; of these, 6 are living, viz.: Mary 
R. (now Mrs. Hugh Heaton), Sarah C. (wife of Louis De Cou- 
dres,)William, Thomas J., Martha A. (wife of John Whitinger), and 
James N. Mr. Reece has held various tp. offices, among which is 
Trustee. He and his wife are members of the M. E. Church. 

Jacob D. Row was born in Tuscarawas count}', O., Oct. IS, 1S35. 
His parents, David and Sarah (Allehouse) Row, were natives of 
Pennsylvania. He went with his parents to Coshocton county, 0, 
where he grew to manhood. His educational advantages were lim- 
ited to the common schools; became to this county in May, 1861, 
and settled on sec. 36, in Liberty tp. This was then but a howling 
wilderness; the land was very heavily wooded. There were but 
about 4 acres cleared on the farm he purchased; he labored on in 
the wood with unceasing energy till Sept., 1864, when he was drafted 
into the army; he had not been in the military service long till he 
was taken sick, and was confined in the Cumberland hospital for 
about four months; he served about one year, and was honorably 
discharged; he then returned home and resumed his former occu- 
pation, clearing the land and farming. He was married June 30, 
1860, to Miss Hannah Knepp, by whom he has had 6 children, 5 
of whom are living, viz.: Win. C, Mary J., Martin A., Albert O. 
and Clara A. Mrs. Row is a daughter of John and Mary (Price) 
Knepp, natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. Row is a veterinary surgeon 
and horse doctor. 

David R it pel, second permanent settler in Liberty tp., was born 
in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1811; his parents, 
Jacob and Ann Rupel, were natives of Germany, and came to 
America at a very early day. In 1830 he came to Elkhart county, 



730 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and remained during the winter. The following spring he came 
to this county and located near South Bend; at that time there 
were but two houses in the place, and they were occupied by Tay- 
lor and Coquillard, orCutteau, as he was known, who had a trading 
post with the Indians at that place. In the summer of 1832 the 
settlers built the court-house; the material consisted chiefly of 
brick; in May, 183(3, he moved to Liberty tp. He was married Jan. 
10, 1836, to Sarah Meller, daughter of Andrew and Margaret 
Meller, natives of Ohio. This union was blest with 6 children, 5 
of whom are living, viz.: Dennis W., Andrew M., Margaret J., 
(now wife of J. W. Jones), Melinda C. (wife of David H. Weaver) 
and Mary E. (wife of Jonathan M. Uripe). Mrs. Rupel died Feb. 
21, 1875', aged 58 years. 

John N. Rupel was born in this county Mar. 17, 1837, son of 
John and Anna Rupel, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter 
of Kentucky; he was reared on a farm and educated in the common 
schools. He dealt in live stock for about 20 years; also followed 
farming. He owns a farm of 144 acres in sec. 36, valued at $50 
per acre. He was married Feb. 28, 1865, to Miss Isadore Wax- 
ham, daughter of Zachariah and Elizabeth Waxham; they have 1 
child, John F. Mr. R.'s father was the first settler in Liberty tp. 

Charles Schroeder was born in German}' in the year 1833. His 
parents, Henry and Henrietta Schroeder, were also natives of Ger- 
many; he came to this country in 1857, and settled in St. Joseph 
county, where he still resides, engaged in farming and stock-rais- 
ing. He was married in April. L857, to Miss Mary Stieme, a native 
of Germany. Of their 9 children 8 are living, viz.: Frederick, 
Mary (Mrs. Rute Sellers), Anna, Charley, Henry, Sarah, Harmon 
and Ettie. Mr. S. owns 160 acres of land, worth $60 per acre. 

John, W. Shuppert was born in Elkhart county, Ind., April 14, 
1845; his parents, Joseph and Susanna Shuppert, were natives of 
Ohio. He was reared on a farm and educated in the Otterbein 
University, at Westerville, O., and followed school-teaching for 10 
years. He was married Nov. 29, 1871, to Mary E. Weatherington, 
by whom he has had 5 children, viz. : Arvilla S., Archie E., Leroy, 
Perlia B. and Dasie A. Mrs. Shuppert is a daughter of John and 
Elizabeth Weatherington, natives of Connecticut. Her father was 
a very early settler in Franklin count}', O. 

Adam, Smick was born in Stark county, O., April 17, 1S2S. His 
parents, Solomon and Mary A. Smick, were natives of Pennsyl- 
vania; he was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools 
of the country. He came to this county in the spring of 1854, and 
settled in Liberty tp., where he still resides. He was married in 
1853 to Elizabeth A. Blake, by whom he has had 5 children; of 
these, 3 are living, viz.: Mary J. (wife of Joseph Oiler}'), Sarah E. 
wife of Geo. Bennett), and Elizabeth E. In 1S56 Mr. S. married 
Miss Rebecca Steel, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Steel. 

Jeremiah Steel was born in Holmes county, O., Sept. 6, 1S34. 
His parents, Elias and Elizabeth Steel, were natives of Pennsyl- 
vania; he was reared on a farm and educated in the Ohio Berlin 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 731 

Academy; came to this county in 1864, and followed farming until 
the year 1872, when he purchased an interest in his father's saw- 
mill; he continued in that business till 1S77, when his father died, 
and by the division of the property the mill fell into his possession; 
he still keeps it.in operation. In 1867 he married Miss Catharine 
A. Gearhart, daughter of Henry and Kasia Gearhart, and they 
have had 7 children, of whom i are now living, viz.: Franklin E., 
Henry E., Joseph and Elmira. Mr. S. owns a farm of 380 acres. 

J. A. Vnrier, M. D., physician and surgeon, North Liberty; born 
in this county Nov. 2, 1852; his parents were Joseph and Mary 
(Dougherty) Varier, the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of 
Pennsylvania; he lived on a farm till he was 12 years of age, when 
his father sold his farm and moved to Marshall county; he attended 
the Salem College from 1864 to 1S68; he taught school until 1871, 
then commenced reading medicine under the instructions of Dr. T. 
T. Linn, at Bourbon, a very eminent surgeon in that place ; 
he studied with him for about five years, and in the meantime 
attended the Indiana Medical College at Indianapolis; in 1876 
he attended the Cincinnati regular Medical College, at which he 
graduated; he then returned home and commenced practicing in 
North Liberty. Mr. V. has distinguished himself in his profession 
in that town and vicinity: has been a member of the St. Joseph 
County Medical Society since 1S76. He was married Oct. 15, 
1878, to Miss Ella Vasburgh, daughter of Nelson and Eliza Vas- 
burgli. Mr. V. is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

George Waldsmilh was born in this county June 11, 1838; his 
parents, Peter and Susan Waldsmith, were natives of Ohio; he was 
reared on a farm in the wilds of St. Joseph county, and while others 
had access to common schools, he was deprived of them, having to 
stay at home and work for his mother, while his father was away 
laboring for their support. He was married Sept. 28, 1869, to 
Miss Maggie Lower, and their 2 children are Rosanna and Grant. 
Mrs. Waldsmith is a daughter of Peter and Rosanna Lower, 
natives of Ohio. She was educated in the Academy at Millers- 
burg, O., and followed school-teaching for about 16 years. Mr. 
W.'s father was a settler in this count}' at the early period of 1832. 

Geo. W. William* was born Nov. 1, 1837, in the State of Illinois; 
his parents were James and Mary Williams, the former a native of 
Indiana, and the latter of Virginia. In early childhood he was 
taken by his parents to La Porte county, where he grew to man- 
hood. Aug. 15, 1S62, he enlisted in the army in 21st Ind. Battery, 
and participated in the battles of Chickamanga, Hoover's Gap 
and other skirmishes. He served till the close of the war, was hon- 
orably discharged, and returned home and resumed farming. Feb. 
19, 1S69, he was married to Ann E. Auten, daughter of William 
and Sarah Auten, and their 2 children are Maretta M. and Charlie 
O. Mr. W. owns a farm of SO acres on sec. 36. 

Smnuel Williams, a prominent farmer in Liberty tp., was born 
in Cumberland county, Me., Dec. 18, 1802; his parents were George 



732 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and Mable (Lichfield) Williams, the former a native ot Maine and 
the latter of Massachusetts. Mr. W. came West with his family 
in 1S38, by lake from Buffalo to Detroit, and arrived in this county 
Nov. 3, at which time he had $300 in money. He bought 80 acres 
of land, and commenced improving it, and by perseverance and 
economy accumulated enough to enable him to live in retirement 
the rest of his days. He was married in 1835 to Eliza F. Thomas 
and they have 9 children, of whom 6 are living, viz.: Henry 
S., Frances M., wife of Joseph Cole, Harriet R., wife of A. Cun- 
ningham, Charles H., Paris A. and Eugene. Mr. W's father was 
a Captain in the war of 1812, and his grandfather Lichfield fought 
through the Revolutionary war. He is a member of the M. E. 
Church. 

Jonathan Witwer was born Feb. 10, 1822, in Lancaster county, 
Penn. His parents, Abraham and Elizabeth Witwer, were also 
natives of Pennsylvania. He spent his early days on a farm, and 
his educational advantages were limited to the common schools. In 
1843 he moved to Summit county, Ohio, and in 1861 to this 
county; in 1S64 he moved to Elkhart county, and in 1S68 re- 
turned to this county, where he still resides, following farming. 
He was married May 21, lS-tl, to Christina Henney, daughter of 
David and Margaret Henney, and of their 15 children 9 are 
living; viz.: Anna, now Mrs. Silas Fisher; Elizabeth, now Mrs. 
Samuel Thornton; Simon S., Margaret, now Mrs. Henry Ross; 
Joseph, John B., Lucy F., Charles L. and Maty. Mr. Witwer 
owns a fine farm of 100 acres in sec. 9, worth $5,000. Mr. and 
Mrs. W. are members of the Christian Church. 




LINCOLN TOWNSHIP. 

The territory now included in Lincoln township was formerly a 
part of the territory that constituted Liberty township, and owing 
to the great inconveniences to which the settlers in what is now 
Lincoln township were subjected in attending elections, they in 
June, 1866, presented to the Board petitions for the territory now 
included in the limits of Lincoln township to be detached and made 
an independent township, and that Walkerton should be the place 
of holding their elections, and that the township be given the name 
of Lincoln. Their petitions were granted by the Board, and the 
township was detached, and Wm. A. Hawe was appointed Trustee. 

The first election in this township was held in April, 1867, at the 
Walkerton Hotel, Mr. Wm. A. Haven acting as Inspector, Robert 
A. Wilson and J. O. Akin as Judges, and Paul Straub, Clerk. At 
this election 166 votes were cast. The following persons were 
elected to office, viz.: Neely Frame, Justice of the Peace; A. O. 
Hamilton, Trustee; and Zebedee James and Samuel Hudelmyer, 
Constables. At the next election Wm. J. Wolfe and John Caiman 
were elected Justices of the Peace, and H. J. Kinney, Trustee, 
which office he held till 1876. The present Justices are S. J. Nich- 
ols and Amos H. Stevison; the Trustee is Silas George. 

A considerable portion of the land of Lincoln township is marshy 
and wet, but is fast being reclaimed by draining. The leading 
industry of this township is farming in connection with stock-rais- 
ing. 

The first settlement in this township was made in the fall ot;1835 
by Christian Fulmer and family. The next spring Thomas H. Wiley 
came in, it then forming a part of Liberty township; it was slow in 
being settled, but about the year 1850 settlers came in more rap- 
idly and it was not long till it was mostly occupied and owned by 
the residents. 

WALKERTON. 

The only town in Lincoln township is Walkerton. This town 
was laid out in March, 1857, by one Mr. Allen. " West Troy," as 
it was formerly called, and which now forms a part of the town of 
Walkerton, was a village of only a few houses situated at the junc- 
tion of the I., P. & C. witli the B. & O. railroad. This village was 
laid out in 1855. The postofrice was designated as West York, and 
was situated one-half mile south of Walkerton. It was kept by Mr. 
C. W. N. Stephens, who had established it in 1851, and was the 
first appointee. He also had a grocery store, and still holds the 
position of Postmaster. The mail at that time was being conveyed 

(733) 



734 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

by the hack from La Porte to Plymouth, there being no railroads 
here. In 1854 Mr. Stephens built the first house in Walkerton, 
and also erected a store- building, and soon after opened a store, 
which was the first in the place. The site of Walkerton was then 
covered with a dense thicket. JS r o roads had yet been laid out. 
The settlers there who had stores would go out before breakfast, as 
they had leisure no other time of day, and chop and slash down the 
underbrush to make roads through which teams might pass. 

In 1S56 the wishes of the people were much gratified at the con- 
struction of the I., P. & C. railroad. Then the business prospects 
of Walkerton began to brighten. It continued to grow, and in 
1873 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was built, crossing the 1., P. 
& C. railroad at West Troy, which now forms the western part of 
Walkerton. In 1876' Walkerton was incorporated. The petitions 
were presented in 1874, but by some mistake were not received 
until 1876. 

The present business of Walkerton consists of four dry-goods 
establishments, one clothing store, two hardware and implement 
stores, three drug stores, one large furniture store, two hotels, one 
a very fine house, of which Mr. J. M. B. Giberson is proprietor, also 
groceries and restaurants, and two railroad depots, one grain depot, 
two millinery stores, two printing-offices; at one the St. Joseph 
County Republican is published, and edited by J. F. & W. C. 
Kmlly, and at the other the Walkerton Visitor is published and 
edited by Henry S. Mintle. There are also two meat shops, two 
saloons, one town hall, owned by Jacob Bender, one school-house 
and three churches. In all there are about 50 business men 
engaged here. 

The first church in the township was the Methodist Episcopal at 
Walkerton, and was erected in 1S5D, during the pastorate of Rev. 
J. E. Newhouse and the administration of Presiding Elder James 
Johnson. The following named persons were the establishes of 
this church: II. Haskins, exhorter and leader; Emery Otwell, 
exhorter and steward; J. A. Lambert, exhorter and leader, and 
several others whose names could not be obtained. This society was 
long known as the West York Mission Church, but some years 
since was changed to the name of Walkerton Church. Rev. R. H. 
Sanders is the present pastor. 

In 1870 the Baptist church was erected, and in 1876 the Roman 
Catholics put up a church building. 

The first school building in Lincoln tp. was erected in 1858 in 
Walkerton, and in 1S76 it was removed to the present situation. 
The same year an additional apartment was added for the purpose 
of holding a graded school. They now have three grades of schools, 
a high school, of which Prof. J. A. Jones is principal; the inter- 
mediate, taught by Mrs. C. M. Poffenberger; and the primary, by 
Miss A. Millard. 

Walkerton is a little town of much business, and being situated 
at the junction of two very prominent railroads, commands a 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 735 

wonderful amount of trade, especially grain. During the season ot 
1880 about 200,000 bushels of wheat were purchased at this point. 
Thus the outlook for the prosperity of Walkerton is good, and the 
place will, perhaps, in time become a populous town. 

PERSONAL HISTORY. 

The personal history of any community is the most important 
and valuable portion. We realize this, and in detailing the history 
of Lincoln township, speak very generally of those brave and sturdy 
pioneers who have converted the forests into fruitful fields, and who 
are to-day producing from the earth vast wealth. 

Abraham Barkley, dealer in drugs, groceries, etc., Walkerton, 
Ind. The subject of this sketch is a native of Ohio, and was born 
April 22, 1850. His parents, Samuel and Elizabeth Barkley, were 
also natives of Ohio. He was reared on a farm and educated in the 
common country schools. In 1872 he came to Walkerton and 
opened a drug store. In 1870 he studied dentistry under the 
instructions of Dr. Cooper, of Plymouth, and afterward under Dr. 
Jackson, of Walkerton. Mr. B. was married Oct. 27, 1873, to 
Frances A. Akes, by whom he has had 3 children. 

Allen Beall was born in Franklin county, Ohio, June 6, 1S20. His 
parents, Joseph and Catharine (Blout) Beall, were natives of old Vir- 
ginia's shore. He was reared on a farm; his educational advantages 
were limited to the common schools of the country, which were held 
in rude log cabins, where sometimes the ground served as the floor, 
and slab-seats, greased papier window lights, a large fire-place, 
almost the full width of the cabin, and a stick chimney were em- 
ployed. Columbus at that time was but a small town of about 000 
inhabitants. In 1832 his parents moved with him to Noble 
county, Ind., where he spent years of toil on the frontier. In 1866 
they moved to Missouri, where they lived about two years, follow- 
ing milling. He then came to this county, where he has since 
resided, engaged in farming. He was married Feb. 2, 1844, to 

Angelina Lee, daughter of Martin and (Kelly) Lee. She 

was a cousin of Gen. Robert E. Lee, so eminent in the Southern 
army in the last war. Five children were born to them, of whom 
4 are living, viz.: Rayon, B. H., next mentioned, D. W. and Helen 
L., now wife of P. Byers. Mr. Beall's grandfathers, Beall and 
Blont, were both soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Mr. B. owns 
a farm of 240 acres. 

B. II. Beall, attorney at law and notary public, Walkerton, Ind., 
was born in Noble county, Ind., Aug. 16, 184S, son of the above 
mentioned. He was reared on a farm, and educated in the Wolf 
Lake Seminary and Bloomington University, at Fillmore, Missouri. 
He graduated at the last named place and received the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. Soon after his graduation he commenced preach- 
ing in the Northwest Indiana Conference. In 1874 he was trans- 
ferred to the Nebraska Conference. He continued traveling and 



736 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

preaching in different States till 1876, when he commenced read- 
ing law, and was admitted to the Bar the same year. He has since 
been engaged in that business, preaching occasionally. Mr. Beall 
was married Dec. 23, 1867, to Miss Lois M. Gorsline, daughter of 
M. ft. and Julia A. Gorsline, and their 4 children are: Ellen M., 
Thos. E., Jesse and Ray. Mr. B's father is still living, at the ripe 
age of 67. As far back as we can trace Mr. B's ancestors we find 
that they took a very active part in military affairs; some of them 
were in the Revolution and others were on the frontier to protect 
the white settlers. 

• William Bellinger, farmer, sec. 17; P. 0., Walkerton, Ind. ; was 
born in Oneida county, N. Y., June 18, 1827; his parents, David 
and Olive (Martin) Bellinger, were natives of Massachusetts. In 
1S34 he went to Allen county, Ohio, and in 1863 came to St. Joseph 
county. Mr. B's father and mother both died while he was young, 
and he was bound out to a stranger. At the age of 21 his assumed 
father gave him $100 in money and a fine suit of clothes. Thus 
he started in life, and by his good judgment and continued indus- 
try he has become possessor of a farm of 120 acres, valued at $75 
per acre. Jan. 6, 1850, he was married to Miss Catharine Riggle, 
by whom he has had S children; of these, 7 are living, viz. : Geo. 
D., Sarah E. (now Mrs. Joseph Gahart), Olive A., Wm. M., Samuel 
M., John J. and Mary A. 

Jacob Bender was born in Pennsylvania Jan. 22, 1804. His 
parents were John and Barbara (Cook) Bender. He was reared 
on a farm till he was 16 years of age; then he worked at the under- 
taker's business till about 1825; then for the next 20 years he fol- 
lowed milling. He came to Starke county in 1814, and in 1816 
to North Liberty, this county; in 1848 went back to Starke county, 
and in 1855 returned to this county. He followed farming about 
20 years. In 1S63 he moved to Plymouth, and in 1864 came to 
Walkerton, where he has since resided. Mr. Bender was married 
Feb. 27, 1826, to Jane Dobbs, daughter of James and Harriet (Mil- 
ler) Dobbs, and they have had 10 children, 5 of whom are living, 
viz.: John S., a lawyer in Plymouth, who also traveled extensively 
in Europe, and wrote after his return to America a book entitled, 
" A Hoosier's Experience in Western Europe;" he is also author 
of a book on the money question; Robert H., Auditor of Starke 
county, who was for several years civil engineer of that county. 
Susanna J., now Mrs. Edward Tibbetts, in Marion, Ind; Adalaide, 
now Mrs. Dr. L. D. Glazebrook, of San Pierre; and JohnG., adry- 
goods merchant in Fort Wayne. Mr. Bender owns a fine brick 
store building, the upperstory of which is the noted Bender's Hall; 
it also contains an Odd Fellows Hall. Mr. and Mrs. B. are mem- 
bers of the M. E. Church. 

Jos. Blain was born in Pennsylvania Dec. 5, 1826, son of George 
and Eliza Blain; the former was a native of Ireland, and the latter 
of Pennsylvania. In 1863 he came to this county, where he has 
since resided, following farming. He was married June 8, 1854, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 737 

to Elizabeth Emans, and of their 12 children 8 are living, viz. : Anna 
E., Emma M., Clara, Ella J., Hannah M., George W.,Jas. H. and 
Andrew S. Mr. B. owns 160 acres of land, 8 of which lies in La 
Porte county. 

^ John Cotton was born on the island of Prince Edwards, Dec. 14, 
1822; his parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Cotton, were natives of 
Cornwall, England. They emigrated to America in 1822 and lo- 
cated in Upper Canada. Our subject lived in his native place till 
1S39, when he went to Trumbull county, Ohio; there he worked at 
the wagon and carriage-making trade for some years, then went to 
Akron; worked there at the same trade for two years; he then went 
to Ravenna and worked one year. In July, 1S43, he came to Elk- 
hart, and in 1849 went to South Bend. While at that place he 
worked at his trade, or till 1863, when he commenced working in a 
sash and blind factory. He followed that for about 12 years. In 
1868 he moved out into this tp., where he still resides, engaged in 
farming. He was married in 1S45 to Miss Rebecca Dever, by whom 
he had 6 children; of these, one is living: J. Willis. Mrs. C. died 
Sept, 30, 1876, and Mr. C. was again married l)ec. 20. 1877, to Sarah 
A. Quigley. nee Lambert, daughter of John A. and Mary Lambert, 
who were natives of Virginia. Mrs. C. was the wife of John B. 
Quigley, who was an extorter in the M. E. Church. Mr. Q. was a 
soldier in the late war, and while he was out he took sick and soon 
after died, at Harrodsburg, Ky. Mr. and Mrs. Quigley had three 
children, 2 of whom are living: Margaret M. and John J. H. 

John. Cripe was bom in Fort Wayne, Oct. 11, 1826, a son of 
Rinehart and Elizabeth Gripe. His father was a native of Pennsyl- 
vania and his mother of Ohio. In early childhood he was taken by 
his parents to Goshen, and in 1835 to South Bend. In the spring; 
of 1836 they moved out into Lincoln tp., where his father purchased 
a large tract of land, of about 1,000 acres. In the spring of 1847 
they started for Oregon, wintered at St. Joseph, Missouri, and in 
the spring of 1848 they resumed traveling and arrived at their des- 
tination Sept. 5. In 1850 they went to California, and located 
about 60 miles from Sacramento. In 1852 our subject, with his 
family, returned to their former home in St. Joseph county, where 
he invested in lands. His father bought a steam saw-mill; in this 
business he utterly failed. He then disposed of the remnant of his 
property, and in the fall of 1862 he and family started for Califor- 
nia. They spent the winter in Iowa, and in the spring John and 
his family started for California, and met his father and family at 
Council Bluffs, Iowa, where a large train was starting across the 
plains. They arrived in California Aug. 5. They returned home 
in 1865. on the Union Pacific railroad. Sept. 16, 1S70, his mother 
died, and the 30th day of the following October his father died, at 
the ripe age of 80 years. Our subject was married May 20. 1847, 
to Ann E. Petrie, daughter of Win. and Mary Petrie, natives of 
Canada, and they had 11 children, <-f whom 6 are living; viz.: 
William, Mary E., now wife of Jacob Rinehart; Joseph A., John C. 



738 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

W., Anna E., now wife of Marion Murray, and Ada J. July 23, 
1880, the happiness of Mr. Gripe was marred by the death of his, 
wife. In the death of this airnable woman a loss was suffered in 
that family that can never, never he repaired. She did all in her 
power to harmonize the feelings of this little family and to promote 
their earthly happiness. She was always cheerful and sociable, and 
by thus doing she won the love and esteem of all who knew her. 
Even the stranger, however depraved he appeared to be, was cared 
for and treated with the greatest hospitality. In this sad affair a 
family circle is broken, and the neighborhood has lost a friend whose 
equal is seldom found. She was a member of the German Baptist 
Church for 18 years, and during that time led a life of perfect con- 
sistency. 

Tobias Cripe, brother of the preceding, was born in this county 
in 1837; lived on a farm in St. Joseph county till 1S48, when he 
and his parents went toJOregon Territory. They lived 'mid the 
wilds of that uncivilized Territory till 1850, when they went to Cali- 
fornia, and in 1852 they returned to St. Joseph county. He followed 
farming here till the spring of 1863, when lie went back to Cali- 
fornia; he lived there till 1870, when he returned to this county, 
where he has since resided, following farming and stock-raising. His 
father was one of the earliest settlers in St. Joseph county; he 
broke the land of the first lot in South Bend. In 1862 Mr. Tobias 
Cripe was married to Ann R. Hullinger, by whom he has had 4 chil- 
dren, viz.: Sarah F., David S., Oliver and Edward. Mr. Cripe 
owns a farm of 115 acres, valued at $70 per acre. 

William Cripe was born in 1849 in St. Joseph county; his 
parents were John and Eliza Cripe, both natives of Indiana; he 
was reared on a farm and has since followed that occupation. He 
was married in 1S6S to Miss Jane Jones, and to them have been 
born one child, Ralph W. 

Benjamin Eager was born Oct. 25, 1S16, in Pennsylvania; his 
parents, John and Hester Eager, were also natives of Pennsylvania. 
In 1828 he and his parents went to Holmes county, Ohio, and in 
1835 to Seneca county. He was married Aug. 22, 1844, to 
Elizabeth Bolin, daughter of James and Mary Bolin. This union 
was blest with 7 children, 5 of whom are living, viz.: James M., 
John M., Benjamin F., Lee and Lottie, wife of Eleazer Smith. Mr. 
E. owns a farm of 156 acres. 

Dr. James F. Endly, editor and publisher of the St. Joseph 
Jiepuiliean, Walkerton, Ind., was born in Wayne county, Ohio, 
Aug. 22, 1839; his parents were Samuel and Rosanna Endly; when 
in early childhood, he was taken by his parents to La Grange, 
where he was reared and educated in the common school. He 
began the study of medicine when 18 years of age, and in one year 
quit it for a time; then resumed it and studied two years, and 
commenced practicing in De Kalb county, Ind. In 1866 he went 
to Brimfield, Noble count\ T , and in 1868 he attended the Bennett 
Medical College at Chicago. At the close of the term he returned 






~7 



i^c^t^ 



i^o^-a 



HISTOBT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 74:1 

to Brimfield and resumed practice. In 1875 he came to Walkerton 
and opened a drug store, also continuing practice till July. 1S79, 
when he and Dr. Richmond established a paper called The Van 
Guard/ after publishing this paper about three months, Dr. E. and 
his son Willie A. purchased the printing office and started the 
St. Joseph County Republican. Dr. E. was married June 22, 
1851, to Miss Cora A. Coomer, a native of La Grange county, and 
they have one child, Willie A. Dr. E. still owns a drug store in 
Walkerton, besides other property. 

Neely Frame was among the earliest settlers in St. Joseph 
county. He was born in Ohio Oct. 29, 1809; his parents were 
Jesse and Nancy Frame. In 1821 he came with his parents to 
Wayne county, Ind„ where he spent the first half of his life; and in 
1830 he came to this county, the southern part of which was then 
still an Indian territory. The county was organized the fall prior 
to his coming here. He saw the first boat that ever passed up the 
St. Joseph river; it was in the spring of 1831. Mr. Frame moved 
into Lincoln tp., where he was elected the first Justice of the Peace. 
He was married in June, 1845, to Catharine Leach, daughter of 
Daniel and Nancy Leach, natives of Pennsylvania; of their 11 chil- 
dren 10 are living, viz.: Nancy, now Mrs. Win. Long; Almira, now 
Mrs. Andrew; Eliza A., now Mrs. Lewis VanPelt; Daniel W., 
Horace G., Anson B., Schuyler C. and John N. He owns 140 
acres in sec. 13. 

Jaeoh G. Fulmer was born in New York Dec. 1, 1827. His par- 
ents, Jacob and Polly Fulmer, were natives of New York. He 
was reared on a farm and educated in a common country school. 
He eame to this county in October, 1853. In 1857 he was married 
to Miss Rosanna Hayes, by whom he has had 2 children, viz.: 
Schuyler C. and Maria E., both school teachers. Mr. F's great- 
grandfather, Christian Fulmer, served seven years in the Revolu- 
tionary war; first entered as a drummer boy. 

Oliver R. Fulmer is the 4th child in a family of 6 children, 
the others being Mary J., Evart, Alfred, William and Henry, all 
of whom are now deceased. Oliver was born in Cuyahoga county, 
N. Y., son of Christian Fulmer. He came with his parents to this 
county in 1835, and settled in Lincoln tp., being the first family 
that had settled here. Here on the frontier the subject of this 
sketch was reared to manhood. He was married July 10, 1854, to 
Elizabeth Dewitt, by whom he had 2 children, both dead. Mr. 
Fulmer again married Dec. 6, 1865, to Catharine Miller, daughter 
of Samuel and Elizabeth Miller, natives of Ohio. They have had 
3 children; Martha A., DoraM. and Mamie Pearl. Mr. F. followed 
farming till the spring of 1860, when he went to California, via the 
overland route. He returned in 1862 via Panama. In December, 
1863, he enlisted in the army in Co. H, 12th Cavalry. He partici- 
pated in the battles of Stone River, Huntsville, Alabama, and siege 
of Mobile, where he was taken sick, which resulted in his being 

47 



742 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

confined for six months in the Columbus hospital; after he recov- 
ered he returned home and resumed farming, which he followed till 
he moved to Walkerton. Mr. Fulmer is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity. 

Mr. Fulmer's father, Christian Fulmer, was born Oct. 4, 1799, 
and when the war of 1812 opened he, nothing but a boy of 13 
summers, procured a drum and enlisted for the position of drum- 
mer. He passed through that war, and when the Mexican war 
broke out he went as Drum Major there, and in the late war he 
was Drum Major. Thus he had a military life in three wars. He 
died Dec. 6, 1878, at the ripe age of nearly 80 years. He had been 
a member of the Baptist Church for a half a century, and fully that 
long a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

J. M. B. Criberson, proprietor of the Florence House, Walkerton, 
Ind., was born in Wayne county, N. Y., Dec. 25, 1833; his parents 
were Jacob M. and Anna Giberson; he was reared on a farm and 
educated in the common schools; when young he learned the 
harness-maker's trade, at which he worked in after years. In 1849 
he went to Lafayette, Ohio, and in 1850 to Liverpool, O., where he 
staid till 1852, wdien he went to Randolph, Stark count}', O. In 
1853 he came to Walkerton, where he resided till 1855, when he 
returned to his native place and remained till Aug. 22, 1862, when 
he enlisted in the army. He served one year in Co. D, 162d Keg. 
N. Y. Inf. While in the military service he participated in the 
following engagements: Fort Patterson, Algiers and the skirmish 
from Brazier City to Fort Patterson, which lasted seven days. He 
was discharged Aug. 3, 1S63, at New Orleans. He then returned 
to Walkerton and opened the Walkerton Hotel, which house he 
kept till 1875, when he buiit the Florence House. Mr. G. was 
married May 2, 1853, to Miss Lizzie Smallman. daughter of 
Francis and Elizabeth Smallman, and they have one child, Florence, 
now wife of Geoige H. Leslie. To them have been born 2 children, 
viz.: Ada Lizzie and Francis Morris. 

W. C. Sale, of the firm of Reece & Hale, meat merchants, was 
born June 26, 1S45. He is a son of William and Clarinda Hale, 
both natives of Virginia. His father died when he was but two 
years old. His mother is still living, at the aire of 60 years. 

Win. W. Hamilton, of the firm of Hamilton & Thompson, pro- 
prietors of the Walkerton Livery Stable, was born in Noble county, 
Ind., March 31, 1840; his parents, William and Nancy Hamilton, 
were also natives of Ohio; he was reared on a. farm, and educated 
in the common schools. In July, 1867, he came to Walkerton and 
opened a grocery store. He continued in this business a few years 
only. He followed buggy and carriage painting about five years. In 
September, 1S61, he enlisted in the military service in Co. C, 30th 
Regt. Ind. Vol., and participated in the battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing; was wounded and was afterward discharged, having served 
nearly one year. He was married July 12, 1871, to Miss Jennie 
Whitticar, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah Whitticar. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CODNTF. 743 

John W. Kirtsinger, proprietor of the Empire House, was born 
April 4, 184S, in the " Boone State." His parents were Harrison 
and Sarah Kirtsinger. He lived in Kentucky till 1859, when he 
went to Johnson county, Ind. During the years 1862-'63 he was in 
the employ of the Government, driving a stage-coach from Louis- 
ville to Bardstown in Kentucky; he returned to Johnson county 
in the early part of 1864, and in 1805 went to Marshall county, in 
1870 to La Porte, the same year he came to Walkerton, where he 
still resides. He was married Jan. 8, 1870, to Eliza Martin, by 
whom he had 4 children; of these one is living, L. Ettie. 

C. B.Libbey, jeweler and dealer in all kinds of American watches, 
clocks, jewelry, silver-plated ware, musical instruments and sewing 
machines, Walkerton, Ind.; is a native of Ohio, where he was born 
Feb. 14, 1841, and is a son of William and Lucinda Libbey, the 
former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Ohio. He lived 
on a farm until 1858, when he went to La Grange; in 1859 he went to 
La Porte city; Nov. 3, 1861, he enlisted in the army, in Co. B, 48th 
Kegt. Ind. Inf., and participated in the following battles: Iuka, 
Corinth, siege of Vicksburg, Raymond, Fort Gibson, Chattahoo- 
chee. Savannah, Raleigh, and with Sherman on his march to the sea. 
When he was discharged he returned to Rochester and worked 
at watch-making till 1871, when became to Walkerton and opened 
a jewelry store in this place. He carries a stock of goods amount- 
ing to $1,500, his annual sales exceeding his stock. Mr. L. was mar- 
ried Sept. 2, 1859, to Miss Marinda A. Richardson, by whom he 
had one child, Roscoe C. 

Rev. H. N. Macomber was born in Maine June 22, 1814. His 
parents were Elijah- and Elizabeth Macomber. He was reared on 
a farm and educated in Perces' Academy atMiddleborough, Mass.; 
was for ten years an itinerant minister of the M. E. Church of 
Maine. He still preaches. In 1845 he learned dentistry in Lynn, 
Mass., and first practiced at Saco, Me. In 1853 he went to Lynn, 
Mass., in 1867 to Elkhart county, Ind., in 1879 he came to Walk- 
erton, where he still resides, engaged in the practice of his profes- 
sion. Mr. Macomber was married in 1836 to Miss Mary Wingate, by 
whom he has had 4 children; of these one is living, Horatio E. 
Mrs. M. departed this life Jan. 2, 1876, and Mr. M. again married 
Feb. 8, 1880, to Mrs. Elizabeth Henderson (nee Lambert). Mrs. 
Macomber las taught school in this county for 20 years. Mr. 
Macomber' s grandfather on his father's side was a commissioned 
officer in the Revolutionary war; also some of his earlier ancestors 
were officers in that war. 

John J. Miller, proprietor of the stage line from Walkerton to 
South Bend, was born in Noble county July 29, 1840, and is a son 
of John and Rachel (Bailey) Miller; he was a farmer boy, and his 
educational advantages were limited to the common schools of the 
country. His father was one of the early pioneers of St. Joseph 



744 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

county. In 180ti our subject left Noble county and came to Wal- 
kerton, and engaged in the mercantile business, in which he con- 
tinued until 1871. He was also Constable and Deputy Sheriff' for 
four years. He also traveled for some time for Higgins & Belden 
Atlas Company; June 7, 1878, he made his first trip with the stage 
from Walkerton to South Bend, and has since been proprietor of 
that line. He makes three trips per week, viz.: Tuesdays, Thurs- 
days and Saturdays, leaving Walkerton each day at six a. m., 
arriving at South Bend at 11a. m., returning the same day, arriv- 
ing at Walkerton at 6 p. m. Aug. 18, 1S64, Mr. Miller was mar- 
ried to Miss Rhoda A. Wolfe, by whom he has had 3 children: 2 
of these are living, viz.: Jay Fred and Maggie Viola. 

Henry S. Mi/nile, editor and publisher of the Walkerton Vis- 
itor, was born Oct. 22, 1827, in Warren county, Ohio; his parents 
were Philip and MaryMintle, both natives of New York. He lived 
on a farm till he was 16 years old, then went to Port William, 
Clinton count)', Ohio; there he clerked in a dry-goods store till 

1847, then returned home and followed farming till December, 

1848, then he entered the dry-goods store of Jesse Rider at West 
Point; he clerked in this establishment till 1S61, when he enlisted in 
the war in Co. G, 40th Regt. Ind. Inf., but soon afterward was ap- 
pointed 1st Sergeant. He served in tin's capacity till 1863, when 
lie was discharged on account of his disability. He then returned 
home and had charge of the grocery establishment of Wileburg & 
Co., North Judson, for three years. Then he clerked in the store 
ot'Keller & Co., lS73-'4. In May, 1S75, he came to Walkerton, 
where he established the Greenback paper, the Walkerton Visitor. 
He issued the first number May 5, 1875; '.'00 copies of this paper 
are in circulation. Mr. Mintle was married Dec. 12, 1848, to Har- 
riet J. Nash, by whom he has had 5 children; of these, 2 are living; 
viz.: Flora B.. now Mrs. Fiddler, in Logan county, Ohio, and 
Ida A. 

Isaiah Poffenoerger physician and surgeon, Walkerton, Ind., was 
born in Ohio. Oct. 31, 1S36; was educated at the Seven-Mile Academy 
and Quaker Institute in Ohio; after finishing his scientific course 
he followed school-teaching for ten years; in 1856 he commenced 
reading medicine, and from 1859 to 1S(!2 heattended the Cincinnati 
Medical College, at which he graduated with the honors of his 
Class. He commenced practicing medicine in Seven -Mile, Ohio, 
and after a short time he came to South Bend. In 1S<!3 he enlisted 
in the army, was an assistant of Prof. Blackman, General Surgeon 
of the IT. S. army, and was with him at the battle of Chickamauga, 
Shiloh and Stone River. In March, 1865, he was commissioned 
by Gov. O. P. Morton as Surgeon, and he served in this capacity 
till the close of the war. He was married Oct. 16, 1861, to Mattie 
J. Edwards, by whom he had 2 children, viz.: Jennie V. and 
Addie R. Mrs." P. died Nov. 23, 1869, and Mr. P. again married 
April 5, 1871, to Cynthia McMunn. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSErH COUNTY. 71:5 

J. N. Reece was born Dec. 25, 1855. His parents, David W. 
and Nancy M. Eeece, are old residents of the county. He was 
reared on a farm and educated at Asbury University, has taught 
school about six years. He was principal of the North Liberty 
schools for two years; he is at present a meat merchant in Walker- 
ton. He was married May 11, 1S79, to Miss Luella Cole, daughter 
of D. C. and Harriet (Waggoner) Cole, natives of Ohio. They 
have had one child; namely, Charles Howard. Mr. R's grandfather, 
Jeremiah Wilson, was a Colonel in the war of 1812. 

Benjamin F. Rinehurt is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth Bine- 
hart, and the youngest of a family of 11 children. He was born 
in Coshocton "county, Ohio, Dec. 13, 1838. His parents were 
natives of Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm and educated 
in the common schools. Mr. Rinehart followed school-teaching 
eight years, in connection with farming. April 19, 1861, he 
enlisted in the army in Co. A, 21st Reg. Ohio Vol. Militia, 
under Capt. James Wilson. He served in that division about four 
months. He then returned home and resumed his occupation, 
farming and school-teaching. In 1863 he moved to Holmes 
county, O., and in 1861 he came to St. Joseph county, where he 
still resides, engaged in the independent business of farming. He 
has 220 acres. Mr. Rinehart was joined in marriage to Catharine 
Steele, Nov. 27, 1S62, and they have had 8 children, of whom 6 are- 
living, viz.: Robert E., Louisa E., Emma L., Seward O, Willard F. 
and Lawrence F. 

John Rudduck was born Feb. 16. 1809, in Guilford county, N. C. 
Tradition is that his great-grandfather came from Ireland about 
one century prior to the Revolution, and settled in North Carolina. 
He married and had a son, William, who married and had 2 children, 
Jane and John. John, the father of the subject of this notice, was 
left an orphan at a very early age, and was bound out to learn the 
hatter's trade; after attaining his maturity, he married Ursula 
Crews; and some years afterward emigrated to Tennessee, where he 
stopped on the Clinch river, and thence moved to Kentucky, and 
thence to Clinton county, Ohio. Their children are William, 
David, John, Sarah, Nancy, Isaac, Jonathan A. and Moses M. Mr. 
R.'s father died in Warren county, Ind., and his mother in St. 
Joseph. Mr. Rudduck served an apprenticeship with his father at 
the hatter's trade till he was 21 years of age, and then shouldered 
his rifle and knapsack and started for Michigan, where he arrived 
in May, 1832; while there Mr. Rudduck was a member of the 
military company under Gen. Butler; and while in that State he 
attended an Indian " war dance," at Edwardsburg, Cass county. 
He remarks that it was the most hideous sight and warlike he ever 
witnessed. In 1832 he came to St. Joseph county, at which time 
the country was a perfect wilderness. He followed the Indian trail 
from Logansport to the St. Joseph river, where Mr. Coquillard kept 
a trading-post with the Indians. He visited the few families that 
had settled in the great forest. At first he engaged in breaking 



746 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

prairie and made himself generally useful among the settlers. Aug. 
1, 1833, he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and 
Susanna Eupel, who were old settlers in this county. To them 
were born 8 children, 3 living, viz.: Nancy E., wife of Jackson 
Gard; Maria A., wife of Michael Loy, and Martha C, wife of 
Geo. W. Garwood. Mrs. E. died Jan. 30, 1874, and Mr. E. again 
married in October, 1878, Mrs. Sophia Cook, formerly the wife' of 
Eev. Elias Cook, deceased. Mr. E. is a member of the M. E. 
Church. 

Philo E. Buggies was born Oct. 19, 1815, in New York, son of 
Jehiah and Sybil Enggles, natives of Connecticut. In 1829 he 
went to Ohio, and in 1S3S came to St. Joseph county. In 1S43 he 
went to Marshall county, and in 184s he returned to this county. 
He was married in 1848 to Anna E. Leach, by whom he has had 
4 children; of these, 2 are living, viz.: Wra. H. H. and Jane, now 
Mrs. Arnold. 

A. B. Bupel, harness-maker, etc., Walkerton, Ind., was born in 
this county July 7, 1859, son of Jacob and Sarah Eupel, natives of 
Ohio. He was reared on a farm, and educated in the Walkerton 
schools. He was married April 12, 1880, to Anna Zahrt, daughter 
of Wm. Zahrt, who was a native of La Porte county. Mr. Eupel 
opened his harness shop in Walkerton in 1878, and has since con- 
tinued in the business. 

Jacob Bupel was born in Preble county, Ohio, Nov. 2S, 1806; 
his parents were Martin and Nancy Eupel, the former a native of 
Pennsylvania, and the latter of Delaware. At the age of 12 he 
went to Darke county, where he lived till 1835, when he came to 
this county, which was at that time a wilderness, with but a few set- 
tlers who had just ventured in. He was one of the organizers of 
Liberty tp., and assisted in building its first churches and school- 
houses. The wild deer roamed in great herds through the forests 
and over the swamps and marshes of the Kankakee. Mr. Eupel, 
in company with the noble red man, went on many a hunting ex- 
pedition over this territory, and by continued practice with the 
Indian boys became expert as a marksman, and was generally 
known there as the renowned "deer-hunter." Sometimes he would go 
out and kill two or three before breakfast, so very numerous were 
they. Nov. 20, 1827, Mr. E. was married to Miss Leah Miller, 
daughter of Christopher and Susanna Miller, who were natives of 
Pennsylvania. To this union were born 7 children, of whom 6 are 
living, viz.: Sarah, now Mrs. Benj. Eoss; Nancy, now Mrs. Mark 
Smith; John W. ; Mary, now Mrs. Lewis Paul; Susanna, now Mrs. 
C. W. N. Stephens; Lydia, now Mrs. Nathaniel Canada. Mrs. 
Eupel died Sept. 10, 1852, and Mr. Eupel again married Mar. 17, 
1854, Sarah Henry, by whom he had one child, Arvard B. Mrs. 
Eupel died Aug. 17, 1872, and Mr. E. again married Jan. 1, 1S73, 
Caroline Gill, who died June 13, 1S80. 

Bev. B. H. Sanders was born in Greensburg, Pa., Oct. 12, 
1833, sou of James S. and Mary A. Sanders. In early life he with 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 747 

his parents moved to Richland county, Ohio, and in 1846 came to 
Lake county, Ind., and located near Crown Point. Mr. Sanders 
was educated in a common school, and followed teaching for seven 
years, studying during spare time, and thus attained a fair educa- 
tion in the languages and theology, all without the instructions of 
any person. Thus Mr. Sanders well understands the process of 
self-acquired education. He was licensed to preach in 1861, and 
he immediately entered on his mission. He united with the North- 
west Indiana Conference in 1863. The following are the circuits 
which he has traveled: San Pierre, 1863; Winamac and Star City, 
1864-'5; Hebron, Porter county, 1S66-7; Valparaiso, 1868-'9; 
Argus, Marshall county, 1870; Westville, 1871; Door Village, 
1872-'4; at North Liberty, 1875-7; at Lowell, Lake county, 
187S, and Walkerton, 1879. Mr. Sanders has been unusually suc- 
cessful in his ministerial labors. He has averaged 100 accessions 
annually to the Church since he commenced preaching. He has 
also built several churches, one at Union Mills, one at Winamac, 
one at North Liberty, and one at Maple Grove. May 15, 1852, Mr. 
Sanders was joined in the bond of holy matrimony to Miss Mary 
A. Sutton. This union was blest with one child, Mellie J., wife of 
John C. Gordon, a grain dealer at Argus City. 

John Schwartz, of the firm of Schwartz & Tischer, proprietors of 
the "Walkerton Planing Mills, was born Nov. 1, 1838, in Richmond 
county, O. His parents were Henry H. and Elva Schwartz. He 
was reared on a farm. "When 18 years of age he learned the car- 
penter trade. Jan. 11, 1861, he married Jemima Brackney, by 
whom he has had 2 children, viz.: Anna E. and Lucia. 

John Smith was born in Montgomery county, Ohio. Oct. 22, 
1828. He is a son of Samuel and Catharine Smith. He was 
brought to this county by his parents in 1830. They first settled 
near Rum Village, about three miles south of South Bend. In 1835 
they moved to La Porte county. In 1848 they returned to St. Jo- 
seph county and in 1852 settled in Lincoln tp., where he still resides. 
When they first settled in this county the Indians were as numer- 
ous as the whites at the present da}'. South Bend was but a small 
village, and was a rendezvous for the red-skins, as it was a noted 
trading point between them and the whites. Mr. Smith, when a 
boy, attended school in a log hut. Thus we see his advantages to 
secure an education were very limited. Mr. S. was married Sept. 
30, 1853, to Miss Ellen Usher, by whom he had 4 children; 2 are 
living, viz.: Louisa J., now Mrs. Benj. Pratt, and Frank. Mrs. 
Smith died Feb. 11, 1878. Mr. Smith's grandfathers, Henry 
Smith and Samuel Harmison, were both soldiers in the war of 1812. 
They fought till the war closed, and were here also when Tecumseh 
fell. 

TJ. F. Town&end was born in Penn Yan, N. Y., in 1820. He is 
a son of John F. and Celestia To wnsend, natives also of New York. 
•His grandfather was an early settler in Pennsylvania, on the Sus- 
quehanna, some time during the French and Indian war, and was 



74S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CO0NTY. 

driven by the savage natives to Harrison rg. They escaped their 
hands by floating down the river in skin's and on rafts. TJ. F. 
learned the shoemaker trade when he was 11 years old, and has 
since followed that occupation. He came to Walkerton in 1870.- 
He was married in 1844 to Diantha Tuttle, by whom he has had 
13 children. Of these, 5 are living, viz.: Charles M., Cortez O., 
Ella M., now Mrs. Decker,Otto F. and Julia A. Many of Mr. and 
Mrs. Townsend's early ancestors were soldiers in the "Revolutionary 
war. Mrs. T.'s grandfather, Capt. Holdridge, served from its begin- 
ning to the end. 

J. B. Turner, the renowned theatrical proprietor and performer, 
is a native of Utica, N. Y., and was born April 6, 1828. His par- 
ents, Patrick and Nancy (Dunn) Turner, were natives of Ireland. 
Mr. Turner was educated at the Hamilton (New York) University. 
In 1848 he traveled with a troop as an actor; in 1849-'50, with a 
theatrical troop in Cincinnati : in 1851, in Detroit; from 1852 to 
1855 he was in New York city; from 1855 to 1S60, in Chicago; 
1861-'2, in Detroit; 1863 in New York city again with Bowey's 
Theater troop; 1864, in Chicago; 1865-'6, in Columbus, Ohio, Fort 
Wayne and Leavenworth. In 1867 he started with a troop of his 
own, and since that time has traveled over Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and N ebraska. The year 
1880 he was proprietor of the Emma Leland combination troop. 
Mr. Turner was married in 1868 to Miss Emma Leland. He 
owns a pleasant residence in Walkerton, where he can retire during 
the hot summer days and from the exciting scenes of theatrical life. 

E. J. Vincent, of the firm of B. H. & E. J. Vincent, was born 
Aug. 19, 1846, in this county; his parents are B. H. and Betsey 
Vincent, the former a native of England and the latter of Ohio; 
was reared on a farm and educated in the common country schools. 
The year 1S6S he followed railroading, and about seven months of 
1869 he clerked in C. Behrn's store at Walkerton. There he was 
packer in a flouring mill for a time. He then followed his trade, 
carpenter and joiner, till the fall of 1876, when he in connection 
with his father opened a furniture store at Walkerton, and were 
also undertakers. They carry a stock of goods, consisting of house 
furniture, caskets, etc., to the amount of $3,000. Their annual sales 
amount to $4,000. Mr. V. was married Aug. 23, 1869, to Rebecca 
Woodard, daughter of Samuel Woodard, and 3 children were 
born to them, of whom 2 are living, viz.: Edward B,., Clyde B. and 
Cora E., deceased. 

Thos. II. Wiley. Among the earliest pioneers in I now) Lincoln 
tp. was Thos. H. Wiley, who was born in Monroe county, Ky., 
Dec. 27, 1810, a son of John and Mary (Sims) Wiley. In 1815 he 
was taken by his parents to Ohio: in 1817 they went to Tennessee, 
and in 1827 returned to Darke count}'. Ohio. Thus he spent the 
days of childhood and earl}' manhood amid the wilds of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, and the vast, unbroken forests of Ohio, which then 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 749 

was inhabited only by the " noble" red man, and the wild animals 
roamed in almost countless herds through that vast wilderness. 
Mr. Wiley lived in Ohio till 1834, when he and his family, which 
■consisted of his wife and 2 children, started for the " Hoosier State " 
on horseback. After six days of tiresome traveling they arrived 
in St. Joseph county, where they set stakes and spread their blank- 
ets. There were at that time but four other settlers in this (Lin- 
coln) tp., and they were living some distance from him; all his near 
neighbors were Indians and wild animals. When Mr. Wiley arrived 
here he had but little property, and it consisted of two horses and 
another worthless " old plug.'' Thus he started in life. 

Mr. Wiley's educational advantages were very limited. He 
attended school held in log school- houses, with greased-paper win- 
dow lights, slab floor and seats, and stick chimney. What a hard- 
ship this would be to the children of the present day! In 1828 he 
was married to Miss Elizabeth Loring, by whom he has had 8 
children ; of these, 5 are living, viz.: Samuel, Augusta, Mary, now 
Mrs. John Dare, Geo. W. and John. Mr. Wiley's grandfathers, 
Wiley and Sims, were very early settlers in Kentucky. They were 
immediate successors of Daniel Boone, and one of them was an 
Indian spy. One day, in company with one Mr. Molky, a preacher, 
he struck an Indian trail. They followed it till it came to a large 
cavern in a hill, where they supposed an Indian had secreted him- 
self. They began to explore the cavern in search of " big Injun," 
but had not proceeded far when by accident Mr. Molky's gun was 
discharged. This frightened Mr. W. almost out of his wits, and 
he seized Mr. M. by the arm and almost instantly emerged from 
the cave and sought refuge behind a large tree, thinking that it 
was from the Indian's rifle and expecting the next shot would be 
aimed at him ; but was much surprised when Mr. M. recovered from 
the shock, to learn that it was from his gun. 

Leonard Wolf, deceased, was born in Hocking county, Ohio, in 
March, 1812. His parents were George and Mary Wolf. He was 
reared on a farm. His father was among the first settlers in Hock- 
ing county, which was then an immense forest of very large trees, 
among which wild animals roamed undisturbed. Mr. Wolf came 
to Noble county, Ind., at a very early day. In 1834 he married 
Lutetia Martin, a native of Fairfield county, O., a daughter of 
Ellison and Jane Martin, who were natives of Pennsylvania. 
While they lived in Noble county Mrs. Wolf shared the severe lot 
of an early pioneer. She frequently was alone for the full week in 
the little log cabin, as Mr. Wolf was absent laboring for their sup- 
port. The wild animals then were very numerous. Very frequently 
when Mrs. Wolf was alone and in the darkness of night, the vi- 
cious wolves, enraged by hunger, would come prowling around the 
pig-pen, and Mrs. Wolf would throw fire-brands at them and 
frighten them away. The wild Indian was also to be seen. At 
one time a band of 30 of these red savages camped on the farm 
near Mr. Wolf's, while she was alone. What moral courage was 



750 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



exhibited in these trying times! What heroic spirits these early 
pioneers possessed ! They knew not but they might at almost any 
time fall into the hands of the merciless savages and all be massa- 
cred, as such has been the case. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wolf lived in Noble county till his death, which 
occurred about 1870, when Mrs. W. came to Walkerton. She has 
had 10 children, 6 sons and 4 daughters, viz.: Wm. J., Ellison M., 
Theron, T. J., a clothier in Walkerton; Jane, now Mrs. Henry 
Hastetter; Rhoda A., now Mrs. John J. Miller; Martha, now Mrs. 
Calvin Gilbert; Geo. W., Chas. S. and Maggie B., a milliner in 
Walkerton. 




fs- 










MADISON TOWNSHIP. 

Madison township is situated iu the southwestern part of St. 
Joseph county, and is bounded on the north by Penn township, on 
the east by Elkhart county, on the south by Marshall county, and 
on the west by Union and Centre townships. 

This was one of the latest settled townships of St. Joseph 
county, the settlraent of which did not begin until about 1S40; and 
it is probable that to-day there are fewer old settlers living in the 
township from whom a complete history of its early settlement 
ought to be obtained than in any other township in the county. 
And it is likewise probable that at the time of its early settlement 
it was the poorest township of farming land in the county; and 
this accounts for the fact that it was not settled simultaneously 
with the surrounding townships. 

To-day the greater part of the land is marsh and covered with 
heavy timber; however, by means of ditches, and clearing off the 
timbered land and making use of the logs at the numerous saw- 
mills, great improvements and progress have been made within the 
last 20 years by the industrious class of citizens who are now resi- 
dents. And one would naturally suppose from first glance, did he 
not take cognizance of the fact that he was in Northern Indiana, 
surrounded by the oldest settled and most beautiful tract of coun- 
try in the whole State, that he was in the midst of some "Western 
country where the process of "clearing up" had just begun, or 
that he had been transported back a half century when the work 
of settlement had just commenced by our forefathers of old. As 
indicative of this fact, numerous saw-mills which maintain many 
families are found here and there in the midst of the tall timber 
throughout this township and county. 

Probably the earliest settlers of this township were Mr. Cline, 
who settled on section 19, and Mr. Bennett, who settled on section 
18. About the same time, during the year 1840, came Christian 
Helminger; in the year 1S41 came Godfried Enders; in 1842 came 
Mr. Palmer; Peter Kline, in 1S46; Adam Kieffer, in 1847; William 
Border, Thomas Crakes and Jonathan Gilman, in 1848; in 1S50 
the following, besides many others, made this township their home: 
Christian Grose, John Schaffer, Philip Berger, Adam iKader, and 
Michael Kettring. From this time on the township settled very rap- 
idly. In 1852 came Amos and D. B. Jewell; in 1853 came Hiram 
Locker, Jacob Hetzel, John Kelley and Jacob Marker. During the 
year 1854 a number of others settled here; the following are a few: 
Jacob Conrad, David Newcomer, A. J. Strope, Daniel Homes, 
Adam Mochel, John and Charles Kelley, Henry Flory, Harrison 

(751) 



752 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Pentecost and John Hawkins. In 1855 Samuel Shearer removed 
to this township; in 1856 the following: Jacob Loucks, A. C. 
Hiner and John Shenefield; John Barkey, in 1858; George Fried- 
man, in 185D; Jacob Birk, Jacob Futler and Henry Fox, in 1860. 

A considerable portion of the southern part of the township is 
known as the " Yellow river country," from the tact that the Yel- 
low river flows through it. Some of the early settlers of this 
region, whose names have not yet been mentioned, are the follow- 
ing: George Zimmer, Jacob Helminger, Nicholas Hummel, John 
Zigler, Joseph Zeiger, Christian Eslinger, Philip Manges, Michael 
Smith, Jacob, George and Philip Kline, John Meyers, Philip Ber- 
ger, Michael Fagler and Mr. Sweisberger. And besides the many 
already mentioned, there are still a few more who came some time 
prior to 1851: Hugh McLoughlin, James Belford, Joseph Jewell, 
Amos Wilson, J. Pittman, Edward and Jonathan Back, Philip 
Fries, T. Longley, Henry Allwood, Mr. Clugston and Mr. Crow. 

It is said that during the early settlement of this township men 
came and made it their home and set out fruit trees, making some 
improvements; but afterward becoming sick, gave up their land, 
abandoned their scanty improvements and left the township; and 
what was the most remarkable, in the course of a few years fruit 
trees were found growing in the midst of the forest trees and weeds. 

The first justices of the peace were Allen Mead and Mr. Bennett; 
the first law-suit in the township, was before 'Squire Mead, at Jiis 
house on section 15; the suit was between John Zeigler and John 
Newberrv, concerning: the shooting of a deer; however, the case was 
settled before entering into litigation. 

In 1871 a fire broke out in some parts of the township, starting 
from fires which men had built and then gone away and left them 
to do the work of destruction. These fires did immense damage to 
some residents of the township, especially in the eastern part, by 
way of burning their timber and fences. 

There are two cemeteries in the township; one on section 18 near 
the Evangelical Church, and one on section 22, near the German 
Lutheran Church. 

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. 

Madison township is well supplied with churches, there being five 
in it; a full and extended history of some of them it has been im- 
possible to obtain. 

German Lutheran. — This church, situated at Woodland, on sec- 
tion 15, was built in 1868. The first regular pastor was B,ev. Con- 
rad Schuster, of Bremen. Some of the first members of the Church 
were these: Adam Rader and wife, Adam Kieffer and wife, Leon- 
ard Jordan and wife, Joseph Meyer and wife, John Kelley and 
wife, Martin Slough and wife, John G. Klin* and wife, Martin 
Saner and wile, George Kelley and wife, Mr. Wahl and wife, Michael 
Andrew and wife, and Mr?. Mary Fulmer. The present pastor is 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 753 

Rev. George Rosenwinkle, of Mishawaka, who holds services every 
Sunday. The congregation at present is ordinarily large, and in- 
cludes some of the best citizens of the township. 

Evangelical Churches. — There are two Evangelical churches in 
the township, one situated on section 15, at Woodland, built by the 
Methodists, who held services there for a number of years, after 
which it was purchased by Fred Weber, Christopher Weigel and 
Fred Fassnacht, then members of the Evangelical Church. Since 
then that denomination has held services in it. Prior to the erec- 
tion of the present church edifice-, there was a log house on the same 
site, which was used for religious purposes. This building was the 
first church built in the township. The present pastor is Rev. F. 
Bolz, who is a resident of the township, and holds services there 
every other Sabbath. The congregation is small, numbering only 
about 16 members. 

The other Evangelical church, situated on section 19, was built 
in 1868, and supplied the place of an old log house which stood just 
across the road on section 18. Some of the charter members of the 
Church were: Philip Marker and wife, Matthew Klein and wife, 
Peter and Philip Bollenbacher and their wives, Nicholas, Philip 
and Jacob Schlarb and their wives, and Peter Bechler. The congre- 
gation now numbers about 45 members. The first pastor was Philip 
Wagner; the second was Nicholas Barghart; the third, Charles 
Ritzman; and the fourth, Fred rich Bolz, who is the present incum- 
bent. 

Evangelical Association. — The church known by this name, is 
situated on section 10, and was built in 1864. A few of the first 
members of the Church were: Jacob Zimmer and wife, Philip Ber- 
gcr and wife, Michael Zimmer and wife, Michael Smith_and wife, 
Christian Eslinger and wife, George WTsl^Sr-Tand wife, George 
Frei and wife. The first pastor of the Church was Rev. George 
Platz; the present one is Rev. E. Treyer. The congregation is* 
quite respectable in number, being about 55 or 60, and including 
many of the best citizens of Madison township. 

United Brethren. — This church is located on section 17, and was 
built in 1878. The congregation is small. The Kidders and A. 
Hummel were among the earliest members of the Church. The first 
minister of the Church was Rev. Mr. Simons, who helped to put up 
the church building. The present pastor of the denomination is 
Rev. Mr. Beghtel, of Elkhart county. 

SCHOOLS. 

The present School Trustee is Amos Snyder; who was elected to 
that office in the fall of 1877, and was re-elected in the spring of 
1880. There are 12 school buildings in the township, conveniently 
located, in which about seven months' school are kept annually. 
The educational interests of the township are well attended to by 
the citizens in every particular. 



754 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

WOODLAND. 

There is a small collection of houses in Madison township on sees. 
15, 16, 21 and 22, which is called Woodland. This little rural place 
was never laid out as a town, but a store was started here about 25 
years ago by Martin Fink and Wm. Shenefield, who continued run- 
ning a small grocery store and keeping a little whisky — which was 
very common in those days — for about two years. At the end of 
that time they abandoned the business and a store was never opened 
until 1877, by Mr. Maiming; this was run by Dr. Bishop, a prac- 
ticing physician at the place. A-fter a short time the store went 
into the hands of Adam Mochel and Fred Weber, who still have 
the place. A short time after the first store was opened, Conrad 
Kelley started a saloon, but continued only about three years; the 
same institution was then conducted by Michael Kettring for three 
or funr years, until about the close of the war. 

In 1872 Philip Buhler started a blacksmith shop, and still con- 
tinues; about the same time, or a little prior to this, Fred Weber 
started a wagon shop; he also still continues in the situation. 

Dr. Fisher, who located there in May, 18S0, is a practicing physi- 
cian. 

There is a good school-house in the place, built in 1871 or '75, 
which does honor to the citizens of the immediate neighborhood. 
The first and only postoffice ever established in the township, is at 
this place, and Fred Weber is now postmaster; however the office 
at first was a short distance south of Woodland. 

So that at present the place consists of a small grocery store, 
which does a small business, a postoffice, wagon-shop, blacksmith 
shop, one doctor, a school-house and two churches. But just half a 
mile south of Woodland is a large saw-mill, which tends to add some- 
what to the business interests of the township. This mill is situ- 
ated on section 22, and was built in 1864 by Lang, Smith & Co. It 
next passed into the hands of Lang, Frank & Co.; at present the 
firm name is Lang & Frank, but the mill is run by Charles Frank. 
They are doing a good business, employing from four to twenty 
hands. In 1875 they put in machinery for making staves, which 
they continue to manufacture. 

There is also another large saw-mill on section 27, run by Scott 
Shenefield and his cousin. The mill was built in 1864 or '65, by 
the following men, as a kind of joint- stock company: F. Shearer, 
Lewis Wed ling, Peter Coler and another man. The present pro- 
prietors purchased it in February, 1879, and aredoing a good busi- 
ness, hauling considerable lumber to Mishawaka. They run the 
mill four or five days in the week. And there is still another large 
eaw-mill on section 13, owned and run by Thomas and L. W. 
Crakes. The first mill on this site was built several years ago, but 
two or three have been burned down on the same location. 
Mr. Crakes and son, the present proprietors, have owned it but a 



HISTORr OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 755 

short time. They are doing a good business, and sell lumber at 
Mishawaka and South Bend. 

But even this one does not complete the number of saw-mills, 
for they seem to be more numerous in Madison township than any- 
thing else. There is one on section 24, owned and run by Adam 
and Peter Buhler. This mill was built about four years ago. The 
one on section 33 is owned by William Uline; the one on section 
eight, by Mr. Huntberger; and the one on section ten, by Mr. 
Miller; and just across the road from the saw-mill, on section eight, 
is a small grocery store, owned by Jacob Pittman. 

Madison township has not the advantages of a railroad town. At 
one time the Canada Southern was proposed through the southern 
part, but the track was never laid: neither are the watering facilities 
of the township numerous. There is a branch of a stream in the 
northeastern part, which waters that portion; and in the southern 
part the Yellow river passes; but this is a small stream, being of 
little or no benefit to the township, as it is almost entirely dry. 

But everything in connection with Madison township seems to 
presage that its day of rank in the county has not yet come, for 
there is certainly something better in store for the citizens here; 
and we venture to say that Madison township will some day be 
one of the finest townships of farming land in St. Joseph county. 

PEESONAL. 

The following sketches are short biographies of many of the 
pioneers and leading citizens of Madison township, which will be 
found equally interesting to the residents of the community. 

John Barkey, farmer, sec. 8; P. O., Mishawaka; son of John 
and Susan (Buzzert) Barkey, was born in Holmes county, O., in 
1828, and is of German descent. His parents, who are now 
deceased, were natives of Pennsylvania. He came to this county 
in 1858, and settled in this tp., where he still resides, as a success- 
ful farmer; politically, he is a Democrat. When commencing in 
life he was limited both as to his education and finance ; but he has 
been an industrious tiller of the soil, a prudent manager and an 
upright man; he now owns 240 acres of land in Madison and 20 
acres in Penn tps., all of which is worth about $60 per acre. In 
1855 he was married to Elizabeth Weldy, who was born in Ohio in 
1828, and they have had 3 children, of whom only one, Levi, still 
survives, Susan and an infant child being dead. Mrs. B. is a 
member of the Mennonite Church. 

Peter Behle?\ son of George and Catharine (Shearer) Behler, 
both of whom died in New York, was born in Germany in 1817, 
came to America in 1848. and to this tp. in 1851; he was married 
during the same year to Mary Webla, a native of Germany, and 
they have had 9 children, of whom 8 are living: Philip, Peter, 
Sarah, Fredrick, Adam, Charles, Jacob and Joseph. Mr. B. and 



756 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

wife are members of the Evangelical Church. He owns 300 acres 
of land in this tp., although he commenced with nothing. 

Philip Bergei\ son of Michael and Fredrica (Matz) Berger, 
deceased, was born in Germany in 1821, and came to this country 
with his parents in 1832, and to this State in 1838, settling in 
Marshall county, where he resided until 1850, when he came to this 
tp. He was married during the same year to Elizabeth Walmer, 
who was born in Germany in 1S26; they have 10 children: Peter, 
Mary, Michael, Elizabeth, William, Katie, Edward, Caroline, Sarah 
and Ellen. Mr. B. and his wife are members of the Evangelical 
Association; politically, he is a believer in the doctrines of the 
Republican party. His educational advantages were rather limited; 
he has worked hard all his life, being poor when he began for him- 
self; he now owns 280 acres of land, which he values at about $30 
per acre; he is a successful tiller of the soil on sec. 15. P. O., 
Bremen. 

Jacob Birk, farmer, sec. 30; P. O., Mishawaka; was born in 
Germany in 1836, and came to this country in 1852, and to this 
county in 1860. He is a son of George and Elizabeth (Feerer) 
Birk, now deceased, and were natives of Germany. In 1857 Mr. 

B. was married to Regne Hoss, who was born in Germany in 1833; 
they have 6 children, all of whom are living: Christina, Henry. 
Elizabeth, Catharine, Susan and Lewis. They are members of the 
Evangelical Church. He owns 140 acres of land, worth about $35 
per acre. 

Peter BoUenbacher, son of Michael and Elizabeth Bollenbacher, 
was born in Prussia in 1823, and came to this country in about 
1848, and to this tp. in 1855. He had nothing when he first began 
in life and has worked hard during the whole time. He now owns 
80 acres of land, worth about $45 per acre. He was educated in 
Germany; is a Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the 
Evangelical Church. In 1849 he married Miss Margaret Schlarb, 
who was born in Germany in 1821; they have had 6 children, of 
whom only 2 are now living: Margaret, who is the wife of Jacob 
Topper, a farmer in this tp., and William, who is still at home. 

Jacob Conrad, son of Jacob and Mary (Stilengerbouer) Conrad, 
was born in Prussia in 1S47, and came to this tp. in 1854. He 
was married in 1873 to Mary E. Marker, who was born in this tp. 
in 1856, and they have 2 children: John P. and Charles J. Mr. 

C. and wife are members of the Evangelical Church. Politically, 
he is a Democrat; his educational advantages were only ordinary. 
He owns 40 acres of land; has worked hard all his life. 

Thomas Crakes, son of Francis and Martha (Marshall) Crakes, 
was born in England in 1827, and was brought to America by his 
parents when quite young. They first settled in New York, and 
are now deceased. Mr. C. came to this tp. in 1848; he was married 
in 1849 to the widow Hollingshed. whose maiden name was Mary 
Moon; she was a native of New York, and died in 1S6S, leaving 6 
children : Francis M., Lawrence W., Martha A., Mary J., George 




.-. 




HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 759 

O. and Hattie H. In 1868 lie was married to Elizabeth (Moon) 
Pickerel, a sister to his former wife, who had 3 children: Cath- 
oline, Alonzo and Martha. Politically-, Mr. C. is a believer in the 
principles of the Republican party; he and his wife are members 
of the M. E. Church. Mr. C. owns 125 acres of land, worth about 
$6,000; also a saw-mill and eight acres on which it is located, 
worth about $1,400. Mention of this mill has already been made 
elsewhere. He has always been an industrious farmer, and is now 
on sec. 7! In 1S61 he enlisted in the array, in company F., 48th 
Ind. Inf. Vol., at Mishawaka, under the command of Captain Bur- 
ket; was in the service until Jan. 16, 1865, when he was honorably 
discharged. He engaged in the battles of Iuka, Corinth, Vicks- 
burg, Jackson and Champion Hills, together with a number of 
other battles, entering as a private, but was soon promoted to Cor- 
poral, and afterward to Sergeant, which position he occupied during 
the whole war. P. O., Mishawaka. 

Traugott Enders, farmer, sec. 3; P. O., Bremen; sonoi'Gotfred 
and Fredrica Enders, natives of Germany; was born in this tp. in 
1842; he came with his parents to this county about 1841. In 
1864 he was married to Catharine Rader, who was born in 1836, 
and they have 6 children, 2 boys and 4 girls. Politically, Mr. E. 
is a Republican. He and wife are members of the Albright Church. 
He owns SO acres of land, worth about $50 per acre. 

Henry Fox, son of John and Mary (Shier) Fox, was born in 
Ashland county, O., in 1842, and came to this county in 1S60. His 
father and mother were natives of Germany; the former is living 
in this tp., and the latter died in 1875. Mr. F. was married in 
1872 to Philbena Schlarb, a native of Indiana; they have had 4 
children, of whom 2 are now living: George and Frida. He and 
wife are members of the Evangelical Church; politically, he is a 
Democrat; he owns 120 acres of land worth about $4,000. 

Charles Frank, son of George F. and Catharine (Roup) Frank, 
natives of Germany, was born in Pennsylvania in 1842, and came 
to this county in 1864. His mother is now living in Pennsylvania, 
and his father died there in 1S72. Mr. F. is prominently connected 
with the history of Madison tp., and is one of its most enterprising 
citizens; he is now Justice of the Peace; is a member of the Odd 
Fellows lodge at Bremen, number 427, and a Republican. In 1868 
he was married to Man' A. Bhhheit, who was born inJPennsylvania 
in 1844, and their 3 children are: George F. , Norman J. and Es- 
tella M. 

Mr. F's educational advantages when young were good; he 
reads a good deal, both in German and English. At present he is 
in partnership with Fred F. Lang, of Mishawaka, and is running a 
steam saw-mill on sec. 22, mention of which has already been made. 
He is an equal partner in the mill, which he values at about $6,000, 
and also in 160 acres of land, worth about $4,000. 

George Friedman, fanner, sec. 9; P. O., Woodland; son of John 
and Mary (Bower) Friedman, dec, natives of Germany, was born 

48 



760 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

in German} 7 in 1S22; he came to America in 1851, and to this 
county in 1859; he was married in Ohio in 1851, to Margaret Bols, 
who was born in Germany in 1825, and they have 5 children living, 
3 boys and 2 girls. Mr. F. and family are members of the 
Catholic Church; his educational advantages in Germany were 
good. He owns 90 acres of good land on sec. 9, worth about $60 
per acre, and is a hard-working man. 

Isaac H. Gilman, farmer, sec. 9; P. O. , Mishawaka; son of 
Jonathan and Berintha (Ferns) Gilman, natives of New York; was 
born in Indiana in 1840, and is of English descent. His parents 
emigrated to this county in 1848, and settled in this tn. In 1866 he 
was married to Lizzie A. Bartlett, who was born in New Hamp- 
shire in 1841, daughter of Josiah and Hannah (Clark) Bartlett; her 
great grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence. The}' 
have had 4 children, of whom 3 are now living: Mary L., 
Abbie F. and Charles E. Mr. G. and wife are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church; politically, he is a Kepuplican. They 
ownJISO acres of good land, which they .value at $75 per acre. In 
1861 Mr. G. enlisted in the army at Goshen, under Col. Eddy, of 
South Bend : he was in the service three years, and eight months; was 
in the battles at Inka, Florence, the siege of Vicksburg, and was 
discharged at the close of the war. 

Christian Grose, farmer, sec. 21; P. O., Woodland; is a son of 
Jacob and Elizabeth (Helminger) Grose, and was born in France 
in 1822; became to this country with his parents in 1827, and to 
this county in 1*50. He was married in 1S48 to Sophia Shearer, 
whowasbornin France in 1829; they have had 12 children, of 
whom 9 are living, namely: "William, Margaret, Sadie, Katie, 
Abram, Christian, Philip, Ellen and George. Mr. G. and wife are 
members of the German Baptist Church. He owns 200 acres of 
land on sees. 21 and 22, and is a careful, industrious farmer. 

John, Halm, farmer, sec. 20; P. O., Mishawaka; son of Henry 
and Barbara Hahn; was born in Germany in 1S22, and came to 
America in 1831. Ho was married in 1844, and has 5 children, all 
living. Politically, Mr. H. is a Democrat. He and his wife are 
members of the Evangelical Church; he owns 80 acres of land and 
is an industrious farmer. 

Jacob Hetzel, son of Gottlieb and Katie (Rinehart) Hetzel, was born 
in Wittenburg, Germany, in 1827, and came to America in 1851. His 
parents were also natives of Germany and are both deceased. He 
came to this county Nov. 1, 1853, and settled in this tp. He was 
married in Germany in 1849, to Fredrica Wagner, who was born 
in Germany in 1S27, and they have had 11 children, of whom 9 are 
now living: John, Fredrioa, Katie, Mary, Caroline, Sarah, Paulina, 
Ernest and Matilda. He owns 96 acres of land; he and his wife 
are members of the Evangelical Association. 

D. B. Jewell, a prominent farmer, sec. 23; P. O., Mishawaka; 
is the son of Amos and Lorinda (Brown) Jewell, and is the oldest 
of a family of 6 children, of whom 4 are now living. His parents 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 761 

were natives of New York; they came to this tp. in 1852, and set- 
tled on sec. 24, where they both died. D. B. was born in Portage 
county, O., in 1822, and is of English descent. He was married, 
first, in 1848 to Nancy Crocker, a native of Connecticut, who died 
in 1852 at the age of 2(5 years; and, secondly, in 1S53, to Eleanor 
Galor, a native of Indiana, who died in 1862, leaving 3 children: 
Cynthia D., Lusetta L. and William JVL; two others died when 
quite young. lie was married again in 1S63 to Mary (Avery) Allen, 
who had 2 children, George B. and Milan W. Mr. and Mrs. J. 
have one child, May F. 

Mr. J. has been Trustee of the tp. and was Enrolling Commis- 
sioner for the tp. during the war; jie is a Republican, and a mem- 
ber of the Baptist Church; his wife is a Methodist. His educational 
advantages were quite limited, being compelled to attend subscrip- 
tion schools in log houses. He owns 150 acres of good land, worth 
about $45 per acre. 

Charles Kelley, son of John and Anna (Fulmer) Kelley, deceased, 
was born in Germany in 1829, and was brought to America by his 
parents when only two years old and to this county about 1854. 
In 1S55 he was married to Fredrica Lang, a native of Germany, 
and they have 5 children: Peter, Fredrick, Emily, Bertha and Ida. 
Mr. K. owns 140 acres of land which he values at $40 per acre. He is 
a hard-working man, and a good citizen; has been a farmer all his 
life, and is now on sec. 21; P. O., Woodland. 

Z. T. Longenecker, farmer on sec. IS; P. O., Mishawaka; was 
born in Ohio in 1S49, and is the son of Levi and Elizabeth (Welty) 
Longenecker, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter 
of Ohio. They came to this county in 1864, where they both died. 
Mr. L. and his two maiden sisters own ISO acres of land, worth 
about $60 per acre. Politically, he is a Republican; his education, 
when young, was only such as was afforded by common schools. 

Adam Moehel, farmer, sec. 22; P. O., Woodland; was born in 
Germany in 1S22, and came to this country in 1S50. His parents, 
John and Margaret (Mornawick), natives of Germany, are deceased. 
Mr. M. came to this tp. in 1854, and was married in 1853, to Agnes 
Kelley, who was born in Germany in 1825; and their 8 living 
children are: Rosa, John, Mary, Katie, Ernest, Martin, Charles and 
Edward. Mr. M. and wife are members of the Evangelical Church. 
He owns 80 acres of land, worth about $3,000, and is a partner in 
the store at Woodland, of which mention has been made. 

Harrison Pentecost, farmer, sec. 15; P. O., Woodland; was born 
in Ohio, in 1812. His parents, Joseph and Mary (Worrell) Pen- 
tecost, now deceased, were natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. P. came 
to this county in August, 1854, and settled in this tp., where he has 
been a resident and successful farmer ever since. He was married 
in 1S40 to Susanna Bolinger, who was born in Ohio in 1819, and 
they have 2 children: Adaline, wife of Jacob Kelley, a farmer ot 
this tp., and Lavina, wife of Jonas Williams, a resident of Michi- 
gan. Politically, Mr. P. is a Democrat; his education was limited, 



762 HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

but lie reads a great deal. He owns 220 acres of land, which he 
values at $40 per acre. He had no start in life when he began for 
himself, and has worked hard all his life, being a careful manager, 
an industrious citizen, and an obliging neighbor. Mrs. Pentecost, 
who is still living, has been quite unfortunate in suffering from 
insanity. 

John Sahafer, farmer, sec. 8; P. 0., Mishawaka; son of Adam 
and Margaret Schaffer, deceased; was born in Germany in 1822; he 
came to America in 1850, and was married in 1855 and has 8 
children:. John, Jacob, Peter, Tadnah, Philip, Frederick, Maggie and 
Mary. Mr. S. owns 160 acres of land which is worth about $40 per 
acre; he is a Democrat. His wife is a member of the Evangelical 
Church. 

Jacob Schlarb was born in Germany in 1829, and came to Amer- 
ica in 184S. He is a son of Philip and Margaret Schlarb. In 
Ohio, in 1857, he was married to Mary Kleinschroth, who was born 
in Germany in 1839; they have 6 children, all of whom are living: 
William, Mary, Sophia, Katie, Charles and George. Mr. S. owns 
90 acres of land, which he values at about $50 per acre; he is a 
Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Evangelical 
Church. Mr. S. has been an industrious farmer all his life and is 
now situated on sec. 13; P. O., Woodland. 

Nicholas Schlarb, farmer, sec. 13; P. O., Mishawaka; son of 
Philip and Margaret Schlarb; was born in Germany in 1827, and 
came to this country in 1847, and settled in Ohio, where he remained 
until 1855, then came to this tp. He was married in 1854, to Mar- 
garet Bicker, who was born in Germany in 1832, and they have 5 
children: Bena, Philip, Catharine, Margaret and Jacob. Mr. S. 
owns 80 acres of good land. He and his wife are members of the 
Evangelical Church; Mr. S. is a Democrat. 

Eli Shearer, farmer, sec. 34; P. O., Woodland; was born in 
Carroll county, O., in 1S53, and is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. 
His father, Samuel Shearer, was born in Pennsylvania in 1807, and 
died in this tp. in 1877; his mother, whose maiden name was Mary 
E. Fleck, was born in Pennsylvania in 1810, and is now living in 
this tp. Mr. S. came to this tp. with his parents in 1855. Politi- 
cally, he is a Republican; his educational advantages were not the 
best, but he is a great reader. 

Scott Sheuejield, farmer, sec. 34: P. O., Woodland; son of Daniel 
and Mary (Slough) Shenetield; was born in Ohio in 1844, and is of 
Pennsylvania Dutch descent; his parents, natives of Pennsylvania, 
are now dead. Mr. S. came to this tp. in 1863; he was married in 
1867 to Elizabeth Mornawick, who was born in Ohio in 1847, and 
they have 3 children: Cora, Minerva and Berton. Politically, Mr. 
S. is a Democrat. He owns 70 acres of land, worth about $50 per 
acre. He and his cousin alsoownand run a saw-mill on sec. 27. 

Amos Snyder, farmer, sec. 28, and School Trustee of the tp., 
was born in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1837, and is of German 
descent. His parents, Samuel and Sarah (Birch) Snyder, natives of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



763 



Pennsylvania, are now living in Ohio. Mr. S. came to this 
county in 1S62, and settled in Penn tp. in 1S65, where he lived 
until 1870, when he came to this tp. He was married in 1865 to 
Catharine Kettring, who was born in Ohio in 1848; they have 6 
children, all living: Sarah E., Emery, Franklin, Matilda, Norman 
and Cilia. In 1877 Mr. S. was appointed School Trustee; in 1878 
he was elected to that oiBce, and in 1880, as an appreciation of his 
services, he was re-elected ; he has also held the office of Assessor 
two terms. Politically, he is a Democrat; his education was quite 
limited, being confined to a few months school in the winter time. 
He owns 40 acres of land, and is an honest and industrious man. 
In 1S64 he enlisted in the army at Appleton, Wisconsin, in the 
40th Wis. Regt., under the command of Captain J. H. Hauser. He 
enlisted for one hundred days, and at the expiration of his term, 
was discharged. P. O., Woodland. 

Frederick Stuber, son of Frederick and Catharine (Collinbarger) 
Stuber, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, in 1S47, and came with 
his parents to America in 1868; he was married in 1878 to Mary 
Mochel, who was born in this tp. in 1854; and their children are 
William and Catharine. Mr. S. and wife are members of the Evan- 
gelical Church. He owns 100 acres of land, on sec. 9, which he values 
at about $50 per acre; he had very little start when he commenced 
life for himself, and has secured all he has by hard work. 




OLIVE TOWNSHIP. 

Scarcely any township in Northern Indiana presents a fairer 
domain or more fertile soil than Olive township; but not until 1830 
was it occupied by enterprising members of the white race. At 
the date mentioned there were about half as many Indians in this 
section of the county as there are whites at the present day. 

Among the oldest settlers of Olive township we may mention 
that man of great memory, Mr. Barvilla Druliner, of New Carlisle, 
who was born July 7, 1S07; Joseph Adams and wife, of section 31, 
the oldest couple now living in the township. Mr. A. made his 
start in the West by splitting rails, at 50 cents per 100, while 
boarding himself. He has made as many as 500 rails in one day. 
The young men of to-day would as soon try Dr. Tanner's experi- 
ment of fasting 40 days as to make 500 rails in one day. Jacob 
Rush, who was born in Ohio in 1806, is now living on section 36, 
one of our oldest pioneers. He held the plow for the first furrow 
ever turned in this township, and he also helped to raise the first 
cabin here, which belonged to his brother Israel Hush, who was 
afterward the first Justice of the Peace, and died in 1837. Jacob is 
still a lively and energetic man. Asher "White was a boy of only 
16 years of age when he came here in 1830. His biography is 
given more in full on a subsequent page. 

Among the oldest settlers now deceased we mention Samuel and 
Jesse Goward, Jeremiah Williamson, John Balker, James Shingle- 
ton, Nathan Haines, Isaac Phillips, Jacob Egbert. There are oth- 
ers whose names we did not fully obtain. 

What is now known as Olive township was once called the Indian 
reserve. In 1S30 the northern line of the State was removed 10 
miles farther north, in order that Indiana might have greater access 
to the lake. 

At this time it was thought that it would be no great task to 
civilize and Christianize the untutored savage, and soon to have him 
wash off his paint, lay aside his tomahawk, change his wigwam to 
a permanent house, his habits of idleness to those of industry, from 
reading the tracks of wild animals to the tracts of Christianity, etc., 
and consequently the whites established the " Carey Mission " one 
and one-fourth miles below Niles, at a point now called the Big 
Springs. It had at one time 200 Indian pupils. By a law of the 
general Government each pupil at this mission was to have 160 
acres of land, to be selected for him by the Indian agent from the 
ten-mile strip mentioned above. Hence a large portion of this 
township was selected for these pupils; and hence also the Indians 
in this community were more quiet and friendly than elsewhere, 

7' I 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 765 

and the whites felt safe among them. It is true that they suffered 
an alarm in this vicinity at the commencement of the Black Hawk 
war in the Northwest. It was reported that an Indian had killed a 
white man in the wild country where Chicago now stands, and ten 
men went from this settlement to examine the situation, but they 
returned the next day, having found no cause of alarm. A fort was 
built at Plainlield. 

This part of Indiana was surveyed in 1S30 by William and Noah 
Brock, the latter running the base lines, and the former dividing 
the land into sections; and this township received its name in 
honor of the wife of Charles Vail. She is still living in New Car- 
lisle. Mr. Y., who settled here in 1830, was afterward elected County 
Judge. After the survey of the township, the first Justice of the 
Peace acted as County Commissioner until the regular annual elec- 
tion. 

The first death in this township was that of Jonathan Garwood; 
another of the earliest deaths was that of Mrs. Garoutte, by freez- 
ing. She lived, however, just outside of the present limits of the 
township. See sketch, a little further on, of Hon. T. J. Garoutte, 
her son. 

The first couple married in this township, according to the Atlas 
of the county, were Charles Yail and Olive Stanton, but this is not 
correct. 

By the } T ear 1S36, about all the Government laud was taken up. 
The land office was at Crawfordsville, and there were residents 
enough to justify the holding of public religious services. The first 
church was built at Hamilton in 1838, by the Methodists, who still 
hold meetings in it. At that time Hamilton was the great busi- 
ness center for this part of St. Joseph county. Since the railroad 
has been built through the county and made a station at New Car- 
lisle, Hamilton has run down. This place is frequently called Terre 
Coupee, from a postoffice of that name near there. There are also 
at Hamilton a neat school-house, a grocery and several residences. 
This village is situated near the center of section 2i, in Terre 
Coupee Prairie. This prairie was very marshy before it was drained 
and cultivated; it is now one of the most fertile spots in the State 
of Indiana. It is over four miles in diameter and contains 3,000 or 
-1,000 acres, which is worth $80 to $120 an acre. It is almost as 
level as a barn floor, and just sandy enough for agricultural pur- 
poses. 

New Carlisle is beautifully situated on a hill at the southeastern 
extremity of this prairie, and it therefore overlooks this fertile plain. 
Most of the village is on section 34-. It was founded by Richard 
P. Carlisle, a sportsman and traveler of early day, who finally died 
in Philadelphia. The land at this point was first owned by Bursaw(?), 
a Frenchman, whose wife was an Indian; after his death the prop- 
erty descended to his children, and it was from them that it was 
bought by Mr. Carlisle. 



766 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Olive township is wealthy, as we see that while IS sections are 
yet unfilled and even unpastured, it pays a large tax. Most of the 
unfilled lands are marsh or timber, and the timberand underbrush 
are so heavy that it seems as if it would take a man a life-time to 
clear an acre; but the Polanders are clearing it up fast. Fred G. 
Miller imported the first company of Polanders into Indiana in 
1865, most of them settling in this township, in what is called 
the marsh timber. At the present time there are 35 families liv- 
ing in this timber, where in a short time they have succeeded in 
clearing and subduing to cultivation 20 to SO acres apiece,with plenty 
more land to clear; one strip of timber in the southern part of the 
township surrounded by marsh, is called Long Island; and another 
piece of timber similarly situated is called Hog Island, on account 
of the great number of wild hogs which fattened themselves herein 
early day on the plentiful mast. Mr. Kinney relates that he and 
Mr. H. H. Clark once passed through this island and found two 
large piles of skeletons of hogs, which had piled themselves up in 
this manner to keep warm during a spell of severely cold weather, 
but froze to death. 

Politically, Olive township is pretty evenly divided; but during 
the last war it did its duty toward putting down the Rebellion. 
The draft was executed here, and the township voted to raise 
money by taxation to fill her quota. A few men thought to resist 
this tax, particularly George W. Woods, who was quite obstinate. 
Some roughs thought they would try something else than moral 
suasion upon him, and they put him under a pump spout and 
pumped water upon him to a damaging extent. Since that time 
they say he has never " rebelled." 

Among the prominent and wealthy citizens of this township are 
John Reynolds, said to be the richest man in St. Joseph county: 
James Reynolds, Henry H. Clark and H. B. Ranstead, who, with 
Mr. John Reynolds, are the largest land-holders in the township; 
J. H. Service and R. Hubbard, wealthy pioneers. The Messrs. 
Reynolds, Clark and Ranstead all together own 7.433 acres of land, 
a great deal of which is on the Terre Coupee Prairie. This, as 
before shown, is very valuable. 

CHURCHES. 

Met hod int Episcopal. — James Armstrong was the Evangelist of 
Methodism in this county, influencing many persons to move from 
older parts of the State. He remained here as an enterprising 
missionary till his death, in the fall of 1834. The first Methodist 
society in St. Joseph count}' was organized at the house of Paul 
Egbert, on Terre Coupee Prairie. It consisted of eight individuals, 
and John Egbert wasappointed class-leader. According to tradition 
among this people, the class was formed by Rev. E. Felton, of the 
Ohio Conference, in 1830. This class was supplied with pastors 
somewhat irregularly until 1834, when the work was thoroughly 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 767 

re-organized by Mr. Armstrong, the Presiding Elder; since that 
time this society has been regularly supplied. 

The first Methodist house of worship in the county was erected 
at Hamilton, and was dedicated in May, 1841, by Rev. Aaron "Wood, 
D. D. The first Methodist preaching at New Carlisle was by Rev. 
Abram Saulsberry, in 1849, then on " Byron Circuit." The first 
class in New Carlisle was formed in 1853, of the following mem- 
bers: Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Pidge, Josiah Pidge, Jacob Hopkins, 
James and Delilah Egbert. Mr. and Mrs. James S. White and Eliza 
White. Rev. A. H. Pidge was the class-leader. This year the 
parsonage was built, and ever since then it has been the home of 
the circuit preacher. The church building at this place was erected 
in 1858. 

Since those early dates of organization, etc., many changes have, 
of course, taken place. 

Christian Church. — Early in 18(58, Elder Ira J. Chase, ofMisha- 
waka, Ind., at the request of two or three resident disciples, began 
in New Carlisle a series of sermons on primitive Christianity, 
assisted at the first by W. M. Roe, pastor of the Christian Church at 
Rolling Prairie. The result was an accession of several converts to 
this Church, and March 29 the Church was regularly organized in the 
chapel hall of the New Carlisle Collegiate Institute. Arrangements 
for erecting a house of worship were immediately made; a very de- 
sirable location was secured, and during the winter of 1869-'70, the 
building was finished, a neat and tasteful structure with a seating 
capacity of about 200, and costing $2,500. March 13, 1870, the 
dedication sermon was delivered by Elder Chase. Since the organ- 
ization the Church has had the following pastors: W. M. Gleason, 
Jesse Roe, Joseph Wickard, J. P. Lucas, M. L. Blaney and M. J. 
Thompson. The society has been growing in numbers and influence 
until now it has a membership of about a hundred. It also has a 
well-sustained Sunday-school. 

Olive Chapel, on section 11, is a house of worship occupied by 
the "Church of God," "New-Lights," " Campbellites," or "Chris- 
tians," as they are variously called; they prefer the last-mentioned 
title. This society was organized in an early day, and they have had 
many trials. The chapel is a neat and substantial building, 34 by 
48 feet, with ceiling 16 feet high, and cost $1,900. It was dedi- 
cated Oct. 10, 1S69, by Elder Summerbell, of Cincinnati, Ohio. The 
membership at the time of organization, Jan 1, 1841, consisted of 
James S- Parnell, at whose house the society was formed, J. S. 
Hooton, Esther Hooton, Polly Parnell, William Hooton and Jack- 
son Hale and wife. Elder John Spray was the first preacher; 
William Hooton was the first elder, and he has been elder ever 
since. The membership at the present time numbers over 150. In 
1877 Rev. S. C. V. Cunningham held a series of meetings here, 
which resulted in a greater accession to the membership than has 
ever been enjoyed at any other time. The Church is now without 
a minister. 



768 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

SCHOOLS. 

The old saying that it is better to be born lucky than rich may 
be applied to New Carlisle. The citizens here built their water- 
works in 1879, when everything was cheap. If they had waited 
until next year, this public improvement would have cost twice as 
much as it did. Likewise, they bought an $8,000 school-house for 
$1,500, happening to select a lucky time for the purchase. It is a 
two-story brick structure, 44 by 75 feet, neatly finished, and was 
first erected by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1S59, which 
failed to pay its indebtedness on the building, which was $1,500. 
And as another element of good fortune to the people of this munic- 
ipality, a large number of people in the adjoining country added 
themselves to New Carlisle for school purposes, on account of this 
very purchase that had been made. It turned out that this build- 
ing cost some of the M. E. Church members more than it would 
had it been built by regular taxation. For example, J. H. Service 
gave $500 to start it as a Methodist college, and afterward was taxed 
to buy it for the town. Every dollar, he sa}-s, was a good invest- 
ment. 

At the present time the school is in. a flourishing condition, 
under Prof. A. E. Rowell, an old and experienced teacher; he has 
three assistants. 

LODGES. 

Masonic. — Terre Coupee Lodge, Number 204, was organized in 
1856, with the following members: E. Whitlock, Abraham Pyle, 
A. A. Whitlock, James L. Perkins, J. H. Service, T. L. Borden, E. 
Bacon, J. C. Williams, E. II. Keen and P. Pierce. Mr. Pyle was 
chairman at the organization, and the following officers were 
elected: Abraham Pyle, W. M.; A. A. Whitlock, S. W.; J. L. 
Perkins, J. W.; E. Bacon, S. D.; J. C. Williams, J. D.; J. II. 
Service, Treas. ; T. L. Borden, Sec; and E. H. Keen, Tyler. This 
meeting was held over T. L. Borden's store, July 24, 1S56, where 
they continued to meet until ls(>2, when they changed the place of 
meeting to a room over the store of J. II. Service; here they met 
until 1S76, when the new brick block was erected, one-third the 
expense of which was defrayed by the lodge, and this society has 
exclusive control of the upper story, all of which, except two rooms, 
they lease. 

The lodge is in a flourishing condition, having a membership of 
69, and comprising most of the leading men of the community. 
Eight members are Sir Knights. George Bissell is the present 
Master. The lodge is strict in the execution of the laws and regu- 
lations of Masonry. 

Good Templars. — Olive Branch Lodge, Number 149, 1. 0. of G. T., 
was organized Jan. 4, 1875, by G. W. C. T. J. J. Talbott, with the fol- 
lowing persons as its first officers: A. T. Evans, W. C. T.; Mary Hoyt, 
W. V.T.; Josie Service, W.S.; Eli Miller, W. A. S.; Martha Lyda, 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 769 

"W. Treas.; E. H. Harris, W. Fid. Sec; John Grigg, W. M.; Hattie 
Flanegin, W. D. M.; Libbie Albright, W. I. G.; Thos. M. Grigg, 
W. O. G.; Emma Miller, W. R. H. S.; Charlotte Harris, W. T. H. 
S. ; and Joel Harris, P. W. C. T. There were also 30 other mem- 
bers. 

From Nov. 1, 187S, to Aug. 1, 1880, the membership increased 
from 95 to 143, and the lodge is now the second in size in the State. 

ANTI-HORSE-THIEF ASSOCIATION. 

The Terre Coupee Anti-Horse-Thief Association was organized in 
1853 or 1854, for the purpose of protecting the property of its mem- 
bers against the depredations of thieves, and for detecting and 
apprehending parties guilty of horse-stealing. The association 
agrees to recover stolen property or indemnity the owner of the 
same, if he is a member of the society. The charter of this asso- 
ciation expired at the end of 20 years, according to law, and it was 
reorganized, with the same objects and purposes, but on the plan of 
a mutual insurance company. They pay for stolen horses 30 days 
after they fail to find them, at the rate of two-thirds the value of 
the property. If, after the payment has been made, the horse is 
found and recovered, it is optional with the owner whether he 
returns the horse or returns the money, for the horse might be 
damaged. 

This society has been a great protection, not only to its own 
members, but also to every horse-owner in the community. During 
the 25 years of its existence, not as many as 30 horses have been 
stolen within their jurisdiction, and all have been recovered but 
two, and one of these was a two-year-old colt, not gone 30 days yet 
at this writing. The membership is 120 strong, each " rider" being 
authorized to act as constable for the purposes of the association by 
a State law; and they seldom fail to capture every thief that dares 
to steal a horse in this neighborhood. At first the territory of this 
association was unlimited, but now it is confined to Olive and 
Wills townships, in this county, and Hudson township in La Porte 
county. H. Reid was the first President, T. L. Borden, Secretary, 
and T. J. Garoutte, Treasurer; the latter has acted in that capacity 
ever since. The present officers are I. N. Miller, President; S. C. 
Lancaster, Secretary; T. G. Garoutte, Treasurer; Managing Com- 
mittee — Granville Woolman, Eli Wade, Wm. P. White, H. B. 
Knight ami Charles Ivins. Committee on Communications — J. H. 
Service, Joel Harris and T. G. Garoutte. Riders — T. B. Fawcette, 
J. G. Druliner, Wm. H. Deacon, Joseph Burden, Wm. P. Lane, L. 
H. Rush, H. V. Compton, Charles Ivins, D. J\J. Cury, Milton 
Thompson, John Ackerman, T. L. Borden, Eli Wade, W. W. 
France and James Nickerson. 

WATEK-WOEKS. 

New Carlisle has a successful system of water-works just estab- 
lished. When the project was first proposed in 1S79, there was 



770 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

considerable opposition; and as it required a two-thirds vote of 
the property holders to carry the measure through, it required 
skillful engineering to insure success. As the expense was the 
principal objection, Mr. George H. Service offered to insure the 
sale of bonds at par, and thus the people were encouraged to vote 
for the issue of $7,000 bonds, which were negotiated at par, at seven 
per cent., with a savings bank in Vermont, to run 15 years; and 
now the village has a perfect system of water- works. 

NEW CARLISLE GAZETTE. 

This was established as an independent newspaper, by G. H- 
Alward, of South Bend, and G. M. Fountain, of Mishawaka. The 
first number was issued Feb. 6, 18S0; in size it was a six-column 
folio, and was enlarged to a seven-column folio on its reaching the 
11th number. Aug. 20, 1SS0, Mr. Fountain purchased the interest 
of his partner and enlarged the paper still farther to an eight- 
column sheet, and made it a Republican paper. Its growth, though 
rapid, has been warranted by the liberal patronage bestowed upon 
it by the people, especially the merchants of the place, who, with 
few exceptions, have done all in their power to make the paper a 
success. A biographical notice of Mr. Fountain will be found on 
page 777. 

PERSONAL SKETCHES. 

We now complete the history of this township by giving bio- 
graphical sketches of old settlers and leading citizens. These 
sketches are not only interesting to the parties themselves and their 
friends, but they constitute a vital portion of the real history of the 
community. 

John Anderson, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 25; P. O., New Car- 
lisle; was born in Sweden Sept. 20, 1832, son of Andrew Johnson; 
received his education in the common schools of his native coun- 
try; came to America in 1S69, landing at Chicago, when he did 
not have a dollar; in a few weeks he came to this county, went to 
work, and he now owns 255 acres of land; is Supervisor and is doing 
well. In politics he is a Republican. He was married in 1853 to 
Kate Abrison, and they have had 8 children, 7 of whom are living, 
4 boys and 3 girls. Mr. A. brought his family to this country two 
years after his arrival. He and his wife are members of the 
Lutheran Church. 

Martin Bute, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 31; P. O., New Car- 
lisle; was born in Green county, O., in 1831, the son of Samuel 
and Harmony (Allen) Bate, subjects of the next paragraph. In 
1857 he married Margaret Kinney, and they have had 4 sons and 
one daughter, who are all yet living. Mr. Bate owns 163 acres of 
land, and has enjoyed fair success in his vocation. Although not a 
very old man, he can be counted an early settler, as he was very 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEl'H COUNTY. 771 

young when brought by his parents to this county. Politically, he 
is a Democrat. His wife is a member of the M. E. Church. 

Samuel Bate, a pioneer school-teacher, was born in 1801, and is 
the son of Joseph and Priscilla (Ayers) Bate, natives of New 
Jersej', the former of Welsh and the latter of English descent. He 
received his education in subscription schools of New Jersey, Ohio 
and Indiana; at the age of IS he commenced teaching school in 
the neighborhood where he was reared; the undertaking was rather 
contrary to his wishes, and to govern the unruly boys he sent slips 
of paper to their parents informing upon them, who would there- 
upon give them a flogging. Only three cases of this kind, however, 
sufficed to put an end to their misdemeanors. Mr. B. had the 
native abilities of a successful teacher. In 1830 he married Miss 
Harmony Allen, a native of Virginia, a Quaker, who died in 1S60; 
4 of their children are still living. Mr. Bate cast his first vote for 
Jackson and is still a Democrat. He arrived in this county Sept. 
31, 183-1, at which time the Indians were numerous, but friendly. 
He taught school three terms after coming here, and since then 
has followed farming; he owns two farms, and began at the age of 
75 to feel that the cares and toils of his business wore upon him. 

Theodore L. Borden was born Sept. 22, 1822, in the State of 
New York, the son of Isaac L. and Mary Annette Borden, the 
former a native of New York, and the latter of Ireland. He 
emigrated from New York to Michigan in 1838, and from the 
latter State to Indiana in 1845. He received his education in 
New York, Michigan and Indiana, attending the high school 
at South Bend. His early life was spent on a farm; at 24 years 
of age he entered the dry-goods and grocery business, which 
he followed 16 years in New Carlisle; since that time he has 
been farming. In 1850 he married Eliza Whitlock, and they 
have 3 sons and 3 daughters. Mr. Borden is a Republican, a 
Unitarian in belief, and his wife is a member of the M. E. Church. 
He has been remarkably successful in business, and is now the 
owner of 700 acres of valuable land. He emigrated from New 
York to Michigan in 1S38, and from the latter State to Indiana in 
1845. 

F . Brown was born in this State Jan. 7, 1819, the son of Wil- 
liam and Eva (Kingery) Brown, natives of Virginia, father of Irish 
and mother of German descent; was educated in a common school 
and by his own perseverance at home; taught school five -years of 
his early life; followed merchandising and milling in Franklin 
county, this State, for 20 years; followed farming for five years; in 
1876 started the mill in New Carlisle, which has three run of stone, 
where he is succeeding well at both custom and merchant work. In 
1841 he married Lydia Hughes and they have one child living, Eva 
B., born in 1853 and married in 1876 to J. B. Shera, a farmer liv- 
ing in Ohio. Mr. Brown has been a Republican ever since the 



772 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

organization of his party; be has been Steward and Class-Leader in 
the M. E. Church at New Carlisle, of which society his wife is 
also a member. 

Andrew J. Bryant, farmer, sec. 15; P. O., New Carlisle; was 
born in 1S41, and is the son of David and Euth (Antrum) Bryant, 
natives of Ohio, and of English descent; educated in the common 
schools of Ohio; came to this county in 1861; in 1864 married 
Gertrude McDaniel, and they are both members of the United 
Brethren Church; he is a Republican. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. 
F, 94th Ohio Infantry, and was discharged at the close of the war; 
he was in the battle of Murfreesborough. Mr. B. has the reputa- 
tion of being an honest and industrious citizen. 

Andrew J. Campbell, farmer and stock-raiser on sec. 10, was 
born in this State in 1830, the son of William and Sarah (Bagley) 
Campbell; father of North Carolina and mother of Lower Canada; 
she came to America when a girl. Mr. C. spent his early life at 
the wagon-maker's trade; received his education in the common 
schools of Indiana and Ohio. He was brought to this tp. in 1835 hy 
his father. In 1855 he married Hanna J. Graves, a native of Ohio, 
and they have had 11 children, only 5 of whom are living. Mr. C. 
is a Democrat, and both himself and wife are members of the Chris- 
tian Church. In 1864 he was drafted and placed in the 23d Ind. Vol. 
Inf., and discbarged at the close of the war. He now owns 220 
acres of land, is somewhat in debt, but is getting along well. 

James Catterlin, one of the early settlers of La Porte county, 
was born March 9, 1805, the son of Joseph and Mary (Messer) Cat- 
terlin, father a native of Scotland, and mother of Pennsylvania, and 
of English descent; the former was a Revolutionary soldier seven 
years under the command of Gen. Washington; he disd in 1823 at 
the age of 83, and his second wife died in 1831, in her 59th year. 
Mr. James Catterlin, the subject of this notice, moved from Ohio 
to Indiana March 15, 1S35, settling in Galena tp., La Porte county, 
where he lived on the same farm 44 years; at present he is living 
in New Carlisle. He has been twice married, first in 1828, to 
Agnes Johnston, who, 14 years afterward, died without having any 
children. Mr. C.'s second wife was Margaret Kyger, born in 1822, 
in Virginia; they were married in 1844, and have had 11 children; 
3 sons and 3 daughters are living. Mr. C. has been a member of 
the Presbyterian Church 48 years, and all his family are members 
of the same Church. He was formerly a Whig and is now a Repub- 
lican. 

Henry H. Clark, farmer and land speculator, sec. 31 ; P. O., 
New Carlisle; was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1S16. He is 
the son of Thomas and Rachel (Martindale) Clark; received his 
education in the common schools in Warren county, Ohio, and also 
St. Joseph county, Ind. He has been farming most of his life and 
has been remarkably successful; at the present time is the owner of 
1,500 acres of land. He has dealt in lands, sold and bought and 
traded for a great many years. He was married in 1847, to Matilda 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 773 

Olds, and the} 7 have had 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls. Mrs Clark 
is a member of the M. E. Church. In politics Mr. C. is a Kepub- 
lican; never wanted any office; he refused to serve as Justice of the 
Peace after he was elected; but this year he lias been Supervisor of 
this tp. He came to St. Joseph county in 1S34, and has seen many 
changes in this country. He can relate many amusing anecdotes of 
his hunting with the Indians. He was able to talk their language. 
He tells of a narrow escape that he had, which happened in this 
wise: he had two friends, young men, to stop witli him for a short 
time; they had never seen an Indian; he consented to take them 
into the Indian settlement near here. They arrived in due time, 
found the Indian man away, and he entered into conversation with 
the squaw. The boys laughed to hear him talk Indian; all at once the 
squaw disappeared, and in a short time they saw her man pass the 
window with a knife in his hand. Mr. C. heard him say that he 
would kill the pale-faces. Mr. C. at this time began to think of his 
safety, and being familiar with the Indian's habits, looked over the 
door, and, as he expected, saw the Indian's gun loaded and capped, 
ready for business; and when Mr. Indian thrust in his burly form 
and painted cheek at the door, he was seen to halt and remove his 
knife from the threatening position it had assumed. There he 
stood, looking down the muzzle of his own gun, and the pale-faced 
man, Mr. Clark, at the other end. They soon settled the little affair, 
and were contented to let by-gones be by-gones. The boys were 
fully satisfied that they had met an Indian, but did not seem to like 
his personal appearance any too well. Mr. C. tells also of catching 
prairie chickens here in the prairie grass when it was wet. He 
would rouse them up and they would light soon; then he would 
pull the high grass down over them, take out the chicken, drop it 
into the sack, and lead for the next. 

H. Y. Compton, liveryman, New Carlisle, was born in Butler 
county, Ohio, Sept. IS, 1S29, the son of Josiah and Jane (Marise) 
Compton, of German descent, father a native of Ohio and mother 
of New York; received his education in this State, whither his par- 
ents had emigrated when he was one year old ; and when he was 
six years of age they moved to this county, where the subject of 
this sketch has ever since resided, — 45 } T ears. He has passed the 
most of his life on a farm, but now keeps a first-class livery stable, 
which he owns, besides a farm of 150 acres of good land. 

James Davis, deceased, was a successful farmer. He was among 
the early settlers of Olive tp. He was born in Butler county, Ohio, 
in 1802, the son of Daniel Davis, and of Welsh descent. He 
received his education in the common schools in Ohio. He was 
married in 1824 to Jane Hull. They were the parents of 3 chil- 
dren, all boys, only one of whom is living at the present time. 
The eldest was married, and at his death, which occurred in 1877, 
left a wife and 7 children, 4 girls and 3 boys; the eldest girl is liv- 
ing with her grandmother, who is still living on sec. 8, the old 



774: HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

homestead. The subject of this sketch died in 1873. His wife, 
Jane, nee Davis, is still living. She used to be a good horseback 
rider; when 15 years of age she rode on horseback from Florida to 
Ohio, and says she enjoyed the trip very much. She was born in 
1807, in Hamilton county, Ohio; came to this county in 1S35, in 
company with her husband, James Davis, who died here in 1873. 
They were married in Hamilton county, O. She now owns 184 
acres of land in two farms, one in Indiana, the other in Michigan. 
Mr. D. was a Republican in politics. Samuel, the onl}' child living 
of the family, spent 20 years of his life as a telegraph operator; at 
the present time he is a photographer in Michigan. 

James iV. Davison, farmer, sec. 15, was born in Otis, Berkshire 
county, Mass., April 30, 181S, and is the son of John and Anna 
(Gile) Davison, natives of Massachusetts, and of English ancestry; 
educated in the common schools of his native State; in 1842, in 
Pennsylvania, he married Miss Harriet Clark; of their 5 children, 
2 are living; she died in 1852, and in 1855 Mr. D. married Mrs. 
Redding, nee Alvira Bishop, a native of Ohio. Mr. D. had but 
very little when he first came here, has been successful in business, 
and now owns 160 acres of choice land. He is a Republican, and 
lias been Supervisor of the tp. 

L. G. Davison, born in Tennessee Dec. 8, 1844, is the son of 
the preceding. lie received his education in the common schools 
in Indiana and Ohio. He was married in 1869 to Martha E. Hall, 
and they have 3 children living. They are both members of the 
Dnnkard Church. He is a Republican; he came to Olive tp. in 
1851, to the place where he now is living, 11 years ago; has been 
successful since he commenced business for himself. He is the 
owner of 80 acres of land on sec 15. 

R. D. Egbert was born in this county in 1852, and is the son of 
Asher and Elizabeth (Dunn) Egbert, natives of the State of New 
York, who were among the pioneers of this county; of their 4 
children only 2 are living, both boys; the youngest, S. F., is living 
in Colorado; R. D. is living on his farm in this tp., the owner of 
180 acres of land; has attended the high school at South Bend. 
He is not married. P. O., Terre Coupee. 

Zachariah Emrick was born in Ohio Oct. 4, 1846, the son of 
George and Frances (Arnold) Emrick, of German ancestry; edu- 
cated in the common schools; was married in 1S67 to Catharine 
Sayring, and they have 2 sons and 2 daughters; they are living at 
the residence of her father, who was born in Pennsylvania March 
23, 1815, and is a farmer; lie owns 190 acres of land; had but one 
dollar when he commenced keeping house. In religious belief he 
is a Friend, and in general character he is very charitable. Mr. 
Emrick is a young man of industrious habits, is a successful 
farmer, and in politics a Republican. 

Thomas B. Eawcett, born in Benton county, Ohio, in 1834, is 
the son of David and Ja.ie (Walker) Fawcett, father a native of 
Ohio and of Scotch descent, and mother of Virginia and of English 





J) 11^. — /i S^C^ 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CODNTY. 777 

descent. He received his education in the common schools in Ohio; 
was married in June, 1858, to Evaline Baldwin, and they have 5 
children, all now living. He is a Democrat in polities. In farm- 
ing, Mr. Fawcetthas been successful. He started without anything, 
and he now owns 160 acres of land. He settled on sec. 31 in 1856. 
He went to Colorado in 1860; in 1875 was in Nevada, and in 1860 
was in California. To the latter State he took his wife and child 
with him. He is a very enterprising and intelligent man. 

G. W. Fountain, publisher of the New Carlisle Gazette, was 
born in South Bend March 20, 1S57. His parents died while he 
was quite young, his father being killed in one of the last battles 
of the late war. His mother with the family of 6 children 
moved to Mishawaka in 1865, where she soon after died; the fam- 
ily have resided in the latter place until the spring of 18S0, when 
Mr. Fountain removed to New Carlisle and established the paper 
which he is now publishing. A sketch of his paper is given in the 
chapter on the Press of St. Joseph County, and mention is also 
made on page 773. 

T. J. Garoutte, merchant, New Carlisle, was born in Ohio Dec. 
19, 1823, and is the son of James S. and Mary (Babington) Ga- 
routte, natives of the United States, the former of Irish descent and 
the latter of English. The subject of this notice was educated in 
the common and high schools of this county. His father emigrated 
with his family from Ohio to this State in 1S30, and in 1831 to this 
county, where T. J. has passed nearly all his life. His mother was 
frozen to death in 1831, an event which cast a gloom over all the 
young and scattering community of that early day. She was a mid- 
wife, and was sent for on a day so cold that even men were afraid to 
travel alone. Mr. Goward and his hired man came together after her; 
she went, and after two days the weather seemed to moder- 
ate a little, when she talked of starting home. Mr. Goward offered 
to accompany her, but she started alone, and sure enough, she 
never reached home alive! She stopped at the only house on Boil- 
ing Prairie and warmed herself, which was the last time she was 
seen until she was accidentally found by the mail carrier the next 
day. It could be seen where she had made three trials to reach the 
summit of the hill, all in vain. She had dismounted from her 
horse, started for the timber, walked about 100 yards and crawled 
about as much farther. 

Mr. Garoutte has been a farmer the most of his life, successful, 
and still owns 250 acres of land, 80 acres of which he worked at $8 
a month to pay for. In politics he is a Democrat; has been Tp. Trus- 
tee 20 years, and represented St. Joseph in the State Legislature in 
187S. 'His father was a man of more than ordinary physical abil- 
ity, and lived to be 84 years of age. His grandfather was educated 
for a Catholic priest. 

Joel Harris, a prominent physician of St. Joseph county, was 
born in North Carolina, Mar. 30, 1811, and is the son of Howell and 
Mary (Graham) Harris, of English and Scotch descent; received 

40 



778 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

his education in the select schools of Tennessee and Kentucky, 
and in high schools, and has also obtained a thorough medical edu- 
cation; he lias practiced medicine in Ohio and Indiana ever since 
1837, — 21 years in this county. In 1S35 he married Miss Charlotte 
Compton, and the}' have 6 children living, 5 sons and 1 daughter. 
Both professionally and financially the Doctor has been successful. 
He owns 200 acres of land in this State but not in this county; he 
owns 1 i is residence in New Carlisle. He is a Deacon in the Chris- 
tian Church, of which denomination his wife is also a member. 
Politically, he is a Republican. He has served two terms as School 
Trustee, in this tp. 

Jacob Ilooton was born in Indiana March 3, 1830; is a son of 
Thomas and Esther (Montommery) Hooton, natives of the South, and 
of English descent. Both of his grandfathers were in the war of the 
Revolution. He received his education in the common schools in 
this tp. When he was brought here he was only five years old, 
and he has never been put of the tp. one week since that time in 
his life. He is among the leading farmers and owns 370 acres of 
land. He was married Jan. 24, 1S25, to Emily Jane Taylor, and 
they have had 7 children, 5 of whom are now living. He and wife 
are members of the Christian Church. He is a Trustee and a 
Republican. He has a neat and substantial residence, and has made 
what he has by honest toil. 

Henry Hostotler was born in Canada in 1841, and is the son of 
Joseph and Mary (Miller) llostotler, natives of Pennsylvania, and of 
German descent, lie received his education in the common schools 
of this county. lie came to America in 1813 with his parents, who 
settled in La Porte county, Indiana. His father died in lS59, and his 
mother lived till 1871. He was married July 3. 1865, to Nancy 
McClurv, and they have 7 children. In politics Mr. II. is a Demo- 
crat. He and his wile are members of the Dunkard Church. The 
subject of this sketch has been successful as a farmer, when we con- 
sider that he started almost without anything. He is the owner 
of 1.6 acres of good land, on some of which he paid $10 per acre. 
He owns five head of work horses, two colts, four hogs and 50 head 
of cattle. His firm is well stocked. 

Rosa L'nula Sowland was born Dec. 3, 1820, in Huron county, 
Ohio. She was the daughter of George and Abigail (Harrington) 
Ferguson, her lather a native; of Virginia, and her mother of New 
York; mother of Scotch and English descent, and father of English. 
She was happily married in 1S11 to Benjamin Wilson, and this 
marriage was blessed with 5 children, only 2 of whom are now 
living, both married. Mr. Wilson came to this county about 1832, 
and therefore was one of the pioneers. lie was a tanner and was 
very successful at the time of his death, which occurred in 1860. 
He was respected by all who knew him. He was the owner of ISO 
acres of land. Mrs. Wilson, who is now Mrs. [lowland, is a mem- 
ber of the M. E. Church. She has been a widow the second time 
for several years. During this time she has raised a family of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 779 

4 girls, 2 of her own and 2 of her second husband's. It seems 
strange to read that a lonely woman could raise 4 little girls, but 
Mrs. Rowland's business qualifications are good and her first hus- 
band had left her with means, so she got along quite well. She 
and her youngest daughter, and her daughter's husband are living 
en one of her farms on sec. 8, at this writing. P. O., Dayton, Mich. 

H. Hubhard, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 20; P. O., Terre Coupee; 
was born in Oneida county, N. Y., March 12, 1816, and is the son 
of Jonathan and Rebecca (Haven) Hubbard; his father was one of 
the pioneers of this county. Mr. II. came west in 1836, settling in 
this tp. He was married the first time to Marietta Whitlock, and 
they had 2 children. After her death Mr. H. married in 1875, 
Mrs. Mary E. Sheppard, nee Johnson, who is a member of the M. 
E. Church, while Mr. II. is not a strict church-goer. He is a Re- 
publican, and has been County Commissioner three terms. He owns 
7(J0 acres of land, pays taxes on $100,000, and as a farmer he has 
been very successful. 

Andrew Kinney, farmer, sec. 35; P. O., New Carlisle; was born 
in Greene county, O., March 9, 1824, and is the son of Matthias 
and Lucil a (McClone) Kinney, natives of Pennsylvania, and of 
English descent. He received his education in his native county, 
and in this county. He lias been married three times, and has 3 
children living, all by his second wife. For his present wife he 
married Nancy Devitt, nee McCIure, March 30, 1869. a daughter 
of a pioneer. Mr. Kinney came to this county in 1833, with his 
parents; commenced life for himself with but limited means, but 
he now owns 80 acres of good land, and is a successful farmer. His 
father died herein 1872, and his mother in 1874; they first settled 
on sec. 32 of this I p. 

John S. Massey was born in Indiana in 1S43, the son of A. W. and 
Elizabeth (Smith) Massey. mother a native of Pennsylvania, and 
father of Indiana, and both of Scotch descent. lie received his 
education in the common schools in this county; was married Dec. 
19, 1855, to Mary Ann Hatfield, and they have had 4 children, all of 
whom are living. Mrs. M. is a native of Michigan. Mr. M. has 
been a successful farmer. We have an example of his fanning 
in his wheat crop of 1S79. lie had 15 acres of wheat that yielded 
SO bushels per acre. He owns 70 acres of land for which be paid 
at the rate of §100 per aero, and his'neighfor has offered him $1^0 
per acre. In politics Mr. M. is a Republican. P. ()., New Carlisle. 

J amen McCollwm, grocer and Postmaster, Terre Coupee, was 
born in New York Nov. 17, 1806, and is the .-on of James and 
Lucy (Print) McCollmn. father of Scotch descent, and mother a na- 
tive; of Connecticut ; early education only in the subscription schools 
of New York; was on a farm until 20 years of age; worked at the 
tailor's trade 20 years, then became a partner in a grocery at Terre 
Coupee, which he is still conducting; came to this county in 1840; 
in 1832 he married Mary Minerva Badger, and they have no chil- 
dren. Mrs. McC. is a member of the P. E. Church. Politically 



780 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Mr. McCollura is a Democrat, and cast his first vote for Gen. Jack- 
son; has been Postmaster 10 years, and Justice of the Peace. 

Perry McDonald, farmer, sec. 3, was born in the State of New 
Tork in 1841, the son of Michael and Mary (O'Daniel) McDonald, 
natives of Ireland, father a pioneer in this county and killed in 1864 
in the war. Perry's education was limited to the pioneer schook 
of this count} 7 . In 1865 he married Mary Myler, and the)' have 
one son and 2 daughters. He and his wife are members of the 
Christian Church, ar.d he is a Republican. He has occupied his 
present residence about 10 years, and has a well-improved farm. 

Dr. Thomas T. McDonald was born Nov. 5, 1832, in Clark 
county, Ohio, and is the son of J. B. and Sarah McDonald, the 
former a native of Maryland, and the latter of Kentucky. He 
came with his parents to La Porte county in 1836, and was prin- 
cipally raised on the farm and received his education in the common 
schools, and began teaching at the age of 22, which vocation he 
followed for ten years; during this time he began the study of 
medicine under Mr. J. M. Hunt, who died after a few months. 
Young McDonald pursued his studies unaided until the winters of 
1863-'4 and 1864-'5, at which time he attended the Rush Medical 
College in Chicago. He began the practice of medicine in 1864, 
however, in what is now Lincoln tp., and in 1S66 he came to New 
Carlisle, where he has been located ever since, and where he has 
steadily followed his profession, thus tar, with reasonable success. 
The Dr. married Miss Hattie A. Higgins Nov. 6, 18<>6, a native of 
Ottawa county, 111., born March 31, 1840; 5 of their 6 children are 
living, to-wit: Ella G., Harry H., Edith M., L. G. and Annie Lois. 
Dr. McDonald served as School Trustee and was elected to the office 
of Tp. Trustee, which office he is holding at present. Mrs. Mc- 
Donald is a member of the Presbyterian Church. P. O., New 
Carlisle. 

Rev. W. P. McKlnney was born in Rockbridge county, Va., 
Aug. 17, 1837: moved to this State with his father and family in 
1849; joined the M. E. Church at Thorntown, Ind., Nov. 19, 1858; 
Educated at the common schools of Virginia and Indiana, and at 
the Thorntown Academy, then under the presidency of Rev. C. N. 
Sims, D. D. ; served nearly four years in the 40th Reg. Ind. Vol. 
Inf., in suppressing the Rebellion, first for eight months as First 
Surgeon of Co. A, and then for 18 months as First Lieutenant of 
the same Co., the most of the time in command; then for 20 
months as Quartermaster of the Regiment ; licensed to preach at 
Stockwell, Ind., in August, 1868, and the following October was 
sent by Rev. S. D. Cooper, P. E., as preacher in charge of Star City 
Circuit; has served the following Churches: Star City, one year, 
Fulton, one year; Hebron, two years; State Line, one year; James- 
town, one year; Westville, three years; and New Carlisle, three 
years. : Mr. McK. was married Oct. 3, 1865, Miss Anna Cones, 
of Thorntown, Ind. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 781 

Fred, G. Miller, farmer, sec. 4, was born in Germany in 1835, 
son of Samuel Miller; received his education in the high schools of 
Germany; came to La Porte count}', Ind., in 1851, since which time 
he has been farmer and contractor. In 1S57 he married Amelia G. 
Gulback, and of their 9 children 7 are living, 1 boys and 3 girls. 
Mr. M. has been successful in business; at the present time he owns 
a saw-mill and 261 acres of land; has owned 1,000 acres, and been 
more extensively engaged in the land business than now; has sold 
his timber mostly to railroad companies ; in 1805 he brought a 
number of Polanders into this section of the country, and is still 
importing them; there are now about 35 families of them in this 
tp., industriously clearing the marsh timber, and having farms of 
20 to 80 acres each. Mr. M. is a Democrat, and he and his wife 
are members of the German Reform Church . 

Isaac Newton Miller, farmer, sec. 3, was born in this county in 
German tp., Nov. 3, 1S35, and is the son of William and Mary 
Miller, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of Indiana, 
who started the " Miller Settlement " in German tp. in 1830; Mr. 
M. became a wealthy and influential man, and served two terms in 
the Legislature of this State. Mr. I. N. Miller received his educa- 
tion in the common schools and Wabash College; is a remarkably 
successful farmer, as was his father, and has the best peach orchard 
in this tp.; he is a cheerful, free-hearted and obliging gentleman, 
and his neighbors say that he makes more money than any of them. 
He is a brother of Maj.-Gen. Miller, of California. He ran a mill 
in South Bend two years, and did not succeed well; he then doubled 
his diligence, went to farming, and at present owns 210 acres of 
land; for the last five years he has raised 120 acres of wheat, which 
has averaged 20 bushels per acre. March 25, 1858, he married Miss 
Putter, a daughter of Jacob Patter, who also settled here in 1830. 
They have 3 sons and one daughter. Mr. M. is a thorough Repub- 
lican, and was president of the Garfield and Arthur club in New 
Carlisle. 

Jens Morton-, born in Denmark in 1830, is the son of Jenson 
Morton; parents natives of Denmark; commenced to learn the 
blacksmith's trade while in Denmark; emigrated to America when 
17 years old, and completed his trade at La Porte, Indiana. His 
education is limited to the common schools in Denmark. He was 
married in 1863 to Sarah Findley, a native of Indiana. Her mother 
was one of the pioneers of this county, settled as early as 1836. 
They have only one child, Freddie Morton, born in 1865. Mr. and 
Mrs. M. are members of the Christian Church at New Carlisle. 
In politics, Mr. M. is a Republican. He came to this county in 
1S75; was in Colorado three years. He owns 80 acres of good land, 
whicli he has himself earned. 

H. M. Nickerson, farmer and stock raiser on sec. 15, was born 
in Warren county, Ohio, in 1833. He is the son of Benjamin and 
Maria (Williams) Nickerson, of English descent; received his edu- 
cation in the common schools in St. Joseph county, Inrh; emigrated 



782 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

with his parents to this county in 1837, and has lived here ever 
since. From the age of about 16 to 18 he worked at blacksmith- 
ing. He was married in 1S55 to Rebecca Oompon, and of their 12 
children, 9 are living. He and his wife are both consistent mem- 
bers of the Christian Church. He has been a Trustee; in politics 
he is a Democrat; has held the office of Supervisor for six 3'ears. 
He has been a successful farmer, and is the owner of 175 acres of 
land. 

Hurtain Proud, farmer, sec. 27, was born in Ohio Nov. 7, 1831, 
the son of the next mentioned; was brought to this county when 
four or five years old, by his parents; educated in the common 
schools of this county; married the first time to Julia Haines, June 
16, 1861, and they had 3 sons and one daughter; she died in Feb- 
ruary, 1877, and Mr. P. subsequently married the widow of Frazy 
Carr. Mr. P. is a Democrat, and is now School Director in his 
district. 

Joseph Proud, farmer, sec. 22, was horn in Ohio April 19, 1808, 
and is the son of Peter and Abigail (Turner) Proud, natives of 
New Jersey, and of German descent; educated in the subscription 
schools of Warren county, Ohio; moved to this vicinity in 1835, 
where he has lived ever since. June 5, 1829, he married Harriet 
Woolsey in Warren county, Ohio, and of their 12 children, 8 are 
living, 4 boys and 4 girls, all married except the 4th son, Joseph, 
who is living on his father's farm and does most of the business; 
his father is a little deaf. All the children are living in this State 
except Jesse, who is married and lives in Michigan. Mr. P. is a 
Democrat. 

Henry B. Panstead, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 13; P. O., 
Terre Coupee; was born in this State in 1829, the son of Henry A. 
and Anna (Bell) Ranstead, father a native of Massachusetts, and 
mother of New York; the latter is still living, at the age of 84. 
The subject of this sketch was brought to this county in 1834 by 
his parents; was educated in the common schools of this State; has 
followed farming all his life. In 1850 he married Jane Fox, and 
they have had 5 children. 3 of whom are living. Mr. R. owns 
1,000 acres of land in this county, 700 of which is good farming 
land; he has also a fine residence, good out-buildings, etc. He is 
a Freemason and a Republican. 

Prof. Albert E. Powell, principal of the New Carlisle public 
school, was born in the State of New York July 22, 1S23, and is 
the son of Asahel and Phoebe (Lunt) Rowell; received his education 
in the common schools and Monroe (N. Y.) Academy; he was en- 
deavoring to obtain a regular collegiate education, when the death of 
his father, just before he was ready to enter college, compelled him 
to take the responsibility of the family; his father was a farmer and 
teacher; commenced teaching at 17 years of age and followed the 
profession until he was 30. Prof. R. has been a diligent student 
all his life; five of his brothers and sisters are living and have all 
been teachers; he has taught regularly every year since he was 32, 



HI8T0KT OF ST. JOSEPH COONTY. 7S3 

namely, in New York, Michigan, Illinois and this State. He taught 
at Battle Creek, Mich., nine years in one building; indeed, his ex- 
perience and qualifications are so great that many parties propose 
him for State Superintendent of Public Instruction; in New York 
he was a Superintendent of schools, and in Michigan, School In- 
spector. 

He was married the first time to Celinda Eckler, and they have 
had 2 children; one i3 married and resides in the State of JSIew 
York. Mrs. R. died, and subsequently. Prof. P.. married Harriet 
L. Beman; they are members of the Congregational Church, in 
which denomination the professor has acted as Deaeon. Mrs. It. is 
also teaching in the same building where her husband is engaged. 

George H. Service, banker, merchant and grain-dealer, Now 
Carlisle, was born in this county in 1S4S, and is the son of J. II. 
and Sarah (Flanegan) Service; received his education in the high 
schools of this county; was married in 184G to Mary J. Hews, a 
native of this State, and they have 2 daughters: Clara Lucille and 
Anna L. Mr. S. is a very prominent business man; last year, 1879, 
he bought and shipped a million bushels of wheat, besides attend- 
ing to his mercantile and banking business, buying other grain, 
etc. He was recently very active in establishing the water-works 
of New Carlisle, and many of his opponents have since seen the 
wisdom of his course. See page 770. Mr. S. is a Republican, a 
prominent Freemason, and a member of the Baptist Church. 

J. H. Service, banker, New Carlisle, was born in the State of 
New York Nov. 15, 1812, and is the son of Philip and Clara (Hall) 
Service, natives also of New York, father of German and mother of 
English ancestry; received his education in the common schools of 
his native State, followed the farm with his parents until 22 years 
of age, and then settled in New Carlisle, where he has accumulated 
a handsome fortune. He started in life as a poor boy, worked at 
brick-making two years, kept store in New Carlisle 30 years, except 
lS43-'6 he was in Buchanan; the last four years he has followed 
banking. He is one of the most influential men of the community, 
and has represented this county one term in the Legislature, but 
he usually declines public offices, preferring the energies of a busi- 
ness life. In 1847 he married Sarah A. Flanegan, and they have 2 
sons and 2 daughters, all married except the younger son, who is 
still at home. 

Peleg Slocum, deceased, was a prominent farmer in this tp. ; he 
was born July 28, 1807, in New York, of German ancestry; he had 
good mechanical abilities, and worked at the carpenter's and shoe- 
maker's trades and at farming, in the latter of which he was xavy 
successful ; he owned 400 acres of good land here at one time, and even 
more. Aug. 29, 1810, he married Mary Egbert, daughter of Cornelius 
and Rachel Egbert, pioneers of this county, and of their 8 children 
5 are living and married. Mr. S. was politically a Democrat, and a 
faithful man; died June 24, 1862. Mrs. S. is living on the home 
place with her youngest daughter. 



784 HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

David Smith, farmer, sec. S; P. O., Dayton, Mich.; was born in 
Ohio in 1821, the son of Jonathan and Nancy (Miller) Smith, natives 
of Pennsylvania, of German descent, and members of the Dunkard 
Church ; father a successful farmer, worth atone time $30,000. David 
was educated in Portage tp., and in 1869 he settled in this tp. ; has 
been a farmer all his life, with success, as he has raised his fortune 
from nothing to 315 acres of land, 200 of which is the very finest. 
In 184-3 he married Permelia Jane Massey, and of their 5 children 
3 are living; she died in 1857, and in 1859 Mr. Smith married 
Mary Jane Gates, and they have 4 children living. Mrs. G. is a 
member of the Dunkard Church, and Mr. G. in politics is a Repub- 
lican. 

Henry Smith, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 20; P. O., New 
Carlisle; was born in this county in 1S50, the son of Jonathan and 
Susannah J. (Runion) Smith, of German ancestry; educated in the 
common schools; was married in 1872 to Susannah Gogley. Mr. 
Smith owns 226 acres of land, and in politics is a Democrat, His 
father, a pioneer in this count}', is still living, a wealthy farmer, 
having owned at one time as much as S00 acres of land. Pie is a 
liberal man. 

Job Smith, born in New Jersey in 1S13; he is the sou of Job and 
Rachel (Rodgers) Smith, father of English and mother of Ger- 
man and English descent. They were natives of New Jersey. He 
never attended school a day in his life, but can read, and says he 
could have made himself a good scholar after he was grown up. 
His mother died in 1815. When he was 14 years old he started 
out to make his own way through the world, but was to give his 
father all he made except what it took to clothe him till he was 21 
years old, which was about one half of what he could make. He 
came to Indiana when he was 19 years old, and worked in the 
country the first year; the next year he worked for John Rush; 
the next summer came to Terre Coupee Prairie, where he has lived 
ever since. He was married in 1834, to Elizabeth Lancaster; they 
commenced to keep house with $12 worth of household furniture, 
and slept on a one-legged bedstead made by building in the corner of 
the house. They have one child, a girl, married and living in Mis- 
souri at present. Mrs. S. died in 1S44. He was again married in 
1851, to Mrs. Little, whose maiden name was Martha Ann Green, 
and they have 9 children, 5 of whom are married. Mr. S. is a far- 
mer, and owns 255 acres of good land. He was here when all the 
wheat was cut by hand, all grass cut with a scythe, single-shovel 
plows, all the houses made of lugs, clapboard roof and puncheon 
floors; if a man was more than two days building, he would be 
callcM] lazy or very slow. He was formerly a Whig, but is now a 
Republican in politics, has been Supervisor; never wore any cloth- 
ing except home-made till he was 17 years old. It was 25 years 
after he came to this count}' before he saw any of his relatives, then 
he went back among them. He is a liberal and kind-hearted man, 
niul i? much respected by his neighbors. 



HI8T0ET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 785 

James Swank, born in the State of Ohio, in 1844, is the son of 
Peter and Elizabeth (Cramer) Swank, mother native of New Jer- 
sey, and father of Pennsylvania. Pie came to this county in 1850, 
and lived here until his death, which occurred in 1880. Mr. S. 
received his education in the common schools in this county, is a 
farmer on sec. 15, where he owns a farm of 40 acres of land. He 
was married in 1868 to Martha Fisk, a member of the United 
Brethren Church. They have 2 children. Mr. S. is a Democrat. 
P. O., New Carlisle. 

E. C. Taylor was born Dec. 9, 1832, in Champaign county, Ohio, 
and is the son of Levi and Sarah Taylor, the former a native of 
Virginia, and latter of New York. His grandfather was one of 
Ohio's first settlers. Mr. T. was reared on the farm to the age of 16 
or 18, at which time he began clerking and continued this business 
until he became of age, when he and a Mr. Parker formed a part- 
nership in the dry-goods business at North Louisburg, Ohio, and 
after a short time they moved their stock of goods to Kingston, 
where they took a third partner, H. B. Evans, and followed mer- 
chandising business for about one year, when they removed their 
store to Allen county, where Mr. Taylor sold his interest and began 
farming, which he followed in summer and clerked in winter; this 
he followed from 1854 to 1858, at which time he migrated to 
Berrien county, Mich., where he resided until Nov., 1S64, at which 
time he located in this place and opened a store consisting of gro- 
ceries, provisions, flour, salt, queen 's-ware, glassware, stone-ware, 
wooden-ware, notions, confectioneries, school books and stationery. 
Mr. Taylor married Miss Sarah C. Plarris Dec. 16, 1856, who was 
born March. 1839, in Green count}', Ohio, and they had 6 children, 
to wit: Charles L., Emma C, Annie B., Edward W., Daisy D. and 
Harris E. Mrs. T. is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Taylor 
has held the office of Town Treasurer for 14 years, and is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity. He owns 123 acres of land, besides his 
town property. P. O., New Carlisle. 

Eli Terrill was born April 11, 1S44, on sec. 30. this tp., where he 
is living at the present time. He is the son of Nathaniel B. and 
Sarah Ann (Garrett) Terrill, natives of Ohio, mother of German 
descent, father of English. He received his education in the com- 
mon schools in the district where he now lives, and has chosen the 
vocation of his father, that of farming. He was married in 1871 to 
Sarah E. Lamb, a native of this county. This union has been 
blessed with 4 children, 2 of whom are living, one boy and one girl. 
He is a Republican in politics; is a successful farmer, owning 223-J- 
acres of land. 

Eli Wade, farmer and stockman, sec. 28; P.O., New Carlisle; 
was born in Ohio Oct. 12, 1830, and is the son of John and Mary 
(Jennings) Wade, natives of England. The subject of this sketch 
is a self-made man, having never attended school more than 20 days 
in his life. In 1850 he married Rebecca Shreader, and they have a 
family of 10 children, 4 sons and 6 daughters. In 1855 he emigrated 



786 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

from Ohio to Indiana, and in 1S59 to this county, where he has 
done well, financially. He and his wife are members of the M. E. 
Church, in which denomination he has been steward. In politics 
he is a Democrat. He has followed farming all his life, in which 
occupation he has been successful; he now owns ISO acres of laud. 

D. G. Warren was born in Ohio Nov. 3, 1833, the son of D. H. 
and Sarah (Graham) Warren, mother a native of Ohio and of Irish 
descent, and father of Maryland and of English descent. He 
received his education in the common schools of Indiana. He was 
married Jan. 2, 1867, to Eliza A. White, whose parents were among 
the early settlers of this county. In politics Mr. Warren is a 
Democrat, and he is a Freemason. Mr. and Mrs. Warren have also 
spent five or six years of their married life in Iowa, where they 
worked hard and were financially successful, but moved back for 
the sake of being near her parents. Their farm is on sec. 22, and 
consists of 80 acres, mostly under a high state of cultivation. 

Samuel Wenger was born in Darke Co., O., in 1841 ; is the son of 
Joseph and Lydia (Isenhouser) Wenger, of German descent. He 
received his education in the common schools of Ohio; is not 
married; in company with his mother and sister he owns a farm of 
135 acres, on sec. 2. He enlisted in the army twice during the 
Rebellion, the first time in the 152d Ohio National Guards, and 
the second time, for one year, in the lS7th Ohio Vol. Inf., and 
served till the close of the war. He is a Republican. He came to 
St. Joseph county in 1866. 

Asher White was born in New Jersey Dec. 7, 1814, and is the 
son of Asher and Mary (Lippincott) White, natives also of New 
Jersey, and of English descent; has attended school but six weeks 
in his life, but obtained a fair education from his mother. He has 
been married three times, and is also his present wife's third 
husband. For his first wife he married Barbara Ketring; for his 
second, Jemima Druliner, by whom he had one son and one 
daughter; the son is keeping hotel in New Carlisle; and for his 
third wife Mr. White married Adaline Huntington. At present 
they live on sec. 23. Mr. White is a farmer, and owns 300 acres of 
land here and 320 near Kankakee, all good land. Coming here in 
1830, he must be counted one of the earliest pioneers, and has been 
a steady resident here ever since. Politically, he is a Republican, 
and he has held the office of Trustee several terms. 

David White was born March 17, 1812, in Monmouth county, 
N. J., son of Asher and Mary White, natives of New Jersey; was 
reared on the farm; went to Ohio, where he drove a stage five years, 
and settled in this tp. about 183S; in 1810 he married Miss Minta 
A. Copper, who was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1823, and 
they have had 5 children: John, Sarah, Marshall F., Martha Ann 
and George W. Mr. and Mrs. W. are members of the Christian 
Church. P. O., New Carlisle. 

John D. W/iite, hotel-keeper in New Carlisle, was born in La 
Porte county, this State, June- 15, 1841, and is the son of Asher 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



787 



and Jemima (Druliner) White, the former a native of New Jersey, 
and the latter of Ohio, and of German descent; was educated in the 
common schools of La Porte county ; has followed farming mostly 
during life, and principally upon his father's farm. In 1873 he 
married Catharine Gaul, and they have 2 sons, John M., born Feb. 
26, 1875, and Henry M., Oct. 31, 1877. Aug. 19, 1864, Mr. White 
enlisted in the 11th Minnesota Infantry, and was discharged June 
26, 1865, at Gallatin, Tenn. 

Granville Woolman, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 23; P. O., New 
Carlisle; is a son of Joseph and Rebecca (Allen) Woolman, the 
former a native of New Jersey, and the latter of Virginia, and both 
of English ancestry. The subject of this sketch received his edu- 
cation in the common schools of Ohio and Indiana; came to this 
county in 1S34; was married in 181-7 to Mary Whitaker, and they 
had 7 children. Mrs. W. died, and Mr. W., in 1877, married Sarah 
Jane Zigler, a member of the M. E. Church. In politics Mr. W. 
is a Republican. In stock-farming he makes sheep-raising a spe- 
cialty; for the last live years he has clipped on an average 500 sheep, 
and has received good prices. 




PENN TOWNSHIP. 

Much doubt and uncertainty envelope many of the events which 
go to make up the early history of a new country. The solitary 
wilds of an unexplored region afford few opportunities for making 
those notes and records which as time advances become valuable 
to the seeker after historical truths; and as a general thing the 
explorers and settlers of our great West have been men little accus- 
tomed to literary pursuits, and less .desirous of literary honors. 
Besides, the arduous labors and engrossing duties of pioneer life 
leave little room or opportunity for that quiet and leisure indis- 
pensable to scholarly habits. Thus it is that a large portion of 
interesting events and reminiscences of our first settlements have 
faded from the memory of man, or are only handed down as tradi- 
tions distorted by this uncertain medium, or mystified by the lapse 
of time. So it is with the pioneer history of Penn township; for 
we have found conflicting statements in some particulars regarding 
pioneer days and events; but by interviewing the most reliable 
authorities, the pioneers themselves, we are enabled to give a sketch 
which we hope will meet the approbation of all. 

Penn township is a timbered country, and in the pioneer days 
when there were no railroads, telegraph wires, or even wagon roads, 
it was difficult for the settlers to go from one cabin to another with- 
out becoming lost. On one occasion a gentleman had gone some 
distance from home to a near neighbor's on an errand, and night 
overtaking him on his return he got lost, and wandered in the dense 
forest all night, while the wild lightnings flashed around him ill a 
threatening manner. He was not found until late the following 
day. If the thick timber had been the only barrier to a rapid 
growth of settlement and improvement in this township, the 
obstacle would have soon been overcome; but there was a large 
amount of marsh land in the township, and it was almost impossi- 
ble to traverse the marshes with a team; and the traveling wasdone 
by circuitous routes to avoid these marshy tracts of land. Many 
of these marshes have been drained, and now constitute a portion 
of the most fertile land in Penn township. The same land that 
now yields abundant crops was then a quagmire and a pit for 
explorers to fall into. It would be in keeping here to remark that 
there is a large marsh extending from the St. Joseph river near 
South Bend toward the southeast, almost the entire length of the 
township, or to within a half mile of the eastern line of the town- 
ship. This marsh varies from three-fourths of a mile to two miles 
in width. Near its center is an elevated, oblong tract of land con- 
sisting of 200 to 300 acres, which is under cultivation and known 

(.788) 



HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 7S9 

as the " Island." This peculiarly shaped marsh is regarded by the 
citizens of this township as once forming an arm of Lake Michi- 
gan. This is perhaps true, as the indications are such as to lead 
any thinking person to such conclusions. 

During the iirst settlement of the township the pioneers got 
their mail at Edwardsville, Cass Co., Mich., which was carried on 
horseback from Fort Wayne to that point. It here intersected the 
mail route between Detroit and Chicago. The residences of the 
pioneers consisted of log huts, and some were so poor that they 
made bedsteads of round poles. They did their cooking by the fire- 
place. A stick was fastened across the chimney at some distance 
above the fire, and the kettles were suspended from this by means 
of iron hooks or chains. The bread was baked in a ''Dutch oven." 

Although these sturdy pioneers of the forest had to undergo 
many privations, they were a jovial class of people, and had their 
amusements and enjoyments, though in a rustic way, as do the 
people of the present day. The mill at which they lirst got their 
wheat ground was located below Niles, Mich. 

INDIANS. 

In those days there were ten Indians to one "paleface," yet 
the) 7 were not troublesome, save to beg and steal a little when an 
opportunity presented itself, which is a characteristic of the " noble 
red man of the forest." 

The noted chief " Raccoon " was buried near the house of Mr. 
James Curtis, in the eastern part of the township, and for weeks his 
tribe would bring their provisions to his grave, and sing and dance 
around the grave for some time, and then eat their dinners and 
return to camp. Raccoon's skeleton was exhumed a short time 
since by the Curtis boys, who took the jaw bone to Mishawaka, 
where it can now be found in the Enterprise office. 

At the beginning of the Black Hawk war the settlers of Penn 
township, knowing the great chief Pokagon and his warriors to be 
very powerful, sent a delegation to confer with him, and to learn 
what his plan of action should be for the coming campaign. He 
sent the glad news back to the half frightened settlers that he 
would remain neutral during the contest. A German who could 
not understand all the English vocabulary readily, was standing by 
and heard Pokagon's reply announced, when he became very much 
excited and insisted that " that damt neutral is now not 20 miles 
from here." 



While some were busily engaged in making farms, others erected 
mills, and thus aided in improving the new country. In 1831 or 
'32 a saw-mill was built on Bawbawgo creek, near where the vil- 
lage of Oceola now stands. Several years after this, another mill 



790 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

was built a little lower down; and by extending the same race, the 
one dam answered for both mills. This last mill was erected by 
Zelotes Bancroft; but the date is not certainly known. 

In 1856, this mill having been discontinued, Mr. Bancroft and his 
brother William erected a saw and grist-mill on the same site. It 
is now owned and conducted by a nephew of the preceding. Its 
capacity is 25 barrels per day. Mr. Bancroft is a life-long miller, 
and makes the best of flour. The saw-mill attachment is also run 
in connection with the flouring mill. 

Penn township formerly contained Harris and Madison, and a 
ortion of Centre and Portage townships. The first settlers were 

illiam and Timothy Moat, who located here about 1828, on sec- 
tion 17. Soon afterward came William Holt, Jesse Skinner, S. L. 
Cottrell, James Curtis, the Byrkits, Irelands and others. The first 
church edifice was built in Mishawaka. The first election was held 
in 1832, and Alpheus Ireland was one of the first justices of the 
peace. Nathan W. Young was also among the first settlers. He 
pre-empted land when the surveyors were at work here, and also 
carried chain for the Government surveyors. The beautiful prairie 
in Michigan known as Young's Prairie was named for him. Mr. 
Young is a natural genius, and is the author of several useful 
inventions, but not being financially able to have them patented, 
other parties are reaping the fruits of his labors. He now resides 
in Mishawaka. 

MISHAWAKA. 

In July. 1833, A. M. Hurd laid out and platted the village of 
"St. Joseph Iron Works," about four miles above South Bend, on 
the south bank of the St. Joseph river. Jan. 1, 1835, an election 
was held, and James White, John J. Deming, Samuel Stancliff, 
Henry De Camp and Alexander Sanderlands were elected village 
trustees. This was the first village organization in the county. 
During the same year William Barbee, of Ohio, laid out an addi- 
tion to the east side of the village, and on the west side another 
addition was made, known as Taylor's Addition. In 1836 Joseph 
Bartell, James Ii. Lawrence and Grove Lawrence laid out the town 
of Indiana City, on the north side of the river, opposite St. Joseph 
Iron Works. This land (being school land), where Mishawaka now 
stands, upon petition of the settlers to the School Commissioner, 
was purchased Jan. 1, 1833, by Mr. Hurd, who had promised to 
erect a blast furnace upon the site. The following spring, he, in 
company with William L. Earl, proceeded to erect the furnace. At 
the end of the year houses and shanties enough were erected to 
accommodate 100 persons. In the spring of 183-4 a postofiice was 
established, and the Indian name "Mishawaka" was given it at 
the suggestion of Mr. Yerrington, who was appointed postmaster. 
'ilie term " Mishawaka" was the name of an Indian village that 
mcc occupied Taylor's Addition to the village of St. Joseph Iron 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 791 

Works, and it signifies " Swift water," or as some render it," Thick- 
woods rapids." Either interpretation would be descriptive of the 
location, as the water at this point in the river was very swift, and 
also the land on either side was covered with a dense growth of 
heavy timber. The Indians had a small tract of land cleared where 
their village of Mishawaka stood, and the large corn hills, which 
were of a conical shape, and about two feet high, remained there 
for several years after this country was settled. 

While houses were being erected, and settlers and prospecting 
parties flocking in, the work upon the furnace was fast approaching 
completion, and was finished in 1834. The dam was built by the 
St. Joseph Iron Company in 1835. which was the first dam on the 
St. Joseph river, and is still standing. This company was incor- 
porated Jan. 22, 1835. Prior to this the river was navigable, and 
both tow and steam boats plied the limpid waters of this crystal 
stream for several years, as far up as Three Rivers, Mich. 

The first flouring mill was erected in 1S35 by Mr. Taylor. In 
.1834 a hotel was erected and run by Orlando Hurd. The first 
bridge across the St. Joseph river was built at 'Mishawaka in 1837. 

In 1839 St. Joseph Iron Works with its two additions, and Indi- 
ana City were incorporated as one town, and named Mishawaka. 
The town is situated on both banks of the St. Joseph, within about 
a mile of the most southern point of that river. The site is one of 
very great natural beauty, and art and taste have added largely to 
its original loveliness. On the south side there is a gentle upward 
slope from the river bank, far off beyond the limits of the town. 
Here, embowered beneath a profusion of natural and cultivated 
trees, shrubbery and flowers, is built the main portion of Misha- 
waka. On the opposite side the banks are more precipitous, forming 
a high table land, seemingly designed by Nature fjr its present 
uses. To the lover of the beautiful and the sublime, a visit to the 
Riverside Park is one not only to be enjoyed, but a visit to be 
remembered. Standing among the beautiful oaks and cedars that 
nature has planted upon that elevated plain, his eyes are greeted by 
many beautiful sights at almost the same instant. Looking directly 
south he sees the original Milburn Wagon Works, that tower 
several stories above the basement, whose walls are made bright by 
the reflection of the sun from the crystal waters of the beautiful St. 
Joseph. Then a little beyond he observes many church spires point- 
ing toward the skies, seeming to say, " Behold the Lamb of God." 
And as he turns his eye to the southeast he is again impressed with 
the wonderful advancement in art. for here his eye falls upon a 
neatly constructed iron bridge, with hundreds of pedestrians, eques- 
trians and teamsters passing over it daily. Wiien he has completed 
his stroll in Riverside Park on the north side as the sun gradually 
sinks toward the western horizon, and as he wends his way back to 
the Milburn House, he is struck with wonder and delight while 
crossing the bridge, for, looking into the swiit-running water 
beneath, he sees hundreds of fish swimming in all directions 



792 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH CODNTY. 

whose golden sides almost dazzle his eyes when turned to such an 
angle as to throw the reflection of the sun's rays to his view. 

The St. Joseph Iron Company continued to operate their blast 
furnaces until 1856, when the supply of ore failed. They also estab- 
lished a foundry, and put in operation other machinery which has 
been of great benefit to the place. After the exhaustion of the ore 
they be^an the manufacture of plows, cultivators, etc., and machin- 
ery. Capital stock, $200,000. Albert Hudson is president, and J. 
H. Whitson general superintendent. In 1868 the name was changed 
to St. Joseph Manufacturing Company. The hydraulic power at 
this place is unsurpassed at any point on the river, and the facili- 
ties for erecting mills are most excellent. The town is situated 
upon the Michigan Southern and Grand Trunk Railroads, and is 
easily accessible from East or West. The surrounding country is 
one of extraordinary fertility, and the healthfulness of the place is 
undisputed. 

In early times there was great rivalry between Mishawaka and 
South Bend. They, were less than four miles apart, and the advan- 
tages they offered differed very slightly, except that the latter had 
the honor of being the county-seat. The bitterness of those days 
has, however, subsided, and it is now seen that the interests of the 
two places are identical. 

Before many years the borders of the thriving towns will' meet, 
and it is not at all improbable that in the course of time they will 
be joined in one municipality. 

Many years ago the steamboat Diamond was wrecked by run- 
ning against a pier of the old Mishawaka bridge, and one life was 
lost. 

The river at Mishawaka is about 100 yards wide, and the fall 
over the dam is eight feet. The natural fall at these rapids, in a 
distance of but a few rods, has been ascertained by actual measure- 
ment to be two feet and nine inches. The race on the south side 
is about 400 yards in length, and the one on the north side over 200 
yards. On either side there is room for further extension, and 
there is at all times an abundance of water for all conceivable pur- 
poses. Indeed, but a very small portion of this valuable power has, 
as yet, been utilized. The manufactories are, however, gradually 
and successfully increasing, of each of which we shall speak a lit- 
tle further on . 

The population of Mishawaka in 1860 was 1,486; by the last 
census (1880) it was 2,640. 

In 1872 the great fire destroyed 32 buildings in the business part 
of town, valued, together with their contents, at over $80,000. New 
brick buildings immediately arose upon the ruins, and about 24 new 
stores were opened in the brick blocks thus erected. Scarcely had 
the citizens of Mishawaka recovered from the terrible effects of the 
fire, when the great and noted Milburn Wagon Works were removed 
from their town to Toledo. This was another severe shock upon 
the growth and prosperity of Mishawaka. But her citizens are not 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 795 

to be discouraged, for they have pressed forward until everything 
is life and bustle again. New manufactories occupy the old Mil- 
burn stand, and every enterprise seems to prosper. 

ENTERPRISES. 

Mishawaka Mills. — This mill was erected in 1836, and is 
now owned and operated by Joseph and William Miller, who pur- 
chased it in 1876. They have recently refitted and painted it, and 
it presents a striking appearance. They run five sets of burrs, 
making about 225 barrels of flour daily. The flour is of excellent 
quality, standing at the head of the market, both in the East and 
West, 

St. Joseph Mill. — This structure was erected in 1S61 by George 
and Casper Kuhn, and August Kellner. It is now owned and oper- 
ated by Mr. George Kuhn, who is doing a good business. He does 
mostly a jobbing business. Capacity of mill, 150 barrels in 2i hours. 
He makes patent flour, as also do the other mills in Mishawaka. 

Perkins Windmill and Ax Company. — This establishment 
manufactures edge tools, pumps, and water tanks; but its principal 
business is the manufacture of the Perkins windmill, which was 
invented and patented by P. C. Perkins in 1S69. In 1873 there 
was a joint company formed for its manufacture. They are doing 
a large business. 

Dodge Manufacturing Company. — The Dodge Manufactory 
was established in 1878, and incorporated in 1880. They manu- 
facture school furniture, wooden ware, etc. From Jan. 1, 1880, 
until Aug. 1 of the same year, they took 2,000,000 feet of lumber 
from the stump, and sawed and worked it into goods. The com- 
pany is now behind with their orders, and business constantly in- 
creasing. 

St. Joseph Valley Furniture Company. — The business of this 
firm was established in a wing' of the Milburn Wagon Manufac- 
tory in 1878, with a capital stock of $50,000. They make drawer 
work a specialty. This firm is shipping their chamber-suits and 
bedsteads mostly to Ohio and the East, and they are behind with 
their orders, which are accumulating upon their hands. J. A. 
Roper is president. 

Telegraph Insulator Manufactory. — This is of recent advent 
into Mishawaka. It was removed from Hudson, Mich., to this 
place in the summer of 1880, by Robert Gilliland. The business 
is a thriving one, and adds material wealth to Mishawaka. 

School Furniture Manufactory. — A. H. Andrews & Co., of 
Chicago, established a branch manufactory in Mishawaka in 1871, 
and are doing a good business in the manufacture of school fur- 
niture. 

Bostwick Refrigerator Company. — This enterprising company 
is engaged iu the manufacture of refrigerators of all kinds, safes, 

50 



796 HISTORY OF ST. JOSKPH COUNTY. 

mouse-traps and furniture, and is doing an extensive business under 
the direction of Joseph Bostwick. the principal stockholder. 

Ripple Mills. — The Ripple Mills were erected by A. Cass& Co.. 
who owned them for several years, but recently passed into the 
hands of J. H. and A. Eberhart, who are doing a large business. 
They have live run of stones, with a capacity of 225 barrels in 24 
hours. They make the best of flour, and have a large trade in the 
East. 

There is also in Mishawaka a stave factory, a wood-pulp mill, a 
woolen factory, a wagon manufactory, a barrel factory, and several 
smaller cooper shops and minor manufactories of various kinds. 
All departments of trade and business are represented in Mish- 
awaka, the most prominent and leading representatives of which 
we will inentiou in the biographical department of the history of 
Mishawaka and Penn township. 

RIVERSIDE PARK. 

This beautiful table land, which we have already referred to, is 
situated on the north bank of the St. Joseph river, opposite the 
Milburn Wagon Works. As yet there has been nothing done to 
beautify the grounds, save what nature alone has done. In 1879 
one Mr. Robbins Battel 1, of Hartford, Conn., sent Thomas 
McClunie. an experienced architect, here, who surveyed and platted 
the proposed park. Battell proposes to donate it to the town if the 
citizens will make of the land a park, after the prescribed improve- 
ments or specifications in the plat. This gentleman anticipates 
erecting a female seminary directly west of the park. 

The first couple married in Mishawaka were Hiram Rush and 
Miss Inwood, by Rev. N. M. Wells. Indiana Yerrington was the 
first child born, receiving his name in honor of the State. The 
first death was that of a Mr. Moore. 

Mishawaka has a fine cornet band, which discourses strains of 
that which " hath charms to soothe the savage ear." It is ably led 
and conducted by Mr. Jacob Eckstein, a first-class musician of 
Mishawaka, and, by the way, a subscriber for this work, whose 
sketch appears in the biographical department. 

SECRET SOCIETIES. 

The Freemasons and Odd Fellows have a fine, well-furnished 
hall in the third story of the Phoenix Block. 

The Masonic lodge was organized May 26, 1852, A. L. 5,S52. 
The names of the officers at the organization were as follows: R. 
S. Alden, W. M.; D. TT. Smith. S. W.; J. Holdridge, J. W.; J. E. 
Hollister, Treasurer; T. S. ( owles, Secretary; A. C. Foot, S. D.; 
W. M. Wood, J. D., and A. L. Brimsmaid, Tyler. The society is 
in a flourishing condition, and adds materially to the sociability 
and refinement of the community. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 797 

Odd Fallows.— St. Joseph Lodge No. 27. I. O. 0. F., was or- 
ganized about 1843. Among its members were Dr. Eddy and 
John Niles, deceased, Albert Cass, H. E. Ilnrlbut, A. H. Long and 
James Easton, still members of the order. This lodge ceased to 
work, and Monitor Lodge, No. 286, was instituted Aug. 13, 1867. 
The charter members were A. H. Long, James Easton, Washington 
Gibson, Philip McElvain and Thomas S. Long, the latter being the 
first Noble Grand. The Lodge hall was destroyed by the fire of 
1872, with all the furniture; since then the lodge has furnished a 
new hall in the Phcenix block, as above stated, which is an honor, 
not only to the lodge, but also to the order generally. The lodge 
has over a hundred members and is in a prosperous condition. 

There is also a lodge of the Kn ights of Pythian, of recent organ- 
ization in Mishawaka. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

We shall now revert to the pioneer days of Mishawaka and 
Penn township. 

There soon came a time amid the rush of business, the founda- 
tion of homes, and making of farms, when the enterprising settlers 
of this locality turned their attention to the all important duty of 
educating their children. There seemed now to be something else 
for the little prattlers to do besides gathering nuts and acorns from 
under the lofty trees of the dense forests of Penn township. The 
pioneer school-house was soon erected. It was a small, round-log 
cabin, with a puncheon door hung upon wooden hinges. The floor 
was also made of puncheons, as were the writing desks, which 
were supported by pins in the wall. The seats consisted of split 
logs, supported upon pin legs. They sat upon these with their 
backs resting against the edge of the desks; and when they 
wished to write they just "flopped around, right about face." 
But the smaller ones sat upon these rustic seats with their feet 
dangling a foot above the floor, and with nothing against which to 
rest their little bowed-up backs. 

The room was warmed by a huge fire-place, which occupied the 
entire end of the house, and was filled with logs that the boys drew 
into the room upon a sled. The roof consisted of clapboards, 
which were fastened or secured by means of poles laid lengthwise 
with the roof, about three feet apart, separated by chunks or knees. 
The chimney was made of "cat and claj 7 " (mud and straw) and 
sticks. The windows of the pioneer school-house consisted of a 
log removed nearly the entire length of the building, and greased 
paper pasted over the'aperture for lights. The text-books consisted 
principally of a speller, Testament and an arithmetic. Tn those 
days the children did not need to dress in fine clothes, in order to 
rival some classmate in that direction, but all alike wore garments 
to school, spun and woven by their mothers. 



798 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY". 

The schools were first taught entirely by subscription, and the 
teachers were principally of the "ox-gad persuasion," using force 
rather than affection as a means of obtaining and preserving good 
order. The first school-house in the township was erected in 1832. 
The schools, as well as all branches of industry, have greatly changed 
since then. 

In Mishawaka there had been more interest taken in the public 
schools than in any other part of the count} - , and with good success. 
The first school-house was built here in 1831, which was a small 
frame building; and the first teacher was a Miss Sheldon, of White 
Pigeon. The schools of Mishawaka have reached a high degree of 
excellence, under the wise management of Prof. Elisha Sumption, 
who has had charge of them for seven years, but has lately resigned 
on account of failing health. Mishawaka has a fine high-school 
building, that cost about $50,000, containing 12 rooms and offices. 
This is one of the finest school buildings in Northern Indiana, and 
speaks well for the enterprise of the flourishing town of Mishawaka. 

There are 1-t school districts in Penn township. There were 
formerly 15, but No. 7 was, in 1S80, discontinued and attached to 
district No. 9 and to Mishawaka. 

The County Superintendent of Public Instruction, Mr. Moon 
held his annual county teachers' institute in the high-school build- 
ing at Mishawaka, in August, 18S0, and teachers were favor- 
ably impressed with the very able instructions there given to them 
by professors from Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Valparaiso and New 
York. The educational interests are thus being promoted, not only 
in Mishawaka and Penn township, but throughout the entire 
county. 

RELIGIOUS. 

Mishawaka Baptist Church. — There was an organization of this 
Church in Mishawaka prior to 1S40, but it has since become extinct. 
The present Church was organized May 14, 18G7, by Elders T. P. 
Campbell, of South Bend, and B. P. Russell, of Niles, Mich., and 
brethren from the Churches of South Bend, Niles and Penn town- 
ship. There were 18 charter members; Rev. M. T. Lamb was the 
first pastor, P. C. Perkins first clerk, and J. C. Snyder the first treas- 
urer. The first deacons were John Merriman, A. J. Ames and 
J. C. Snyder. Rev. F. Moro was pastor of the Church from De- 
cember, 1870, to November, 1871. Rev. B. P. Russell became 
pastor in 1874. In 1808 this society erected a house of worship, 
valued at $5,000. Sabbath-school each Sabbath at 12 m. ; and ser- . 
vices each alternate Sabbath morning and each Sabbath evening, 
bv Rev. H. J. Finch, pastor. Present number of communicants, 
101. 

First Baptist Church of Penn Township. — Feb. 11, 1837, a 
meeting was held in the house of Eli B. Mead, for the purpose of 
constituting a Baptist Church in Penn township. Rev. Price, of 



HISTOEY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 799 

Edwardsburg, Elan S. Colby, of Lockport, and Mr. Alger of Misha- 
waka, were present. Rev. Price was chosen moderator, and Mr. 
Colby made clerk of the meeting. The following persons presented 
letters of commendation, and expressed a desire to unite in Church 
fellowship: Isaiah Ferris, Jacob M. Galor, Jonathan Buck, John 
Barton, Lucinda Ferris, Sr., Elizabeth Ferris, Azubah Galor, Anna 
Buck, Delinda Barton and Parmelia Ferris. Elder Price examined 
them, extended to them the right-hand of fellowship, and pro- 
nounced them a Church, to be known as "The First Baptist Church 
of Penn Township." John Barton was the first clerk and B. J. 
Ferris the first treasurer. 

Messrs. Galor and Buck' were elected trustees, to attend to select- 
ing ground and erecting a house of worship. In 1838 the society 
erected a small log house in which to worship. Rev. Adam Miller 
was the first pastor, they having worshiped for some time without 
a minister in charge. The present house was erected in 1849, a 
large frame building, about 4£ miles south of Mishawaka. The 
Church grew weaker by deaths, emigration and removals to Misha- 
waka, until it is now extinct. It was the first Baptist Church or- 
ganized in the county, and now it is numbered with the things that 
were. Its only survivors are Jacob M. and Azubah Galor, of Misha- 
waka; Parmelia Ferris, now Mrs. Moore, of Pleasant Valley; and 
Delinda Barton, of Kansas. 

Pleasant Valley Baptist Church was organized about 1852. 
The}- have a neat little frame house of worship in the northeastern 
part of Penn township; Elder H. J. Finch is the pastor. Number 
of communicants, 20. 

Christian Church. — The Christian Church at Mishawaka was 
organized about 1843. The first elders' were H. E. Ilurlbut, A. 
Alden and Morris Hartwick. The first deacons were S. B. Hutchin- 
son, A. L. Wright and C. Hartman. The pioneer ministers of this 
denomination, who occasionally held services in Mishawaka, were 
R. Wilson, C. Martin, J. Martindale, P. T. Russell, H. E. Hurlbut 
and William T. Horner. The latter began in 18£4, and preached 
nearly regularly for two years. During the next twelve years 
Elders Lane, New, Beggs, Green, Shepard and Ilurlbut, respect- 
ively, preached to the Church. In 1S67 I. J. Chase became pastor, 
remaining for two years, when Elder William B. Hendrin took his 
place and" remained for the same length of time. Elders R. Fauret, 
Sntten and S. K. Sweetman also officiated as pastors. This Church 
owes much to Dr. O'Connor and S. I. II. Ireland for its prosperity. 
The house is valued at $5,000. The society sustains weekly prayer- 
meetings and Sabbath. school, besides services each Sabbath by the 
pastor, Elder C. P. Hendershot. Communicants, 120. 

St. Joseph's Catholic Church, at Mishawaka. The first organ- 
ization of this society dates back to 1848, although services had been 
previously held here by that denomination. A house had been 
erected on the north side of the river, and was that year dedicated 
to the Most Hifidi. Revs. W. Zevers, J. F. Gouesset, W. Masters 



800 HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and the Father Superior of Notre Dame, Very Rev. R. E. Sorin, 
and others were instrumental in establishing this Church. The 
society had no pastor until 1857, when Rev. John Mayer was ap- 
pointed to this charge; but in 1859 he accepted the pastorate ot" St. 
Peter's Church in Chicago. In December, 1859, Bishop Right 
Rev. John II. Luers, of Fort Wayne, appointed Rev. H. Koening 
to the pastorate of this Church. In March, 1860, the house was 
destroyed by fire, which was a severe blow upon the young Church. 
By the united efforts of priest, the Church, and some of the wealthy 
citizens of Mishawaka, another house was erected on the south side, 
which is the present commodious structure. Special mention 
should be made of George Milburn, who gave liberally to this en- 
terprise. The house is 92 by 41 feet, and 25 feet high. Many im- 
provements were made during the administration of Rev. Koening, 
including a parsonage, and a building for a parochial school. In 
May, 1867, Rev. A. B. Oechtering entered upon the duties of pastor 
of this Church. In 1871 two fine bells were purchased, and in 1872 
another was added, which make the town resound with their melody 
as the} 7 call the good people together. In 1872 the walls were fres- 
coed, and still further improvements made. The pulpit and altar 
in this Church are unsurpassed for beauty and grandeur in the 
United States. On this are represented the 14 principal scenes of 
the passion and death of our blessed Lord. 

Catholics do not worship these pictures and images, as man}' sup- 
pose; but as they look upon them they meditate upon the suffer- 
ing Master and his love for poor mankind. 

The Church now supports two schools, and owns a library of 600 
volumes. It still continues to prosper under the fatherly care of 
Rev. A. B. Oechtering, who has been tendered a more remunerative 
situation, but preferred to remain here. The communicants now 
number over 200 families. 

Evangelical Association,, at Mishawaka, was organized in 1846 
by Rev. G. G. Platz, with 15 charter members. The first presiding 
elder was Rev. G. G. Platz, and the first pastor was Rev. William 
Kolb. They erected a house of worship in 1857. The Church 
grew and prospered for a time, but by death and emigration it 
became very much weakened. There are now but 34 members. 
They sustain weekly prayer-meetings and Sabbath-school; services 
each Sabbath by the pastor, Rev. Henry Arlen. This society 
erected a new church edifice in 1872. 

Goal Bush Evangelical Association, thvee and a half miles south 
of Mishawaka. This society, of which there is one in Mishawaka, 
is not known in their records by the name of " Church," any more 
than the term Odd Fellows, or Good Templars is known by that 
name; but nevertheless it is a Church as much as any other Chris- 
tian organization. It was organized in 1S47, by Rev. G. G. Platz. 
The house was erected in ISoti. Atone time this society was one 
of the strongest in the North Indiana Conference; but by death and 
emigration it has been weakened until the membership numbers 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 801 

but nine. Services each alternate Sunday, by Rev. Henry Arlen, 
pastor. The rules and regulations of this Church are much the 
same as that of the Methodists. In fact, many persons call them 
German Methodists, thinking them to be indentical with that denom- 
ination. 

/St. Andrew's Evangelical Church, of Mishawaka. — This organ- 
ization differs materially from the " Evangelical Association." It 
was organized in 1864 with 25 members, by Rev. Philip Wagoner. 
They erected a house the same year. Services each alternate Sun- 
day, by the pastor, Rev. Philip Wagoner. Communicants about 
25. 

Lutheran Church, at Mishawaka, was organized prior to 1848 by 
Rev. Philip Bernreuther, with about 12 members. This society 
sustains services each Sabbatli in summer, and each alternate Sab- 
bath in the winter seasons. In the winter they also have a Sunday 
or catechism school, for children, and sustain also a denominational 
day-school four days each week during winter. Communicants 
about 20. Rev. Gustavus Rosenwinkel, pastor. 

Mishawaka Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 
1835. The charter members were Richmond Tuttle and wife, 
Joseph Skerritt and wife, Susan Hurd, and a brother whose 
name is lost. They at first worshiped in an empty store build- 
ing, which was also used by the Presbyterians. The first house 
of worship was erected in 1836, another in 1844, which is now occu- 
pied by the Mishawaka furniture store. The last and present 
structure was en cted in 1872, which is a credit, not only to the 
Methodist Church, but also to the town of Mishawaka. Sabbath- 
school each Sabbath, and services each Sunday morning and evening, 
by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Cone. They also sustain a weekly prayer- 
meeting and class-meeting. 

Tamarack Methodist Church, seven miles southeast of Misha- 
waka. — This class was organized in a log school-house, Dec. 19, 
1855, by Rev. E. P. Church, with 11 charter members, viz.: A. B. 
Lamport, A. M. Lamport, Roxy Lamport, Willard Rockwell, 
Deborah Rockwell, Elam Crouch, Benjamin Pickard, Isaac Ghrist, 
Esther S. Ghrist, Edwin Sawyer and Phoebe Sawyer. They wor- 
shiped in the Tamarack school-house until the fall of 1880, when 
they erected a substantial house 34 x 50 feet. There are now 56 
communicants. Sabbath-school each Sabbath, and services each 
alternate Sunday by the pastor, Rev. J. H. Jackson. 

Free Methodists, of Mishawaka. This peculiar sect was organ- 
ized in Mishawaka in 1877. They are a branch of the M. E. Church, 
or rather have separated themselves from that Church. There are 
about 16 or 18 members, and they worship in an old dwelling-house, 
fitted up for their purpose. 

Presbyterian Church, at Mishawaka. This Church was organized 
July 25, 1834, by Rev. JSf. M. Wells, who died in Detroit in 1879. 
The organization took place in the house of Philo Hurd. The 
following is a list of the charter members: Rev. N. M. Wells, Elias 



802 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Smith, Alna Smith, Levi Dean, Polly Dean, Philo Hurd, Martha 
Hurd, Alanson M. Hurd, Sarah L. Hurd, Willis S. Garrison. Philo 
Hurd and Elias Smith were the first elders, and Philo Hurd the 
first deacon. Jan. 29, 1835, John J. Deming was received into the 
Church as an elder, and elected clerk. There is now in the church 
a chandelier presented to the society by Judge Deming's daughter, 
Mrs. Charles Crocker, of California. The first house of worship 
was erected in 1837, and another one in 1845, which was destroyed 
by the fire of 1872. The present structure was erected in the fall 
of 1872. Services each Sabbath morning and alternate Sabbath 
evenings by the pastor, Pev. S. V. McKee. Sabbath-school each 
Sabbath. Communicants, 90. 

PERSONAL SKETCHES. 

As a country grows older the more interesting and valuable is its 
biographical history, and not only so, but the best writers of the 
country are advocating the more general reading of this class of 
literature by the young, believing it to exert a better influence upon 
them than any other class of the literature of the day. With these 
thoughts in view, and in justice to the veterans who have made 
this township and city what it is, we append brief personal sketches 
of many of them. Nor do we forget those who to-day are actively 
engaged in life's labors. 

Zelotes Bancroft was born in the town of Castile, N. Y., Oct. 23, 
1831. At a very early age he was placed at work in a flouring- 
mill, which vocation he has followed for the most part during life. 
He came with his parents to this county in 1837. He was married 
June 1, 1865, to Miss Sarah Masten, by whom he has had 4 chil- 
dren, one living, viz.: Zelia. He is proprietor ot Bancroft's flour- 
ing-mill at Osceola, of which we have given a history. William 
Bancroft, deceased, the father of Zelotes, was born in Granville, 
Mass., was a carriage and wagon-maker by trade; he removed to 
New York in 1826, where he engaged in lumbering as well as the 
prosecution of his trade. He was married Dec. 24, 1828, to Miss 
Emeline Belden, by whom he had 6 children; 5 of these are living: 
Zelotes, Alma, Ruth, Emeline and Louisa. 

Stephen, J. Btitehelder, M. D., was born in Clinton county, N. 
Y., Nov. 21, 1S33, and is a son of Stephen and Polly Batchelder, 
natives of New Hampshire. The former was a shoemaker. The 
subject of this notice was reared on a farm and received a common- 
school education. He came with his parents to Noble county, Ind., 
in 1S50, and removed to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1S53. He labored 
as an assistant in a saw-mill in Iowa, where he had one hand crip- 

?led by the saw. He afterward read medicine under Dr. Hiram 
'arker, of Greencastle, Iowa. He graduated at the Keokuk College 
of Physicians and Surgeons in 1856. He began to practice in 
Greencastle, Iowa, in 1669, and in Marcli of the same year he came 
to Oceola, Ind., where he remained ten years, except one year, which 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 803 

he spent in California. In April, 1879, he came to Mishawaka, 
where he has a good practice. He and wife own 142^ acres of 
land in Penn tp. He was married in 1856 to Rothilda Cole, by 
whom he has 3 children: Squire J., John H. and Rosey E. He 
again married in 1876 Mrs. Eliza Griffitts. Mrs. B. had 2 children 
by her first husband, namely, Frank and Carrie. 

Harrison G. Beemer was born in Sussex countj', N. J., June 11, 
1838, and is a son of Moses and Susan (Ayers) Beemer, natives 
also of New Jersey. He was brought up on a farm and educated 
at Holmesdale and University of Bethany, Pa.; taught school three 
years in Pennsylvania; clerked for Lloyd & Taylor, New York city, 
for four years. He then went to Marion, Ohio, and was employed 
as clerk for Johnson, Uhler & Co. for three years. He served in 
the late war in Co. G, 136th O. Yol. Inf., in 1864-'5. He afterward 
went to Lima and engaged in the dry- goods business in company 
with Mr. Holmes. In 1868 he bought Holmes' interest. He was 
married Sept. 22, 1865, to Miss Malinda Garvin, and they have 
had 3 children, 2 of whom are living: Nellie Estella and Georgi- 
anna May. Mr. Beemer came to Mishawaka in 1S<>9, and engaged 
in the dry-goods business with his brother-in-law, Mr. Garvin, until 
1875, when he bought Garvin's interest and took Mr. J. Quigg as a 
partner in October, 1870. At the fall election in 1879 he was 
elected to the office of County Recorder. 

E. V. Bingham, Justice of the Peace, Mishawaka, was born in 
this tp. Aug. 1, 1S44, and is a son of Alfred and Ann (Miller) Bing- 
ham, the former a native of New York, and the latter of Pennsyl- 
vania. Mr. B. was brought up and educated in this place. He was 
admitted to the Bar in November, 1876, and began the practice of 
law soon after. He was elected to the office of Justice of the Peace 
in 1872, and is now re-elected for the third term. He was married 
Dec. 7, 1872, to Miss Harriet E., second daughter of Dr. Grimes, of 
Mishawaka. They have one child, Katie. He entered the late war in 
Co. G., 48th Ind. Yol. Inf., and was afterward promoted to Sergeant 
Major; was with Sherman on his noted march to the sea; was in 
the battle of Bentonville, and at Raleigh at the time of the Sher- 
man and Johnston agreement. 

John Boles, P. 0., Oceola; was born in Wayne county, Ohio, 
Nov. 22, 1826, and is a son of James and Jane (Lawrence) Boles, 
the former a native of Ireland, and the latter of Pennsylvania. He 
was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. He 
came to this county in 18-14, and worked at the carpenter trade for 
IS years. He was married in 1S67 to Miss Mary Smith, by whom 
he has 3 children: Elmer, Lizzie and Johnnie. In 1859 he drove an 
ox team to California, and returned in I860, and engaged in farm- 
ing. He resides on sec. 17, Penn tp., and owns 140 acres of valua- 
ble land. He cast his first vote for Polk, and has ever since voted 
the Democratic ticket. 



S04: HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Lewis T. Booth, was born in Seneca county, N. Y., Sept. 16, 1821; 
liis parents were David and Ann (Darrow) Booth, natives of Con- 
necticut. Mr. Booth was reared on a farm and educated at Water- 
loo, N. Y. He worked at the coopering business in New York, but 
has since been a carpenter and manufacturer of furniture. He was 
married in 1853 to Miss Sarah Boys, by whom he has 5 children, 
viz.: John, George, Mary, Mattie and Hattie. He came to Mish- 
awaka in 1841, and returned to New York in 1S46. He again came 
to Mishawaka in 1S52, where he subsequently engaged in making 
coffin sets for the Eastern markets until 1859, when he became a 
member of the Mishawaka Furniture Company. He now deals in 
furniture and lumber, and has a good business. He also owns a 
saw-mill here, by which he is doing well. 

John, Borough, M. D.. was born in Wyandot, Ohio, March 17, 
1843, and is a son of Hem-} - and Sarah (Critz) Borough, the former 
a native near Martinsburg, Virginia, and the latter of Stark county, 
Ohio. He was reared on a farm and educated in thecommon school 
and in Findlay, Ohio. He served one and one-half years in the U. 
S. A. Signal Service during the late war. He taught school seven 
years, during the last two of which he read medicine. He then 
clerked IS months in a drug store. He graduated at the Cleveland 
Homeopathic College in February, 1874. He came to Mishawaka 
in July, 1874, and has built up a good practice. He was married 
Feb. 3, 1870, to Miss Helen E. Close. 

Joseph, Bostwick, proprietor of the Bostwick Refrigerator Man- 
ufactory, which we mention in the history of this tp. 

Henry Burket, farmer on sec. 32; P.O., Mishawaka: was born 
in Elkhart county, March 19, 1S33, and is a son of John and Susan- 
nah Burket, natives of Ohio. Mr. B. was brought up on a farm and 
received a common-school education. He was married Jan. 8, 1858, 
to Miss Pho?be A. Heckman, by whom he has 6 children, viz.: 
Milton A., Levi, Sarah A., William H., John W. and Benjamin T. 
Mr. Burket owns 90 acres of valuable land and is engaged in farm- 
ing and stock-raising. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. and 
Mrs. Burket are members of the German Baptist (or Dunkard) 
Church. 

James A. Burt is a native of England, and was born May 12, 
1832. His parents, John and Harriet ( Parsons) Burt, emigrated to 
Lake county, Ohio, in 1830. He was a hard-working boy and had 
no educational advantages. His education he has obtained by his 
own exertions. He began to work at the butcher's trade when 16 
years old, at which he still is engaged. He came to Mishawaka in 
1857, and in 1858 married Miss Edith Crofoot, by whom he has 
had 2 children; one of these, Milroy, is living. He owns a large 
first-class meat market and is doing a good business. 

William W. Butterworth, M. D., located in Mishawaka in 
June, 18-17, for the purpose of practicing his profession. He came 
an entire stranger in the beginning of his manhood. ''The town 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 805 

then was in the height of its prosperity," with a larger manufactur- 
ing interest than any other place in all Northern Indiana. The 
medical field was then occupied by a strong corps of educated 
and popular physicians, as well as by a number of "root-and-herb," 
and ''steam " doctors. Fresh from his pupilage and medical lec- 
tures, Dr. Butterworth "flung out his sign," and with great self- 
reliance, ambition and industry sought the confidence and patronage 
of the people. He had come to stay, and was a success, almost 
from the beginning, in getting a fair share of business and 
good patronage. The prominent physicians of Mishawaka then 
were Drs. Styles, Vaughn. Badger and Eddy, all now deceased. 
They were well advanced in medical science. The latter named 
gentleman afterward became distinguished in State and national 
politics. Until 1861 and during the war, Dr. Butterworth always 
maintained a first-class rank in his profession in Northern Indiana. 
In 1862 he, with a few other medical men from different parts of 
the State, was commissioned by Gov. Morton, by authority of the 
War Department, to visit Indiana troops in the field and hospital, 
then suffering so terribly from typhoid disease, and in that capacity 
rendered efficient aid at the battle-field and camp of Pittsburg 
Landing. In the summer of 18(32 he accepted a commission as 
Surgeon of the 99th Reg. Ind. Vol., and served as such to the close 
of the war. The last year of his service he was detailed for hos- 
pital work, principally at Marietta, Ga., and Alexandria, Va. 
Dr. Butterworth is now President of the St. Joseph Medical 
Society, and President of the St. Joseph Valley District Medical 
Society, composed of doctors from the counties of Elkhart, St. 
Joseph and La Porte, Ind., and Cass and Berrien counties, Mich. 
The Doctor's papers read before medical societies were always 
among the best, some of which were published in the Peninsular 
(Mich.) Medial Journal, and the Lancet, of Cincinnati, Ohio. 
He is a terse, expressive writer and public speaker, though never 
with much ambition or self-confidence in the latter capacity. In 
his writing and speaking, he is very sure to leave a " web " for hos- 
tile or friendly criticism. 

In 1872 Dr. Butterworth's name was favorably mentioned in 
several papers as a candidate for Congress; but he felt unable to 
afford the expense necessary for the uncertain race, and he there- 
fore declined the proposed honor. He is a Republican, and repre- 
sented his county in the Legislature of Indian?, from 1870 to 1874 
with distinction. At the present time he is measurably indifferent 
to professional work, and devotes much time to the management 
of his farming interests. 

He was born in Warren county, Ohio, in 1824, and comes of a 
sturdy family of Virginia. When a boy the family emigrated to 
La Porte county, Ind., where he learned much business, common 
sense and economy by farm work. He received a good common- 
school education, and was fitted for college and entered the A.sbnry 



806 HISTOET OF ST. J( SEPH COUNTY. 

University, where one rear was spent, after which he studied medi- 
cine and graduated at the Indiana Medical College. He subse- 
quently took a partial course of lectures at the University Medical 
College, of JS T ew York. 

The Doctor has been twice married, and his present wife, for- 
merly Mrs. S. E. Kennedy, late of Mississippi, is a daughter of the 
Hon. Milo Smith. He has two sons and a daughter, a nice home, 
and a fair share of earth's treasures, and now, in excellent health, 
is taking, so far as possible, his comforts " as lie goes along." 

Geo. V. Byrkit was born in Fenn tp. Feb. 20, 1837, and is a 
son of Edmund and Catharine (Bumgardner) Byrkit, natives of 
North Carolina. The former emigrated to Ohio with his parents 
when quite small, and the latter came first to Kentucky, then to 
Ohio. Mr. B}-rkit was reared on a farm, and received his educa- 
tion in a cabin made of round logs, covered with clapboard*, with 
slab benches for seats, a puncheon floor, and the light was admitted 
through a window, one light in height and extending the entire 
length of the room. His first teachers were of the " ox-gad persua- 
sion," and wielded a large hickory withe. He was married in May, 
1860, to Miss Jane Boles, by whom he had one child, Jane, now a 
graduate of the Mishawaka high school. Mrs. Byrkit died June 
30, 1862. Mr. B. again married in 1863, this time Mrs. Susan 
Curtis, and they have one child, Edmund B. Mr. B. owns 216 
acres of valuable land, and resides on sec. 14, where he is engaged 
in farming and stock-raising. Mr. Byrkit's father came to this 
county in 1830, when there were numerous Indians in the county. 
He then selected his location, planted some apple seeds, and 
returned and brought his family the following year. The first trip 
he made on horseback. He was born in the year 1800, and died in 
1873. 

Albert Cass was born in Frovidence, Quebec, Jan. 22, J 815. 
His parents were Thomas and Anna (Sherborn) Cass, natives of 
New Hampshire, who settled in Quebec about 1S00. He was 
reared on a farm, and received a limited education in the common 
schools, attending school three months in the winter and working 
the rest of the year. In 1836 he came to Steuben county, Ind., 
and in 1837 to this county. He was the first one to start a wagon 
manufactory in Mishawaka. He continued in this business with 
William Wood for 11 years. He was married in 1841 to Miss Jane 
Pellinger, of Ontario county, N. Y. They had 3 children, Nancy 
M., Sarah A. and Carrie M. He engaged in farming for the most 
part since he quit wagon-making. He is interested in a drug-store 
in Mishawaka. In politics he is a thorough Republican. 

William M. Clark was born in Colbourn county, Canada, Feb. 
11, 1S35, and is a son of Seth and Caroline (Merriman) Clark, 
natives of Connecticut, who moved to Canada in 1838. Seth Clark 
was a chair-maker and painter. He made the first chair in Misha- 
waka. He located on a farm near Elkhart, and died March 21, 
1878. William M. was educated in Mishawaka; was employed at 



1IIST0KY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 807 

the age of 15 as clerk for- Mr. Judson, a merchant, for several years; 
engaged in business for himself in Mishavvaka in 1863, forming a 
partnership with A. IVI. Wing. Mr. Whitson bought Wing's 
interest in 1864, and in 1860 the firm of Clark & Whitson sold out 
their store, and are now engaged in banking. 

Henry Crofoot was born in Lake count} - , Ohio, July S, 1830, and 
is a son of Vernon and Diantha (Fuller) Crofoot, the former a 
native of New York, and the latter of Pennsylvania. He was 
reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. lie came 
to this county with his parents about 1S40; engaged in burning 
charcoal for some time; in 1853 he went by ship to California, and 
returned the same year. He then went to Southern Indiana to 
burn charcoal on a salary of $10 a month, when ordinary wages for 
that kind of labor was from $12 to $15 per month. He returned 
in the fall, bought 160 acres of timber and proceeded at once to 
clear 125 acres of it, utilizing the timber for saw-logs, wood, etc. 
He was married Sept. 18, 1S56, to Miss Nancy Pruner, by whom 
he had 11 children; 10 a>-e living, namely, Schuyler, Hester, Clara, 
Viola, Willard, Linnie, Olive, Lona, Vernon and A. C. Mr. Cro- 
foot is now engaged in farming and stock-raising on sec. 4, owning 
24n acres of valuable land. In politics he is a Greenbacker. 

Hubert H. Crooks, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 28; was born in 
Holmes county, Ohio, Nov. 15, 1834, and is a son of James and 
Mary Crooks, natives of Pennsylvania. Pie came with his parents 
to Noble county, Ind., in 1841, where he remained seven years. 
They then removed to La Porte county and remained until 1855, 
when they came to this county. Robert H. went to Illinois in 
1857 and worked on a farm. He was married in April, I860, to 
Miss Emily Vesey, daughter of George Vesey, of this tp. They have 
4 children : Olive A., Lucius M., Mary E. and Gracie M. Mr. Crooks 
has been very successful in business, and now owns 200 acres of 
valuable land, which is well improved. His barn, 42^x64 feet, cost 
him $1,200, and his house was erected at an expense of $2,000. 

Alex. Curtis was born in this county Nov. 25, 1S34, and is a son 
of James and Nancy Curtis. He was reared on a farm and received 
an education in the common schools of this county. In 1857 he 
married Miss Catharine Eggins, and they have had 5 children: 
Flora E., Martha J. (deceased), James D., William W. and Alex. B. 
Mr. Curtis removed to Fulton county, Ind., where he resided one 
and a half years. He is engaged in farming and stock-raising on 
sec. 29, and owns 90 acres of valuable land. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis 
and their daughter Flora are worthy members of the Baptist 
Church. In politics he votes as his father did, who was a Jackso- 
nian Democrat. 

Edwin, Curtis was born in Elkhart county, Ind., Dec. 6, 1836, 
but has always resided in this county. He labored hard ami en- 
dured many privations, as all pioneer boys do. Pie went to Cali- 
fornia in 1859. and returned in I860, and the same year went to 
Pike's Peak; in 1877 he went to the Black Hills, and returned. He 



808 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

was married in 1866, to Miss Lucetta Mason, a native of Paines- 
ville, Ohio. They have had 3 children: Charlie, Edna, and Hattie 
(deceased). . Mr. Curtis is engaged in farming and stock-raising, on 
sec. 21, and owns 120 acres of land. His father, James Curtis 
(deceased), was born in Miami county, Ohio, Jan. 17, 1807. He 
had no educational advantages, hut was al.vays a hard worker. He 
came to this county in 1S31, when the Indians were numerous, and 
the timber thick and heavy. The noted chief Raccoon was a fre- 
quent caller at his residence, aud was buried on the farm of Mr. 
Curtis, near his house. A son of Mr. Curtis, knowing the exact 
locality, many years afterward exhumed the skeleton and procured 
the jawbone of that noted chief, which is now in Mishawaka. Mr. 
Curtis was married Sept. 11, 1S29, to Miss Nancy Byrkit, by 
whom he had 11 children, 10 sons and one daughter. He was a 
highly respected citizen; and there was one thing connected with 
his life of which but few can boast, — i. e., he never had a lawsuit. 
He died Jan. 12, 187s. 

John L. Dayhuff was born in Sandusky 'county, O., Nov. 27, 
1836, and his parents were Moses and Hannah Dayhuff, natives of 
Maryland and of German descent. Mr. Dayhuff was brought up 
on a farm, and received a common-school education. He was but 
seven years old when his father died. He came to this county in 1848, 
and was married in March, 1S5!>, to Miss Mary Varney, by whom he 
has had 8 children; of these, 5 areliving. viz.: Emma J., Minnie B., 
William A., John B. and Charles E. Mr. D. has engaged largely 
in putting in wells and cisterns, and in 18H4 he was employed in 
the sale of pumps. He began poor and now has a good home, with 
all the necessary comforts of life. He now has his second wife, 
whom he married in June, 1875. They have one child, Lulu. 

Harlow Dodge, deceased, was born in Oneida county, N. Y., in 
1815. The early part of his boyhood was spent upon a farm. He 
began as an apprentice at the trade of millwright when he was 1-1 
years of age. He came to Michigan in 1836, and to this county 
in 1S40. He was a contractor on the L. S. & M. S. R. R., having 
built all the depots for this road between Bristol and La Porte, and 
between Elkhart and Toledo. He was married Jan. 23, 1845, to 
Miss Elizabeth Luce, by whom he has had 5 children; of these, 4 
are living, viz.: Mary, Wallace H., Nellie A. and William W. 
Mrs. Dodge's father was Sprowel Luce. For some years prior to 
his death, Mr. Dodge was engaged in manufacturing in Mish- 
awaka. 

Wallace W. Dodge, son of the preceding, was born in Misha- 
waka, July 10. 1849; he was educated at Notre Dame, Ind. He 
engaged in the hardware business in Mishawaka for 13 years. 
July 13, 1870, he was married to Miss Hattie Vessey, daughter of 
J. M. Vessey. He is manager and proprietor of the Dodge Manu- 
factory already mentioned. 

A. Eberhart was born- in Wayne county, Feb. 4, 1821 . His par- 
ents were Frederick and Elizabeth (Weltner) Eberhart. natives of 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 809 

Pennsylvania. The former was a glass-blower, as was his father and 
all of his uncles, who lived to a very old age. Mr. E.'s grandmother 
died at the age of 99 years, after living 30 days without food or 
drink. She was not sick, but simply lost her desire for food and 
drink, and to live any longer in the world. Mr. Eberhart was mar- 
ried April 21, 1S47, to Miss Sarah A. Boyd, by whom he had 9 
children; of these, 4 are living, viz.: Flora, James, Frederick and 
Everett G. Mr. E. came to this county with his parents in 1836. 
where he has since resided. He owns an interest in the Hippie 
Mills at Mishawaka, already described. His mother still lives, at 
the advanced age of 80 years, and is very spry. 

John H. Eberhart, brother of the preceding, was born in Yates 
county, N. Y., Oct. 8, 1825. His educational advantages were very 
limited, there being but three months' school in the winter seasons, 
lie came with his parents to this county in 1836; they had started 
for Illinois; John took sick, which caused them to stop here for a 
season. They were well pleased with the country, and remained. 
He was married in August, 1850, to Miss Mary A. Pembroke, and 
they have had 2 children, both deceased. Mrs. Eberhart died in 
October, 1857. and he again married in December, 1859, this time 
Mrs. Mary McCan, by whom he has 2 children: Hattie L. and 
Nellie M. He is one of the principal stockholders in Ripple Mills, 
at Mishawaka. 

Jacob Eby, farmer, sec. 4; P. O., Elkhart; was born in Waterloo 
county, Province of Ontario, Oct. 18, 1816, and is a son of David 
and Elizabeth (Bechtal) Eby, natives of Lancaster county, Pa., who 
■went to Ontario about 1S00. He was brought up in a new country, 
and hence his educational advantages were very limited. He wore 
boots made of untanned leather, or raw hide and buckskin pants, 
in his boyhood days. He then could see 100 times as many Indians 
as whites. He chopped logs from 100 acres of heavy-timbered land 
himself, and helped clear 300 acres ready for the plow. He was 
married April 7, 1840, to Miss Polly Bingeman, by whom he has 
had S children; 7 are living, viz.: Enoch, Seth, Saruch (same as 
Abraham's grandfather), Jacob, John, Joseph and Noah. Thename 
of the deceased was Simon. Mr. Eby came to this county in 1861, 
where he is engaged in farming and stock-raising, at which he has 
been very successful. He owns 282 acres of valuable land. 

Jacob Eckstein was born in Baden, Germany, Feb. 12, 1837. 
His parents were John and Eva Eckstein; the former was a cabinet- 
maker, and the subject of this sketch early learned the use of tools. 
He received a common-school education, completed his trade, and 
emigrated to America in 1854. He came to Randolph, Portage 
county, Ohio, first, where he remained four years. He then came 
to Woodland, this county, remaining there one year, and moved 
from there to South Bend, where he resided 18 months. He spent 
nine months in Cass county, Mich., when, in 1861, he removed to 
Mishawaka, where he still resides, engaged in the manufacture ot 



810 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

furniture. He was married May 10, 1864, to Miss Man* A. Hau- 
bert, by whom he has had 8 children; of these, 7 are living, namely: 
Jacob, Francis X., Gertrude, Peter, Nicholas, Wilhelinina and 
Helena. The name of the deceased child was William. Mr. Eckstein 
is leader of the Mishawaka Cornet Band, and a worthy member of 
the Catholic Church. 

EAom EUer, farmer, sec. 29; was born in Miami county, Ohio, 
Sept. 14, 1S26, and is a son of Jacob and Elizabeth Eller, natives of 
North Carolina. He was reared on a farm and educated in the com- 
mon schools. He came with his parents to this tp. in 1S31, where 
he endured the privations that pioneer boys are heir to; was mar- 
ried in 1849, to Miss Sobrina Patterson, by whom he has had 2 
children, one now living. Warren A. The deceased's name was 
Charles R. Mr. Eiler owns 250 acres of land, and is engaged in 
farming and stock-raising. In politics he is a Republican. 

James S- EIH*, undertaker, Mishawaka, was born in the town 
of Starkey, Yates county, N. Y., Dec. 20, 184-3, and is a son of 
Stephen and Mary (Schenck) Ellis, natives also of the Empire State. 
He was educated in Penn Yan Seminary, and at early manhood 
engaged with his father in the undertaker's and furniture business 
in Dundee, N. Y.; came to Mishawaka in 1870; followed cabinet- 
making until 1877, when he embarked again as undertaker and fur- 
niture dealer, repairer, etc. He was married in 1873. 

John Ernat, tanner and stock-raiser, sec. 27; was born on St. 
Valentine's day. 1835, and is a son of Martin and Christina Ernst, 
natives of Baden-Baden, Germany. He was reared on a farm, and 
educated in a comifioh school. He went to Canada in 1840, where 
he engaged in farming until 1S62, when he came to this county. 
He married Miss Magdalene Buchheit, iu February, 1804. They 
have had 7 children, of whom 6 are living, viz.: Mary, Christina, 
Leo A., Rosa, Matilda and Frank. Mr. and Mrs. Ernst are worthy 
members of the Catholic Church. 

George Eufzler, sec. 26. This enterprising farmer was born 
in Jackson county, Ohio, June 18, 1829, and is a son of George 
and Elizabeth i Holmeshead) Eutzler, who removed with their family 
to this county in 1831. Mr. Entzler was brought up on a farm, 
and received a common-school education. He was married April 
6, 1S53, to Miss Anna Vesey; they have had 3 children, 2 living, 
viz.: Elizabeth and Enos. The deceased's name was Erastus. Mr. 
Eutzler has a fine farm of 560 acres, and as a raiser of small grain, 
has been eminently successful. He is an honored member of the 
order of Freemasons at Mishawaka. His father died Jan. 1, 1861, 
and his mother lived until Nov. 5, 1876. 

John Feiten was born in Germany Feb. 4, 1840, where, when 
he was an infant, his father died; he was reared on a farm and edu- 
cated in the village of Demerath, Prussia. He came to Misha- 
waka in 1853, and without attending an English school, he has 
obtaiuedafair English education, and writesavery legible hand. At 
the age of 17 years he learned the business of chair-maker; this he 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 813 

pursued for eight years, and in 1865 he engaged in the furniture 
and undertaking business in Mishawaka, in which he is still en- 
gaged, and is doing a good business. He manufactures a splendid 
rocking-chair of his own invention. In 1S72 his property and stock 
was burned, but he still prospers. He was married in 1866 to 
Miss Isabella Black, by whom he had 4 children, viz.: Nellie, 
Gertrude, Eugene A. and Mary B. In 1873 Mr. Feiten built a 
new house, valued at $1,400. 

Rev. H. J. Finch was born in Essex county, N. Y., April 26, 
1836, and is a son of Hiram and Eliza Finch, the former a native 
of New Hampshire, and the latter of Massachusetts. Mr. Finch 
was reared on a farm and received but a common-school education, 
save that which he obtained through self-culture and hard study. 
He came to this countj' with his parents in 1S46; was married 
Oct. 8, 1857, to Miss Jane Antrim, by whom he had one child, 
Olive; Mrs. Finch died June 28, 1860, and he again married Oct. 
19, 1861, this time Miss Sarah Fuson, by whom he has had 7 chil- 
dren; 6 are living, viz.: Isaac B., Norman E., Lucinda J., Eliza V., 
L. Landora and John W. At different times Mr. Finch felt called 
to the work of the gospel ministry, and accordingly, in 1868, he 
began preparing himself for the work. He began by supplying the 
pulpit at Sumption Prairie, before either having license or being 
ordained. He held a series of meetings at Sumption Prairie the 
following winter, and many souls were converted and added to the 
Church. His second series of meetings was held at Jamestown, 
near Elkhart, Ind., and with like results. He then became con- 
vinced that God had a work for him to do, and he more thoroughly 
prepared himself, and in 1872 received license to preach, and was 
ordained in 1873. He took the pastorate of the Mishawaka Baptist 
Church in 1876, which position he still holds besides having charge 
of three other Churches. His labors are very great, preaching three 
times each Sabbath. 

M. M. Fisher was born in Williams county, Ohio, August, 1848, 
and is a son of P. C. and Lydia Fisher, the former a native of Ohio, 
and the latter of Virginia. Mr. Fisher was reared on a farm and 
educated in the common school and the normal high school of 
Bryan, Ohio. Bt the age of 16 he entered the army, Co. A, 189th 
0. Y. I., and served until the close of the war. He came to Misha- 
waka in 1870, and the following year, Dec. 25, married Miss Libbie 
A. Miller, by whom he has one child, Irabelle. When Mr. Fisher 
came here he engaged as a laborer for the Perkins Windmill and 
Ax Company until 1873, when he became one of the joint-stock 
company that was incorporated at that time, and is now General 
Superintendent of the manufactory. He is a zealous worker in the 
cause of temperance. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher are worthy members of 
the Presbyterian Church. 

Jacob Fulmer, farmer, sec. 3, was born in Stark county, Ohio, 
Dec. 12, 1843, and is a son of Martin and Mary Fulmer, deceased, 
natives of Germany ; he was but eight years old when his father 

51 



814 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

died; was reared on a farm and received a common-school educa- 
tion; came with bis parents to this county in 1850; worked very 
hard in clearing away the brush and logs to make the farm. He 
was married March 27, 1866, to Miss Louisa E. Beiger, by whom 
he has 5 children, viz.: Ledean, Clarence W., John H., Martin 
D. and Jacob H. Mr. Fulmer is engaged in fanning and owns 135 
acres of valuable land. Mr. and Mrs. F. are members of the Evan- 
gelical Association. 

J. M. Galor was born in Rensselaer county, N. Y., Aug. 5, 
1809; he was but two years old when his father died; came with 
his mother and step-father to Rising Sun, Ohio county, Ind., in 
1815, and to Dearborn county, Ind., in 1816; in 1835 he came 
to this county, and drove the first wagon south of Mishawaka 
into the heavy timber, where he labored hard and long in clear- 
ing up a farm, thinking, as others did in those days, that the 
prairie land was worthless. He also engaged in the collier busi- 
ness for some time; as there was a blast furnace at Mishawaka, he 
found ready market for all his timber that he turned into charcoal. 
He was married Nov. 18, 1830, to Miss Cynthia Crouch, by whom 
he had one child, Eleanor, who became the wife of Daniel B. 
Jewell, and afterward died, leaving one daughter, Luzetta. Mrs. 
Galor died Sept. 9, 1832, and Mr. Galor again married Sept. 26, 
1833, Azubah Ferris. They have had 3 children, 2 living: Albert 
and Sarah A. Mr. Galor is now living a quiet, retired life in 
Mishawaka. 

F. X. Ganser is a native of Baltimore, Md., and was born June 
14, 1850. His parents were Joseph and Anna Ganser, natives of 
Germany, who removed with their^family from Maryland to Penn- 
sylvania in 1851, and to Mishawaka in 1861. Mr. G. worked in the 
cabinet shops in Mishawaka for 12 years. He then engaged for a 
time as a dry-goods clerk for Bingham & Hudson. He was married 
in 1872 to Miss Catharine Zuber, by whom he has had 3 children, 
2 living: Lawrence and Otto. Mr. Ganser runs a first-class saloon 
and billiard hall, and does a large business. No drunkenness is 
allowed around his establishment. 

Joseph Ganser. Jr. This enterprising young druggist was born 
at St. Mary's, Pa., Nov. 13, 1848. He received his education at St. 
Mary's and at Philadelphia. He came to Mishawaka in 1861, where 
he eno-aged as a drv-goods clei-k fur Whitson. He bought Dick's 
drug-store in 1873, which he still runs, and carries a stock of $3,500 
in drugs, paints, oils, wall-paper, notions, books, etc., and is doing 
a large business. He speaks the German language, and being a 
Catholic he gets the trade from the German ami Irish citizens. He 
was married July 27, 1871, to Miss Christina Henrichs, by whom 
he has had 6 children, 5 living: August, Leo, Cecelia, Edith and 
Anna. Mr. G. is a musician and sings in the choir. 

Albert Gaylor was born in this tp. May 9, 1841. His father is 
Jacob M. Galor, who, it will be observed, omits tiie y in spelling 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 815 

his name. Mr. Gaylor was reared on a farm and received his edu- 
cation in the common-schools and at Carlisle College, of New 
Carlisle, this county. He early learned to labor on the farm, which 
occupation he pursued until 1874. Was married Oct. 31, 1865, to 
Miss Mary A. Keiffer, by whom he has 4 children, Vickie, John L., 
Kalph and Mabel E. In 1S74 Mr. Gaylor removed to Mishawaka, 
where he engaged in the grocery business, and the manufacture of 
wood pulp. The former lie discontinued in the spring of 1880, but 
continues the latter. He is superintendent of the pulp manu- 
factory in South Bend, and also president of the one located at 
Mishawaka. He has held several offices of trust at the hands ot the 
people; has been City Trustee for Mishawaka for the past three 
years, and is the present Trustee for Penn tp. 

Albert J. Gernhart was born in Worcester, Mass., June 17, 1855, 
and is a son of Matthias and Catharine G-ernhart, of this tp., who 
removed with their family to this county in December, 1855. The 
subject of this notice was reared on a farm and educated in the 
common schools of this county. In 1879 he engaged in butchering 
in company with his brother, and they do a large business and fur- 
nish the people of Mishawaka and vicinity with the best of meats. 

Robert Gillilcmd was born in Seneca, Ontario county, JSf. Y., 
Aug. 1, 1822. His parents were Thomas and Jane (Carson) Gilli- 
land. He was brought up on a farm, and was early employed in 
lumbering, as this was a part of his father's vocation. He came 
to Hudson, Mich., in 1863, where he worked in a spoke factory for 
six and one-half years. He was married Oct. 10, 1844, to Miss 
Caroline Torrance, by whom he has had 8 children; of these, 7 are 
living: Ezra T., James F., Win. T., Maria A., Agnes O., Emma J. 
and Donna B. The first three are connected with the telephone 
manufactory at Indianapolis, and Ezra T. was a co-laborer with 
Edison for two and one-half years, rendering him valuable aid. Mi-. 
Gi lliland owns an interest in Edison's electric pen. 

James B. Greene, M. D., was born in the town of Fremont 
(then Lower Sandusky), Ohio, May 29, 1846, and is a son of Judge 
John L. Greene, deceased, formerly Judge of the Northwestern 
Ohio Circuit for many years, and who fell dead on his way to the 
courtroom, Nov. 8, 1S79. His mother was Marie Du Combe, of 
French birth. Dr. Greene is the 7th of 12 children, all living, and 
"scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific." At 13 years of age the 
Doctor went to learn the watch-maker's trade, hut remained only 
two years. At 15 years of age he was appointed Deputy County 
.Recorder of his native county, with the sole charge of the office. 
While in thatcapacity he began the study of medicine. In the 
fa 1 of 1863 he entered the army in tiie 3d Ohio Cavalry, as a pri- 
vate, and in one month he was transferred to the pay department 
of the Army of the Mississippi. In January, 1864, he was pro- 
moted Hospital Steward, and in July, 1865, he was commissioned 
Assistant Surgeon of the 137th U. S. Colored Infantry, lie grad- 
uated from the Cleveland Medical College in 1867. When he began 



816 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

practice in Mishawaka he bad no money or horse. His proceeds 
for the first year's practice were $50. His practice now amounts to 
over $2,000 annually. In 1874 he was nominated by the Republi- 
can party for Recorder of this county. The Doctor has paid secur- 
ity debts to the amount of nearly $3,000. In 1870 he published a 
work on l> Diseases of the Rectum," which reached an issue of 5, 000 
copies. lie is a member of the St. Joseph Valley District Medical 
Association, and also of the Elkhart Medical Association. He was 
twice elected delegate to the meeting of the American Association, 
and twice to that of the State Association. He was married Jan. 
9, 1808, to Miss Mary E. Hagey, and they have had 4 children, 3 
of whom are living: Philip, Rosetta and Grace. The Doctor has 
acquired the German language himself, save 20 lessons which he 
took in 1879, and has thus gained large practice among the Ger- 
mans. 

James F. Grimes, M. D., is a native of Frederick county, Md., 
and was born April 13, 1825. His father, James Grimes, was a 
miller in Maryland, but abandoned his occupation on account of 
failing health, and engaged in farming. The subject of this notice 
was brought by his parents to Seneca county, Ohio, in 1S33: was 
reared on a farm and educated in Tiffin, Ohio. In 1852 he grad- 
uated from the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio. He 
came to Mishawaka in 1853 and began the practice of medicine. 
He then had $9 in money and no horse, and was obliged to attend 
to practice on foot. He has won a large patronage, and now has 
considerable property. He was married in 1851 to Miss Caroline 
E. Harris, by whom he has had children; of these, 4- are living, 
viz.: Rebecca E., Harriet E., John H. and Mary. 

Silvanus Hall, farmer and stock-raiser, sec. 5, was born in 
Maine July 16, 1815, son of John and Data (Knox) Hall, natives 
of Massachusetts. He was reared on a farm and educated in the 
common schools of Dearborn county, Ind., where his parents 
removed in 1822. They, however, left Maine in 1818, residing in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, for four years. Mr. Hall was married in 1835 to 
Miss Eliza Matthews, a native of Maine, who was brought to this 
State by her parents in infancy. This union has been blessed with 
9 children, of whom 8 are living, viz.: Salathiel, Rhoda A., Jonas, 
Sarah, Thaddeus, Effa J., Susan M. and Ezra D. In his younger 
days Mr. Hall worked at the blacksmith's trade for three years; he 
also followed boating on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for three 
years. In 1845 he had visited every town between Pittsburg and 
New Orleans. In 1845 he removed with his family to this tp., 
where he still resides. 

Wm. Harris was born in Yates county, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1S15, 
and is a son of Steven and Susan Harris, also natives of New York, 
in which State the former died; the latter died here. Mr. Harris 
came to this county in 1854, and settled on the Mishawaka and 
Elkhart road, where he kept travelers for several years. He was 
married Dec. 5, 1839, to Miss Loretta Hall, by whom he had 2 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 817 

children, George (deceased) and John E. His first wife died and 
he again married, this time Miss Priscilla Hall, sister of his first 
wife. By her he has 4 children: Libbie, Steven, Robert and Henry. 
He buried his second wife, and married a third time in 1875, 
Mrs. Flutilla Rogers, who is a worthy member of the Baptist 
Church. Mr. H. is a member of the M. E. Church. 

Peter Haubert was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 6, 1844, and 
is a son of Nicholas and Catharine (Blaicer) Haubert, natives of 
Germany, who removed with their family to Illinois in 1S54; they 
afterward returned to Mishawaka. Mr. Haubert clerked for busi- 
ness men here until 1871, when he opened a grocery upon his own 
responsibility. He sold his grocery store in January, 1872, and 
the following December he established a restaurant, which he now 
runs, and does a good business. He also has a soda fountain in 
connection with the restaurant. lie was married in 1871 to Miss 
Mary C. Black. 

Peter Hendershott, deceased, was born in Pennsylvania June 11, 
1813. His parents removed to Harrison county, Ohio, when he 
was quite small. He was reared on a farm, and as the country was 
new he had no educational advantages, but learned to read and 
write, etc., by his own efforts. When a young man he learned the 
carpenter's trade, which vocation he pursued for the most part during 
the remainder of his life. He was married in June, 1834, to Miss 
Mary B. Merriinan, by whom he had 9 children; 7 of these are liv- 
ing, viz.: William M., Mary E., Patience M., James T., John H., 
Almira F. and David B. He came to this county in 1852, resided 
in South Bend 18 months, when he removed into the country. After 
residing in various localities he purchased a farm in this tp. in '57, 
and settled upon it the same year, where he died in July, 1874. 
He was a member of the United Brethren Church prior to his 
removal to this county. His son, William ftl., who is a subscriber 
for this work, is taking care of his mother and farming the home 
place. He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, March 20, 1836. He 
early learned the use of carpenter's tools and worked at that trade 
about 20 years; for the last 10 years he has been farming. July 9, 
1879, he married Miss Rachel, daughter of Widow Hnlderman. 

Henry D. Higgins was born in Onondaga county, N. Y., March 
15, 1832, and is a son of William and Hannah (Avery) Higgins. 
The former was once a wagon-maker, at which Henry D. worked 
some in his younger days, but was a carpenter and painter by trade. 
He married in April, 1846, Miss Nancy Barnes, by whom he has 
had 4 children; of these, 2 are living, viz.: Sarah and Susie. He 
came to this county in 1846; engaged in painting four years, and 
in 1850 he went to California, but returned in 1851. In 1864 he 
engaged in dentistry in Mishawaka, in company with his son 
Charles, who was accidentally shot by an employee June 19, 1873. 
Mr. Higgins owns and carries on the jewelry store in Mishawaka, 
and is doing a good business. He also has a large sum of money 
at interest. 



818 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Aaron Hoover was born in Ohio Jan. 21, 1810. His parents 
were James and Elizabeth (Knee) Hoover, with whom he came to 
Wayne county, Ind., about 1S19. As he had to work hard, and 
his parents were poor, he had no educational advantages. He came 
to this county in 1834, where he has since resided. He was mar- 
ried in 1829, to Miss Charity Harris, by whom he had 9 children; 
of these but 4 are living, viz.: Phoebe A., Henry, William and 
Charity. Mrs. H. died April 7, 1852. Mr. Hoover has since 
buried two other wives, and now has his fourth wife, who was Mrs. 
Fannie Keasey. He is a farmer and stock-raiser, but since January, 
1869, has been retired, and resides in Mishawaka. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hoover are both worthy members of the M. E. Church. 

Albert Hudson was born in West Hartford, Conn., Dec. 1,1815, 
and is a son of Benjamin and Harriet (Dickinson) Hudson, the for- 
mer a native of Massachusetts, and the latter of Connecticut. The 
early part of his boyhood was spent on a farm. He went to Western 
New York in 1825 or '26, where he learned the shoemaker's trade; 
came to this county in 1835; engaged in shoe-making in Mishawaka 
for nearly 40 years; built Hudson's block, which was destroyed in 
1872 by the fire; he rebuilt soon after. He is now president of the 
St. Joseph Manufacturing Co. He was associated with Mr. Per- 
kins, of this place, in the manufacture of windmills for five years. 
He was married in Brockport, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1835, to Miss Louisa 
Tuttle, and they had 8 children, 4 living: George R., now treas- 
urer of the Milburn Wagon Compan}', at Toledo, Ohio; Hattie L., 
Carrie L. and Emma, now Mrs. Col. Bingham. Mr. Hudson began 
with little or no capital, and has made all his wealth by his own 
exertions. 

Hurls E. Hurlbut. Being an old settler in this county, Mr. 
Hurlbut is entitled to more than a passing notice in our county 
history. He was born Dec. 11, 1S10, in Hartford, Conn., and is a 
eon of Ebenezer and Fannie (Brewster) Hurlbut. The latter was a 
descendant of Mr. Brewster, of Mayflower renown. Mr. H. was 
educated at Hartford. He went to Buffalo, N. Y., in 1S26, and clerked 
for Mr. Flagg, a cousin of his, for three years. In 1829 he went to 
Rochester, N. Y., and to Onondaga county, N. Y., in 1831; learned 
the tinner's trade; came to this county and purchased 160 acres of 
timber land; worked at the tinner's trade for ten years; served as 
Jnstice of the Peace from 1S40 to 1861; was elected by the Repub- 
lican party to the Indiana Legislature from this county in 1S43'4; 
was Postmaster from 1849 to 1S53; practiced law in Mishawaka for 
24 years; in 1874 retired from active business, having accumu- 
lated a large fortune, and is now living in comfort. 

David C. Hutchinson was born in Willoughby, Ohio, Sept. 4, 
1819. His parents were William and Sally (Bond) Hutchinson; 
he was reared and educated in Willoughby, and there married Miss 
Harriet Woodard, by whom he has 2 children: John and Hale. He 
engaged in farming for a time in Ohio, but is also a painter by 
trade. He went to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1S50, where he 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 819 

engaged in painting, and a portion of the time lie was employed in 
a picture gallery. tie came to Mishawaka in 1S60, and has exe- 
cuted large contracts of painting, to the entire satisfaction of his 
employers, at times employing from seven to ten hands to assist him. 
He made graining a specialty. Is now retired, having accumulated 
a handsome amount of this world's goods. 

S. I. H. Ireland. This old and respected citizen of Mishawaka 
was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, June 28, 1S07. His par- 
ents were Andrew and Elizabeth Ireland. His early educational 
advantages were very limited, there being none but subscription 
schools in the locality where he spent his boyhood days. He 
removed with his parents in 1816, to the heavy timber of Preble 
county, Ohio, where his father died in 18:22, which threw a great 
responsibility upon him. He was married in 1828 to Miss Sally 
Ireland, by whom he has had 5 children; but 2 are living: Mary 
and Clarissa. He came to this county in 1831, and has witnessed 
many changes, and noted many reminiscences of the past, some of 
which he has related to us for insertion in this work; and for this 
he has our hearty thanks. He worked hard in clearing away the 
brush and logs on his land, anq followed farming until 1851. He 
has since engaged in various avocations. At one time, in the early 
days of Mishawaka, he was salesman for the St. Joseph Iron Com- 
pany (now St. Joseph Manufacturing Company), located at this 
place. He was also auctioneer for some years. Mr. and Mrs. Ire- 
land and their two daughters are members of the Christian Church 
at Mishawaka. 

Ed. A. Jernegan, editor and proprietor of the Mishawaka 
Enterprise, was born in La Porte, Ind., Jan. 27, 1846, and is a 
son of Thomas Jernegan, editor of the Michigan City Enterprise. 
His mother is a native of Nantucket Island, and his father of Mar- 
tha's Vineyard. They came to South Bend about 1840. Mr. 
Storey, now of the Chicago Times, was then editor and proprietor 
of the Mishawaka Tocsin,, which press Mr. Jernegan purchased 
and removed to La Porte, where he published the Tocsin for about 
two years. During this time, at La Porte, Mr. Ed. A. Jernegan 
was born. He then removed it to Michigan City and began to 
publish the Enterprise, which he continues to do. The subject of 
this notice there learned the printing business. He served 11 
months in the late war, in Co. K, 73d Ind. Vol. Inf., where he was 
transferred to the navy department, on steamer Commodore Var- 
ney, where he acted as Paymaster's Clerk. He returned home and 
entered Co. D, 138th Ind. Vol. Inf., in which he served but five 
months. He became assistant editor of the Michigan City Enter- 
prise, which position he held for four years. He was married Sept. 
6, 1869, to Miss Nannie C. Sherman, by whom he has had 4 chil- 
dren; of these, 3 are living, viz.: Sherman, May and Ralph. 
He purchased the Mishawaka Enterprise press in 1872, and 
although beginning under very unfavorable circumstances he has 



820 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

made a valuable paper, and has a handsome support from the peo- 
ple of St. Joseph county. His press was destroyed by fire the 
same year he began, but he has succeeded in procuring another. 
He does all kinds of job work in the best of style. 

Aaron Jones was born in German tp., this county, Sept. 9, 1838, 
and is a son of Samuel Jones, a native of North Carolina, who 
came to this county in the spring of 1830, and settled in German 
tp., and who, after he labored hard for several years, died in 1850. 
Aaron, our subject, was reared on a farm and educated in the com- 
mon schools and at Franklin College, Franklin county, Iud. He 
also attended Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, for some 
time. He was married in 1860 to Miss Maggie W. Wiley, by 
whom he has had 5 children; 2 living, Aaron and Marv. He owns 
over 400 acres of land in this county, and about 100 acres in Iowa. He 
has been very successful as a farmer and stock-raiser, and resides 
on sec. 32, Penn tp. He is master of the State Grange, of the 
order of Patrons of Husbandry, and is a very prominent man in 
the locality in which he resides. 

Daniel Judie, son of Samuel and Catharine Judie, deceased, 
was born in this tp. March 22, 1842. His parents were natives of 
Pennsylvania, and came to this county in a very early day. Mr. 
Judie was brought up on a farm, and educated in the common 
schools; was married in 1807 to Miss Margaret, daughter of John 
W. May. She is a native of Germany, and a member of the Lu- 
theran Church. He owns 90 and she owns 44 acres of valuable 
land. Mr. Judie has made his start in the world all by his own 
exertions. For several years in his early life he operated a thresh- 
ing-machine. He served three years in the late war, in Co. F, 29th 
Reg't Ind. Yol. Inf., and participated in many of the most bloody 
battles. His cap was shot from his head in the battle of Shiloh. 

Samuel Judie was born in this tp. Dec. 17, 1836, and is a son of 
Samuel and Catharine Judie (dec), who came to this county in 1S31, 
and labored hard in preparing the way for the prosperity of future 
generations. The subject of this sketclx was reared on a farm and 
educated at Dutch island in this county, a school usually taught by 
inferior teachers in those days, and which was mostly taught by 
subscription. In the early part of his manhood Mr. Judie 
engaged in farming and operating a threshing-machine. He was 
married in I860 to Miss Martha, daughter of Daniel Vroman, of 
this tp. They have had children, of whom 3 are living, Hattie, 
Emma and Pardon. Mr. J. is engaged in farming and stock-rais- 
ing on sec. 12, and owns 130 acres of valuable land. 

Stephen H. Judkins was born in Sullivan county, N. H., Aug. 
26, 1^08, and is a son of Stephen and Anna Judkins (dec), also 
natives of New Hampshire. He was raised to work in the wagon- 
maker's shop. As soon as he was able to handle a hatchet and saw 
he was put to work. He followed this business for the most part 
until 1850. He came to Mishawaka in 1837. He was married 
Oct. 8, 18:54. to Miss Phoebe A. Simons, bv whom he has had 4 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S21 

children; of these, 2 are living: William H. and Malvina (now 
Mrs. L. F. Cole, of Neenah, Wisconsin). In 1859 he engaged in 
the grocery business, which he still carries on. He lost $2,700 in the 
lire of 1872. ITe carries a stock of $3,500 in groceries, provisions, 
etc., and is doing a good business. 

A. F . Kizer was born in Wayne county, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1825, and 
is a son of Peter and Catharine Kizer, natives of Pennsylvania, 
who emigrated to Ohio about 1818. Mr. Kizer was reared on a 
farm and received most of his education in a subscription school. 
He was married in 1849 to Miss Caroline Hoffheine, daughter of 
John Hoftheine. They have had 6 children, but one of whom is 
living, Elhanan W. He came to this county in 1852, since which 
time he has resided here save two years that he resided in Michigan. 
He owns 90 acres on sec. 28, and is engaged in farming. In poli- 
tics Mr. Kizer is a Greenbacker. Mr. and Mrs. Kizer are worthy 
members of the M. E. Church. 

John Klein Jr., Mishawaka. This enterprising young dealer in 
and manufacturer of boots and shoes was born in Mishawaka June 
2, 1850, and is a son of John and Mary Klein, also of Mishawaka. 
He is of German descent; he early learned the shoemaker's trade, 
which he now follows, and also carries a fine stock of ready-made 
boots and shoes, and gents' furnishing goods. He is doing a good 
business, which is on the increase. 

Michael Klein was, born in Prussia Sept. 29, 181S; reared on a 
farm and educated in German in his native country; came to 
America in 1836; remained in New Orleans five 3 T ears, working 
in a restaurant; came to Stark county, Ohio, in 1S40, where he 
remained until the fall of 1841, when he came to this county, lo- 
cating in this tp., in the heavy timber. He has worked very hard, and 
made for himself and family a comfortable home. He was married 
in 1S50 to Miss Mary Rieff, who has borne him 8 children, namely: 
Henry, Caroline, Jacob, Josephine, Mary, Albert, George and Laura. 
Mr. and Mrs. Klein are members of the Catholic Church. 

George Kuhn was born in Erie county, N. Y., June IS, 1837, and 
is a son of Bonafanter Kuhn, a native of Switzerland. He " was 
raised in the woods," and therefore had no educational advantages; 
what education he has he obtained by hard study, without a teacher. 
He came to Mishawaka in 1859, and in 1861 built the St. Joseph 
ftourincr-mill, mentioned in the history of Penn tp., on a preceding 
page. He was married Sept, IS, 1S62, to Miss Margaret Michels, 
by whom he has had 7 children; 6 are living: John, George, Peter, 
Joseph, Edward and August. 

Wolfgang Kunftman, deceased. This prominent and useful 
man was born in Byron, Germany, June 9, 1828, and was a son of 
John Kunftman. At the age of 14 years he was apprenticed to a 
lock-maker; he became master of this art and exhibited great skill 
in his work. He came to Mishawaka in 1853, where he acted as 
foreman in the St. Joseph Iron Works, rendering valuable services 
for several years. He was married in 1854 to Miss Sophia Shafer, 



822 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COU2STTT. 

daughter of Conrad Sbafer. She was born in Germany also, and 
came to America with her parents at 11 years of age. They had 7 
children, namely: Katie, Julia, Ferdinand (dec), Philip, Sophia, 
Lizzie and George. In 1S6S Mr. Kunf'tman removed to his farm 
on sec. 7, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising, and was 
eminently successful. He died Nov. 7, 1877, loved and respected by 
all. He was a very benevolent man, always ready to assist in the 
promotion of charitable institutions. The family lost a kind hus- 
band and father, and the community a valuable member of society, 
in the death of Mr. Knnftman. He was a consistent Christian, and 
a worthy member of the Lutheran Church for many years prior to 
his death. 

William Kuss was born in Russia Feb. 27, 1846, and is a son of 
John Kuss, deceased. He was brought up on a farm, and educated 
in the village of Ruhden. He came to Mishawaka in 186S, where 
he began in the bakery business in 1873, in company with Mr. 
Rholeder. This firm dissolved in 1879, and Mr. Kuss continues 
it alone. He carries a capital stock of $2, 6(H) in groceries and 
provisions, queen 's-ware, etc., in addition to the bakery, and is doing 
a large business. He was married March 26, 1S74, to Miss Mary 
Wies, by whom he has 3 children: Charley. Edward and Anna. 

Alexander Laidlaw. P>eing a native of this county Mr. Laid- 
law is identified with its history, and therefore is entitled to more 
than a passing notice in a work like this. He was born in this tp. 
April 15, 1846, and is a son of John Laidlaw, of Mishawaka, whom 
we mention elsewhere. Alexander was reared on a farm and edu- 
cated in the common-schools of this county. He was married 
March 10, 1868, to Miss Elizabeth Burrus, daughter of George 
Burrus, of Elkhart. This union has been blessed with 5 children, 
of whom 4 are living, viz.: Ada, George, John and an infant son. 
Mr. Laidlaw resides on sec. 29, and is engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, owning 110 acres of valuable land. 

John Laidlaw is a native of Blainsley, Scotland, and was born 
Jan. 5, 1812. His parents, John and Susan Laidlaw, removed with 
their family to St. Lawrence county, N. Y., in 1818. He was 
brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools; came 
to this county in 1836; during the first winter he worked for the St. 
Joseph Iron Company, and worked afterward as a common laborer, 
for a time, at various avocations. When he arrived here he hatl 
$175 capital. He bought a small piece of timbered land, and by 
hard work and wise management has accumulated a fortune. He 
was married in 1S37 to Miss Sally Shaw, by whom he has had 13 
children; of these, 10 are living, viz.: Susan. Lydia, Edwin, Alex- 
ander, Caroline, Jane. Mary, Ella, Emma and John. Mr. L. owns 
610 acres of land besides a large amount of town property. He 
now resides in Mishawaka, in his beautiful residence. 

Chan/icy W. Lamport was born in Genesee (then Orleans) 
county, N. Y., April 1, 1814, and is a son of William and Belinda 
Lamport, natives of New England. He was reared on a farm and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 823 

educated in a common school in Ohio, where his parents removed 
about 1823. lie was married in 1846 to Miss Adaline D. Barber, 
daughter of'Chauncy and Persis (Whiting) Barber, natives of Con- 
necticut. Mrs. Lamport was born in Marcellus, N. Y. In one 
week after marriage they started for this county, and arrived in 
due season. They have 4 children: Belinda P., now Mrs. Henry 
Boles, of this tp. ; Hortensius M., pastor of the.M. E. Church at 
Bristol, Ind; A. Lamar, principal of the high school, Waterloo, Ind; 
and Emma R., at home. Mr. Lamport knows all about the hardest of 
labor, of which he has done a great deal. He is now retired, and 
resides in Oceola. Mr. and Mrs. Lamport are worthy members of 
the M. E. Church. 

Frederick Lang is a native of Germany, and was born May 9, 
1834. His father was Frank Lang, also a native of Germany. His 
education was received in the village of Vaihingen, Germany. He 
came to America in 1850, stopping at Pittsburg, Pa., for about 
three years, when he came to this county with his father, and located 
on a farm. He married Miss Ernestina Frank in 1857. They 
have 4 children: Otto E., Emma C, Minnie and Ottilie L. In 1864 
Mr. Lang erected a saw-mill, which he still owns and operates. He, 
in company with his brother-in-law, Charles Frank, established a 
lumber yard in Mishawaka, with a capital stock of $15,000, includ- 
ing the saw-mill, and are doing a good business. 

John Lerner. — This enterprising farmer is entitled to more than 
a passing notice in our county history, as he has been instru- 
mental in bringing into cultivation a large tract of land, here- 
tofore thought to be useless. About the year 1868 he purchased 
some land in the marsh north of Mishawaka and found a place 
large enough on which to erect a house; this he did, and moved 
his family into it; but he made nothing the first year. He then 
took his family back to Mishawaka, and as fast as he could obtain 
the means, he ditched his land. He spent hundreds of dollars in 
ditching, and otherwise improving the marsh, and has made an 
excellent farm, which produces abundant crops of all kinds. Few 
men would succeed as did Mr. Lerner, under such discouraging 
circumstances. He was born in Germany April 7, 1830; first 
learned to roof houses with slate; came to America in 1852, 
remaining in New York cit}' three years, and working at the car- 
penter's trade; in 1855 he came to Mishawaka, where he worked in 
the woolen mills for 13 years. He was married in 1S54 to Miss 
Dora D. Windel, by whom he has had 7 children; of these, 6 are 
living, viz.: AVilhelm, Christopher, Henry, Jonie, Mary and George. 
Mr. and Mrs. Lerner are worthy members of the Lutheran Church. 

Albert R. Leslie was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, July 28, 
1831, and is a son of Eli and Mary Leslie, the former a native of 
Ohio and the latter of Harper's Ferry, Va. Mr. Leslie was reared 
on a farm, and received Ja common-school education, in Portage 
county, Ohio, whither his parents had removed when he was but 
two years old. He was married in 1S54 to Miss Jeannette Hudson, 



S24 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

by whom he had one child, Amanda, since deceased. Mr. Leslie 
came to this county in 1S53, and has since, for the most part, been 
engaged in farming. He served nearly three years in the war of 
the Rebellion, in Co. K, 87th Ind. Vol. Inf., and participated in 
the battles of Perrysville, Hoover's Gap, Chattanooga, Mission 
Ridge, Chickamauga, Ringgold, Atlanta, Nashville, Resaca, and 
others. He was present at the surrender of Johnston to Sherman. 
At one time he, in company with a detachment of others to guard 
a wagon train going for supplies from Chattanooga, up the Tennes- 
see river, subsisted for 14 days upon parched corn and one day's 
rations, save a very little that they could pick up along the road on 
their hurried march. 

Nathan Lighthall was born in Yates county, N. Y., Dec. 17, 
1 820, and is a son of Julius and Amelia (Jenny) Lighthall, deceased, 
also natives of New York; he is the youngest of a family of 11 
children. He was reared on a farm, and received a common-school 
education; came to this county in 1837; has been a wagon-maker, 
but is at present, pattern-maker for the St. Joseph Manufacturing 
Company, at Mishawaka, which position he has held for the past 
18 years. He helped erect the first permanent dam across the St. 
Joseph river at Mishawaka in 1837. He has been married twice, 
and is the father of 4 children, of whom but one is living, Ellen 
D., now Mrs. Dr. N. D. Miles, of Elkhart, Ind. Mr. Lighthall is 
owner of valuable property in Elkhart. 

Levi W. Lott was born in Adams county, Pa., Sept. 22, 1831, 
and is a son of William H. and Esther H. (Wilson) Lott, also 
natives of Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm, and educated 
in the common and select schools. He taught school for three 
winters in his native State, and in 1857 came to this county on a 
visit. He remained but one week, when he proceeded to the vicin- 
ity of Niles, Mich., where he engaged in farming for one season. 
He has taught almost constantly in the winter seasons since 1854. 
He taught seven terms in the Willow Creek school-house in this 
county, and four terms in No. 9. Mr. Lott is also a miller by 
trade, at which he has worked for several summers. He also 
worked at carding wool in Mishawaka, for four summers. He was 
married in 1862, to Eiizabeth A. Van Buskirk, by whom he has 
had 5 children; 4 are living, viz.: William T., Charles W., Walter 
J. and Bertha E. 

Thomas B. Loaghman was born in Licking county, O., near 
Brownsville, March 26, 1839, and is a son of David and Elizabeth 
Loughman, natives of Pennsylvania. He began breaking on the 
Muskingum Valley railroad in 1857, and in 1858 came to this 
county. He worked at the cooper's trade for two years, and also 
labored on the farm for some time. He was engaged by the L. S. 
& M. S. R. R. Company in 1S63, having charge of the warehouse 
for four years; and since that time he has been freight and ticket 
agent at Mishawaka, making 17 years in the employ of the same 
company, and at the same place. He was married in July, 1860, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSKPU COUNTT. 825 

to Miss Mary Skinner, by whom he has 2 children: Emma and Ella. 
Mr. and Mrs. L. are members of the M. E. Church. 

1'h'dlp Manchester, sec. 4; was born in Washington county, 
Penn., Sept. 2S, 1808, and is a son of Benjamin and Agnes (Dod- 
dridge) Manchester, the former a native of Rhode Island, and the 
latter of Pennsylvania. Mrs. M's brothers and sisters were cap- 
tured by the Indians during the troubles earl}' in this century. 
Philip was reared on a farm, and received a limited education in a 
subscription school. His parents were poor, and there being a 
large amount of labor for the boys, he attended school '' week about " 
with his brother. He was married in 1833, to Miss Hannah Ugen- 
fritz, by whom he has had 11 children; but 2 are living, namely: 
Love and Elizabeth. The former is now Mrs. W. Manchester, and 
the latter, Mrs. A. M. Smith. Mr. Manchester owns 201 acres ot 
valuable land, which is attended by his son-in-law, Mr. Smith. 
Mr. and Mrs. Manchester are Old-Side Baptists in their religious 
belief, but are not connected with any Church. 

J . W. Martling was born in New York city Oct. 14, 1816, and 
is a son of John and Martha (Lockwood) Martling; the former a 
native of Greensburg, N. Y., and the latter of New York city. J. 
W. removed (with his parents) to Buffalo, N. Y., iu 1S31, came to 
this county in 1S37, and returned to Buffalo in 183S. His occupa- 
tion through life has been that of a mason. He was in the employ 
of the L. S. & M. S. 11. R. Companj 7 for some time. He met with 
an accident upon a steamboat while in New York, which disabled 
him for two years. He was married in 1838, and is the father of 9 
children, of whom 6 are living, namely: Elizabeth A., George H., 
John W.. Isabella M., Sarah" E. and Harvey A. In 1844 Mr. 
Martling returned to Mishawaka, and during the gold excitement 
in 1851, he went overland to California, returning the following ' 
year by the Panama route. He also went to Pike's Peak during 
the rush there. He is now doing a good business in grain, lime, 
cement, hair, marble-dust and salt, in Mishawaka. 

Archa Mason was born in Lake county, Ohio, March 5, 1853, and 
is a son of William Mason of Mishawaka. His mother (deceased) 
was Harriet (Graham ) Mason. Archa was brought up on a farm, 
and educated in the common schools of this tp., where his parents 
brought him in 1857. He was married in 1S74, to Miss Ella Laid- 
law, daughter of John Laidlaw, of Mishawaka, of whom we have 
made further mention elsewhere in this work. They have one 
child, Eddie. Mr. Mason is engaged in farming and stock-raising, 
on sec. 31, and owns 90 acres of valuable land. 

Ewin G. MeCoIlum, attorney at law, Mishawaka, was born in 
La Porte county, Ind., Aug. 10, 1836, and is a son of S. and Achsa 
B. (Wing) McCollum, natives of Otsego and Rensselaer counties, 
N. Y., respectively, who emigrated to La Porte county in 1S35; he 
was reared on a farm, and educated in Asbury University at Green- 
castle, Ind., graduating in 1861. In 1862 he began the study of 
law in La Porte under Bradley and Woodward, admitted to the Bar 



826 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

in 1862, began practice in La Porte in 1864, and in 1S74 removed 
to Mishawaka, where he lias built up a good practice. lie was mar- 
ried in 1862 to Miss Fannie A. Hurlbut, daughter of Esquire 
Hurlbut, of Mishawaka. They have one child, Clarence E. Mr. 
McC. is Democratic, in politics. 

Rev. Samuel V. McKee, pastor of the Christian Church, Mish- 
awaka, was born in Knox county, Ind., and brought up on a farm. 
In his childhood days he seemed impressed with the duty of enter- 
ing the ministry when he should become a man. This impression 
seemed never to leave him tor a moment, for he early began to 
prepare himself for the work. He attended Hanover College in 
this State for some time, and graduated at Jefferson College, at Can- 
nonsburg, Pa. He also graduated at the Western Theological 
Seminary, at Allegheny, Pa., in 1S61, and entered the ministry the 
same year, in the Indiana Church in Knox county, which was the 
first Presbyterian Church organized in the State. He remained 
there two years. He was a delegate from Indiana for the II. S. 
Christian Commission, and was with the army for seven weeks. 
In 1863 he visited the convalescent camp at Nashville, Tenn., and 
the hospital at Chattanooga. lie has a cane made from the wood 
of the first Presbyterian church that was built in America (1808). 
After acting as pastor for the Churches at Kendallville, Wa3'nes- 
ville, 111., Gilman, 111. and Buckley, 111., he came to this charge in 
1878. He was married June 28, 1858. to Miss Susannah C. Va- 
natta, by whom he has had 8 children, 6 living, viz. : Mattie M., 
Carrie B., William N., Julia B., John A. and Flora B. The de- 
ceased's names were Ella G. and Jeunie Pi. 

James McKnight, see. 11; P. O., Mishawaka; is a son of John 
and Sarah ^Tiller) McKnight, who came to Indiana about the year 
1814. He was born June 16, 1824, in Franklin county, Ind., and 
received his education in a log house, with slab seats, puncheon floor 
and a huge fire-place in one end of the room. He came with his 
parents to this county in 1834, where he has since resided. He 
married Miss Eliza McCreary in 1847, and they have had 4 chil- 
dren, viz.: Sarah, deceased; John T., Ida A. and Mollie. Mr. 
McKnight has not confined himself to any one particular business; 
for several years he butchered during the fall. In general lie is a 
farmer, but is now engaged more or less in lending money and 
buying notes. He owns 267 acres of land, which is managed by 
his sun. Mrs. McKnight isa worthy member of theM. E. Church, 
and he is a Republican straight. 

Milton McKnight, P. O., Mishawaka; was born in Franklin 
county, Ind., May 3, 1S33, and is a sou of John and Sarah 
McKnight, the former a native of Rockbridge county, Va., and 
the latter of Indiana county, Pennsylvania. They settled in 
Southern Indiana, which was then a Territory, in 1814, ami came 
to this county in 1S34. Mr. McKnight died in 1840, and Mrs. 
McKnight in 1866. Milton was reared on a farm and attended 
district school three months each vear when a bov. His lather 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S27 

entered about (iOO acres of land, and moved first with his family 
of 8 children into a small log cabin, containing but one room. Mr. 
McKnight was married in April, 1S60, to Miss Luoinda Finch, by 
whom he had 2 children, Robert and Anthony D. He resides on 
the homestead on sec. 11, engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. 
Knight are members of the Valley M. E. Church. 

S. B. McQu'dlen was born in Tecumseh, Mich., July 4, 1851, 
and is a son of John and Mary McQuillen, of Mishawaka. They 
removed to Lima, Ind., in 1853, then to Wisconsin, where they 
remained over eight years. S. B., the subject of this sketch, was 
educated in Mishawaka; clerked for Clark & Whitson, dry-goods 
merchants of Mishawaka, for two years, and two years for V. Beige 
in this place; he began business for himself in December, 1875; 
he carries a stock of $1,800, consisting of groceries, queen's- ware, 
glassware, notions, etc., and also runs a bakery. He does a good 
business. He was married Dec. 31, 1879, to Miss Lillie M. Towle. 

Laiorence Meixell, sec. 35; P. O., Mishawaka; was born in 
Cumberland county, Pa., Dec. 28, 1847; was reared on a farm and 
educated in the common schools. His parents came with their 
family to this county in 1S4S, where they still reside. June 12, 
1867, he married Miss Jane Smyser, daughter of Cornelius Smy- 
ser, of whom we make further mention in this work. They have 
had 6 children, 3 of whom are living, viz.: William, Lizzie and 
Belle. He is engaged in farming and owns 80 acres of land. Mrs. 
Meixell is a member of the M. E. Church. Jacob Meixell, the 
father of the above, was born in Cumberland county, Pa., May 12, 
1816, and is a son of John and Mary Meixell, deceased. His boy- 
hood days were spent on a farm, and his educational advantages 
were such as were furnished by the common schools. He was mar- 
ried April 13, 1843, to Miss Evaline Westfall, by whom he had 10 
children, 7 now living, viz.: Mary, Lawrence EL, George, John, 
Jake, Leroy and Ann. Mr. M. came to this county in 184S, where 
he still resides. In his younger days he followed threshing to some 
extent. He now has 150 acres of land, and has given farms to his 
children. Mr. and Mrs. Meixell are worthy members of the Christian 
Church. In politics he was aAVhig, and now, of course, is a Repub- 
lican. 

Adam Miller, sec. 25; was born near Zanesville, O., Jan. 8, 
1819, and is a son of Adam and Sarah (Prior) Miller, who removed 
with their family to this county in 1830. He was reared to hard 
work and received a limited education in a subscription school 
taught in a log house, with slab scats, and a board supported on 
pins in the wall fur writing desks. ILis teachers were of the "ox- 

S id persuasion." He was married in December, 1838, to Miss 
ercy A. Mead, by whom he has had 8 children. Those living, are 
Eli, Leeo, Anna and Julius. lie is engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, and owns 30 acres of land. Mr. and Mrs. Miller ami all 
their children are members of the Christian Church. 



828 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Joseph Miller was born in Lebanon county, Pa., Feb. 27, 1823, 
and is a son of Henry and Catharine (Harper) Miller, also natives 
of Pennsylvania. Their ancestors came to America with William 
Penn, and Mr. Miller is of the fifth generation from the Pennites; 
his early educational advantages were very limited; his school 
education was obtained on a slab bench in a little log cabin, whose 
windows were about 12 inches high and about six or seven feet 
long. He came to this connty in 1S37, and resided where South 
Bend now stands; he also resided awhile in Michigan. Oct. 4, 
1844, he married Miss Martha A. Scott, by whom he has had 2 
children, Elizabeth A. and Mary C. The latter is deceased. She 
was drowned with a party of three others when boat-riding at 
South Bend, the boat being drawn through the broken dam by the 
current. Mr. Miller is a miller by trade; for an account of the 
mill, see page 795. 

Jacfib Minnick, farmer, sec. 33; was born in Pennsylvania Nov. 
6, 1816, and is a son of Jacob and Susan (Hanie) Minnick; he was 
reared on a farm, and received a limited education in a subscrip- 
tion school in Stark county, Ohio, where his parents removed when 
he was but six weeks old. The country there was new and he was 
obliged to work hard and undergo many hardships and privations 
which pioneer boys are heir to. His father died when he was quite 
small and he began working by the month as soon as large enough 
to make a hand, at $7 a month; worked many a day in the harvest 
field from sunrise until the gathering darkness, for 50 cents. In 
1845 he married Miss Mary Becker, by whom he has 6 chil- 
dren, viz.: Louisa, George, Amanda, Ruhama, Ellen and Laura. 
Mrs. Minnick is a worthy member of the Catholic Church. They 
removed to this county in 1S49, settling in Penn tp., where they 
still reside. Mr. Minnick owns 170 acres of land, and has given 
his son GO acres; lie began in life poor, but has been very success- 
ful, making all by his own exertions. 

John Monroe was born in New York city Jan. 16, 1817; his 
parents were Abraham and Sarah (Butters) Monroe, also natives of 
New York; he was reared on a farm and had no educational advan- 
tages until he was married; he came to Columbiana county, Ohio, 
in 1837, where, in 1S42, he married Miss Mary Topper, and they 
have had 6 children, — 5 living: William, Elizabeth, Margaret, 
James and Lucinda. He came to this county in October, 1850, 
where he still resides, and is engaged in farming and stock-raising 
on his farm of 180 acres, sec. 6, Penn tp. Mr. Monroe has worked 
hard in improving this country. In politics he is Democratic. 

Calvin Moon was born in this county May 16, 1849, and is a 
son of James Moon, who came to this county in 1834. He was 
reared on a farm and educated at Valparaiso College; was a mem- 
ber of the engineer corps in the employ of the C. & C. So. R. R., 
for three years; was married in December, 1876, to Miss Cynthia 
Stonehill, by whom he has one child, Sewell. In June, 1877, Mr. 
Moon was elected County Superintendent of Public Instruction, 




^*^~ iJ&Z&J 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 831 

for St. Joseph county, and in June, 1S79, he was unanimously 
re-elected to the same office by acclamation. 

Nelson Moon, farmer, sec. 6; P. O., Mishawaka; was born in 
Yates county, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1816, and is a son of Reynolds and 
Nancy (Briggs) Moon, deceased, natives of Rhode Island; the for- 
mer was a soldier in the war of 1812. Mr. Moon was brought up 
on a farm, and educated in a common school ; for many years he 
was a contractor for furnishing wood to the Lake Shore and other 
railroad companies. He was married Aug. 31, 1837, to Miss Bet- 
sey Hoard, daughter of James Hoard, dec, a soldier in the war of 
1812. They have had 9 children; 6 are living, viz.: William, Caro- 
line, Sarah, Alice, Emma and Nelson. Mr. Moon came to this 
county in the year 1839, and settled in Penn tp., where he still 
resides, and owns 175 acres of valuable land. This part of the 
county was covered with a heavy growth of timber at that time, 
and the pioneers had an immense amount of very hard labor to per- 
form in preparing their lands for the plow, and in improving the 
country, of which Mr. Moon has done his share. Few men have 
performed the amount of labor thai; he has, and remain active as 
he, at the advanced age of 65 years. He has been a member of the 
Masonic order for over 30 years. 

Solomon Moon, deceased, was born in New York, March 25, 
1825, and was a son of Wanton and Barbara Moon ; he was reared 
on a farm and received a common-school education; came to this 
county about the year 1855, where he engaged in farming; settled 
in the timber in Penn tp., and labored hard in making a home for 
himself and family. He was married June 26, 1861, toMissCbar- 
lottie Hollingshead, by whom he had 9 children; of these, but -1 
are living, viz.: Annie, George, Ira and Laura. During the last 
few years of his life, Mr. Moon was afflicted with the consumption, 
and traveled through the West and South to find relief, but, Dec. 
25, 1872, death called him to a land of rest. He was a consistent 
Christian and worthy member of the M. E. Church for several 
years. He was a very generous man, always giving as he was pros- 
pered in life, to the support of the gospel, to missionary causes and 
other benevolent enterprises. It can truly be said that the country 
is better for his having lived in it. 

Ell 0. Newman was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, Aug. 19, 
1839, and is a son of Thomas and Fannie (Weeks) Newman; his 
father died when Eli was but 3 years old, and he then went to live 
with his uncle, John Low; most of his early life was spent on a 
farm. His uncle was a miller, and he was early placed in the mill 
to work, and consequently enjoyed limited educational advantages. 
He engaged an furnishing wood, by contract, to the railroad com- 
pany for over four years; he served in the late war in Co. I, 9th 
Ind. V. I., and participated in the battles of Stone River, Chicka- 
mauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Atlanta campaign, 
Franklin, Nashville, and others, twenty eight in all. He was mar- 
ried in 1862, while on a furlough from the army, to Miss Caroline 

52 



832 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Moon, daughter of Nelson Moon, and they have had 6 children, of 
whom 4 are living, viz.: Clara A., Howard W., AnnaE. and Julius 
A. Mr. Newman is engaged in farming and stock-raising, on sec. 
1, Penn tp. ; he and Mrs. Newman are worthy members of the M. 
E. Church. 

. Charles 0. Niles was born in Maysville, AVisconsin, May 1, 1852, 
and is a son of John and Ellen D. (Bennett) Niles, the former a 
native of Vermont, and the latter of New York. Mr. Niles was 
reared in Mishawaka, as his parents located here several years ago; 
he was educated at Racine College, Wisconsin. September 10, 
1875, he married Miss Annie M. Stoner, by whom he has one child, 
Rushton D. Mr. Niles is a member of the Episcopal Church, and 
Mrs. Niles of the Baptist Church. Mr. IS. is a prominent citizen, 
and a stockholder in the St. Joseph Manufacturing Company. 

Tltomas Norman was born in Clinton county, N. Y., April 7, 
1833, and is a son of Thomas Norman, deceased. He was reared 
on a farm, and received a common-school education; is an engineer 
by profession, but at present is engaged in teaming in Mishawaka; 
came to Mishawaka in 1855, and for 12 years thereafter he run a 
threshing-machine. He was married July 5, 1857, to Miss Anna 
E. Crooks, daughter of James Crooks; she is a worthy member of 
the M. E. Church. 

Dr. Byron R. O'Connor, physician and surgeon, Mishawaka; 
is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, born Aug. 12, 1S38. His parents 
were Washington and Elizabeth (Delle) O'Connor; the former a 
native of Dutchess county, N. Y., and the latter of Virginia; he 
came to Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1848, and to Mishawaka in 
1855; he received his literary education in Mishawaka, and gradu- 
ated from the medical department of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, at Philadelphia, in 1867; he began practice in 1865 in Mish- 
awaka, having attended two courses of lectures prior to this; he 
married Miss Fannie Stiles, daughter of Dr. John M. Stiles, 
deceased, so well-known in the early history of this county; they 
have had 3 children, 2 living: Eugenia M. and Armon S. The 
Doctor began poor, and in 15 years he has laid by $20,000, besides 
paying security of $3,000. 

August Bernard Oechtering, the youngest son of Gerhard H. 
and Therese Benning (Maiar) Oechtering, at Rheine, Province of 
Westphalia, Prussia, Sept. S, 1S37. He completed his studies at 
the college of the Rheine in 1S5S, and in July of the same year came 
to America to prepare himself for the extensive mission of the 
Catholic Church, for which he always felt a great desire. For this 
purpose the newly appointed Bishop Luers, of Fort Wayne, Ind., 
to whom he had applied for admission into his diocese, sent him to 
the seminary of " Mount St. Mary's of the West," near Cincinnati, 
where he completed his theological studies in May, 1861. On the 
17th of the same month he was ordained priest in the Cathedral at 
Fort Wayne by Bishop Luers. Soon after his ordination he was 
appointed Rector of the much neglected mission of St. Joseph's 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 833 

Church at Delphi, Carroll county, Inch, where, from May 26, 1861, 
until Dec. 22, 1865, he labored with good success in building up a 
good congregation and school. At the same time he also attended 
several small missions in the surrounding country eight to twenty- 
five miles distant. In 1S64 he accompanied his kind friend, Bishop 
Luers, to Europe, where, after an absence of six years, he visited his 
aged parents, who at that time celebrated their golden wedding, on 
which occasion the family held a reunion of all the 8 children and 
their families. In 1S65 Mr. Oechtering was appointed Rector of 
St. Mary's Church at Avilla, Noble county, Ind. While there he 
labored for 18 months with 11 different congregations, scattered 
over four counties. In Waterloo. DeKalb county, Ind., a new 
church was erected, and in Kendallville, Noble county, a house was 
purchased of the Baptists and fitted up for Catholic worship. He 
also labored at several other places at the same time. During his 
short stay in Avilla he delivered many lectures upon Catholic doc- 
trines, such as Confessions, Popery, the True Church, etc., in the 
different missions, thus clearing away many prejudices that many 
people held concerning the Catholic doctrines and Catholic customs, 
and silencing many false accusers. In 1867, at the request of the 
Bishop, he took charge of the St. Joseph's Church at Mishawaka, 
where he has since labored with good success. In December, 1879, 
the Bishop at Fort Wayne, Dr. Dwenger, tendered him a much 
larger and more remunerative field of labor; but he declined it, as 
he had formed an attachment to his people in Mishawaka and pre- 
ferred remaining with them. In 1S75 Rev. Oechtering ai>ain went 
to Europe. While there he visited Rome and had an audience with 
the venerable and saintly Bins IX. He also traveled through 
France, England and Ireland. This last journey he refers to fre- 
quently as one of much benefit to himself. 

P. J. Perkins was born in the mountains of Warren county, N. 
Y., near Lake George, April 13, 1824. His parents were Newman 
and Elizabeth (Tanner) Perkins, natives of Rhode Island, who came 
to Lenawee county, Mich., in 1815. P. J. was reared on a farm in 
New York; he worked in an ax manufactory in the village of 
Cohoes, near Troy, for five years; there he was married, in 1818, to 
Miss Elizabeth Skiff, by whom he has 2 children, Charley and 
Edward; he removed to Kane county, 111. in 1854, and to this 
county in 1871; he became interested with his brother, P. C. Per- 
kins, in the manufacture of axes in Mishawaka, in 1S69, and in 
1871 they began the manufacture of the Perkins windmills in the 
same place. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins are members ot the Presbyte- 
rian Church. There are eight brothers in the Perkins family, all of 
whom united with the Church before arriving at the age of 16 years. 

Abner J. Pettit was born in Miami county, Ohio, June 18, 1S30, 
and is a son of David and Elizabeth (Blue) Pettit, also natives of 
Ohio; he was brought up on a farm and received a common-school 
education; became with his parents to Mishawaka in 1835; he 
engaged in cabinet-making for eighteen months, then worked at the 



S34 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

carpenter's and joiner's trade for a time; lie clerked in a store two 
years, when he bought and moved " onto " a farm; in 1871 he en- 
gaged as ticket and freight agent with the Grand Trunk R. R. Co., 
taking charge of the Mishawaka station, which position he still 
holds. He was married in 1S60 to Miss Ann E. Smith, by whom 
he has 2 children: Hattie L., deceased, and Carrie Alberta. Mr. 
and Mrs. Pettit are worthy members of the Presbyterian Church, 
and he is clerk of the session. 

Melvhi Ii. Phillips was born in Essex county, 1ST. Y., Aug. 17, 
1826, and is a son of Reuben and Lydia (Cole) Phillips, also natives 
of New York. Mr. Phillips was brought up on a farm and edu- 
cated in the common schools; when a boy, just prior to merging 
into manhood, he went upon the lakes and sailed for several years; 
he also pursued various other avocations. He came to this county 
in 1846, and engaged in farming; in 1852 he married Ruth A. 
Cook, and they had one child, Jay; he again married in 1859, this 
time Louisa Headley, by whom he had 2 children: Frank and 
Myron. Mr. Phillips is a prominent stone-mason, and generally 
has charge of all the masonry in improving the mill-race at Misha- 
waka, and for the different manufacturing companies here; also did 
the mason work on both of the new iron bridges at Mishawaka. 
He resides on sec. 1, range 3 east, and is engaged in farming. 

Henry S. Plumb, merchant, Oceola, was born in Delaware 
county, Ohio, Aug. 23, 1827, and is a son of George and Abbie 
Plumb, natives of Massachusetts and Ohio, respectively; he was 
reared ou a farm and educated in Elyria, Ohio. In 1S4S he left his 
parental roof, spending three years in Iowa, three years in Illinois 
and three years in the late war, in Co. A, 17th 111. V. 1.; he par- 
ticipated in the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, siege of Corinth, 
siege of Vicksbnrg and others; he came to this county in 1S64, and 
married Miss Alma A. Bancroft, the next day after arriving here; 
he had previously become acquainted with her when visiting in 
this locality; they have had 3 children, but one of whom is alive, 
Abbie E. In 1870 Mr. P. engao'ed in the mercantile business in 
Oceola; he carries a general stock of $2,000, and is doing a good 
business. 

( ii'trles K. PulliiKj was born in Monmouth county, N. J., May 
15, 1811, son of Samuel and Charlotte Pulling, natives of New 
Jersey. He was reared on a farm and received a common-school 
education; was in the railroad company's employ for some time, 
and in 1853 came to this county. He was married in Philadelphia 
in 1S36 to Miss Mary A. Nailer, by whom he had 12 children, 6 
living, viz.: George, Emeline, Annie, Henrietta, John and Ellen. 
He owns 235 acres of valuable land, and is engaged in fanning and 
stock-raising on sec. 8. His sons, George and John, were soldiers 
in the late war. Mr. and Mrs. Pulling are worthy members of the 
Baptist Church at Mishawaka. 

John H. Quigg, of the firm of Quigg & Beemer, was born in 
"Wayne county, Ind., Nov. 25, 1830, son of Henry and Amanda 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 835 

( Ireland) Quigg, who came to this county in 1833 and to Misha- 
waka about 1835. He was educated in Mishawaka; labored as a 
common laborer for some time; attempted to work at the tailor's 
trade but tailed in health; he ran on the St. Joseph river for ten 
years upon different boats; he was married in 1857 to Miss Ida 
Julian, daughter of John Julian, deceased. He served in the late 
war in Co. H, 13Sth Iud. V. I., for six months; was Deputy Provost 
Marshal in Mishawaka up to the time of his enlistment; clerked 
in a store in Mishawaka for fifteen years. He formed a partnership 
with Mr. Beerner of this place in 1879, and engaged in the sale of 
dry-goods, staple and fancy notions, carrying a stock of $4,500, and 
is doing a good business. 

Geo. TP. Redding was born in Benton county, N. Y., July 4, 
1824, and is a son of James I. and Rhoda (Ketchum) Redding. 
He came to this county with his parents in 1S3C, settling on a 
farm, and receiving a common-school education. Being somewhat 
of a lover of music, Mr. Redding improved his talent in this 
direction by taking lessons under Professors I. B. AVoodbury, Foote, 
Baker, Tut tie and other leading vocalists. For the last 35 years 
he has successfully taught vocal music in St. Joseph county, and is 
also agent for some of the most popular organs and pianos. He 
was married in 1845, to Miss Mary Eller, daughter of J. Eller, 
deceased. The professor is also engaged in farming and stock-rais- 
ing on his beautiful farm, on sec. IS. He teaches in the winter, 
and attends to his farm during the summer seasons. Mrs. Redding 
is a worthy member of the M. E. Church. 

Jacob Rhoads, sec. 8; P. O., South Bend; was born in Hunting- 
ton county, Pa., Feb. 27, 1825, and is a son of John and Margaret 
Rhoads, also natives of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rhoads was brought 
up on a farm, and educated in the common schools. His parents 
removed with their family to Ohio in 1835. About 1849 or '50 
Mr. Rhoads came to this county on a visit, and being favorably 
impressed with the country he removed to Madison tp. in 1851. 
In 1857 he married Miss Rosetta AYatkins, and removed to this 
tp. They have had 8 children, of whom 7 are living, viz.: Ida A., 
Lillie B., Minnie L,.. Mark AV., Keturah, Margaretta and Lucy. 
Mr. Rhoads has resided in this county since 1851, except five years, 
which time he resided in Elkhart county. He owns 80 acres of 
land, and is engaged in general farming. Mr. and Mrs. Rhoads are 
worthy members of the M. E. Church. 

Samuel Hitter was born in Butler county, Ohio. His parents 
were Jacob and Sarah (Writter) Ritter, the former of Pennsylvania, 
and the latter of Virginia. Mr. Ritter was brought to this county 
in May, 1832, when about nine years of age; in 1S44 he married 
Sally Jones, daughter of Samuel and Polly (Terson) Jones, of this 
county; her father died in 1850, and her mother is now living with 
her. She was born in 1S02 in North Carolina and came to this 
county in 1830. Mr. and Mrs. Ritter have 6 children living, and 5 
deceased. The former are members of the Penn Township Grange, 



836 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

which now meets in South Bend. Mr. R. owns 116 acres of fine 
farm land, worth $100 an acre. He is a Republican. 

John Robbins was born in Ohio April 18, 1813, and is a son of 
William and Mary (Nichols) Robbins, natives of Pennsylvania; he 
was brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools. 
He came to this county in 1835, having married Miss Precious 
Jenkins the year previous. They had 3 children: Delila, Samuel 
and Mary A. Mrs. Robbins died Jan. 6, 1S45. Mr. Robbins mar- 
ried a second wife, Miss Rachel Jackson, by whom he has had 4 
children, 3 living, viz.: Calvin O, Sarah and John W. Mr. Rob- 
bins began poor, worked hard, and managed well, and now has a 
good farm of 160 acres. 

Aaron Rogers, deceased, was a native of Ireland. He came to 
America about 1S40, and located in Mishawaka, where he 
worked on the new mill-dam, which is still standing. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Catharine Loomans, by whom he had 7 children; 4 
living viz.: John, William, David and Oliver. He died in March, 
1874, and Mrs. Rogers died in September, 1879. John, who is a 
subscriber for this work, resides on the old home place, sec. 5, 
and conducts the farm. He married Miss Mary Kizer in April, 
18S0. 

Frederick A. Rohleder was born in Germany Jan. 6, 1846; was 
reared and educated in the village of Yollmershain, Germany. He 
came to this place (Mishawaka) in 1860, where he followed carpen- 
tering for 13 years. In 1S73 he erected a brick block in Misha- 
waka, and kept a bakery and grocery with Mr. Knss for 6 years. 
In 186!) he engaged in the dry-goods trade here, and is doing a 
good business, with a capital stock of $5,500. He married Miss 
Sarah Wees in 1S73; they have 3 children, Emma, Walter and Emma. 

Ji'mes A. Roper was born in St. Joseph county, Mich., Dec. 15, 
1846. His parents were John and Cornelia Roper, the former a 
native of England, and the latter of Onondaga Co., N. Y. They 
came to this county when he was but three months old, where he 
lias since resided. He was educated in Asburv University,' at 
Greencastle, Ind.; was married in 1868, to Miss Ella M. Dowling, 
by whom he had 4 children: Henry C, Clarence A., Harry D. and 
Eugene. Mr. R. served three years and eight months in the late 
war in Co. F, 4>>th Ind. Yol. Inf., and participated in the battles of 
luka, Corinth, Raymond, Jackson, siege of Yicksburg, Tunnel Hill 
and others, and accompanied Sherman's army in his noted march 
to the sea. 

Gustavus Rosemoin&ei '. Pastor of the Lutheran Church. Misha- 
waka, was born Feb. 10, 1850, at Hesse Cassel, Prussia. His 
parents were Henry J. and Anna i IIofF) John, who died on ship- 
board while on their way to America in 1S54. He was then but 
four years old and was taken and adopted into the family of Henry 
Rosenwinkel; was reared on a farm in Du Page county, 111., until 
15 years of age, when he entered Concordia College at Fort Wayne, 
Ind. rl?r e he remained at hard study for six years; he then took 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 837 

a three-years' course in the Concordia Theological Seminary at St. 
Louis, Mo. He began his ministerial labors in 1874, in the town 
of Warsaw, Wis., where he labored for two years and three months 
with success, having fonr congregations under his jurisdiction. In 
November, 1876, he began his labors with the Mishawaka Church. 
He also has charge of the Church at Woodland, in Madison tp. He 
was married in April, 1S75, to Miss Catharine Katt, by whom he 
has 3 children, viz.: Gustavus, Hugo and John. 

John J. Schindler was born in Buffalo, N. Y. Feb. 11, 1851; 
his parents were Andrew and Iiosa Schindler, natives of Germany; 
he was educated in St. Joseph Academy; came to Mishawaka in 
1864, and engaged in the flouring mills of Mishawaka for eight 
years; then, in 1872, established a hotel and saloon in company 
with his brother, the real estate being owned by their mother; they 
also carry a stock of groceries, and do a good business. Mr. S. is, 
besides, an insurance agent, and agent for ocean steamship lines. 
He was married, May 4, 1879, to Miss Christina Fierstos, by 
whom he has one child, Ollie; they are members of the Catholic 
Church. 

Charles F . Shinn was born in Mahoning county, Ohio, May 23, 
1837, and is a son of Abram and Margaret ( Wilkins) Shinn, natives 
of New Jersey; he was reared on a farm until thirteen years old; at 
this time he began in life for himself, working by the month for 
different parties; in 1S70 he brought a portable saw-mill to this 
county and located with it upon sec. 31, Penn tp., where he operated 
it until 1879, and sold it. It is now owned and run by W. Cook. 
Mr. Shinn was married Feb. 16, 1860, to Miss Mary Boner, daugh- 
ter of Andrew Boner. He is now engaged in farming on the origi- 
nal place (sec. 31), and owns 00 acres of valuable land. 

John W. Smith was born in France May 1, 1814; his parents 
were George and Margaret Smith, who came to America with their 
family in 1S2S. They remained in Canada three months, when 
they removed to Stark county, Ohio. In 1835 they removed to 
this county, where they found plenty of hard work to do in clearing 
awa} r the logs and brush and preparing the way for the prosperity 
of future generations. Mr. Smith was married in 1833 to Miss 
Lucy Ann Weaver, by whom he has had 10 children; 9 are living, 
viz.: Susannah, Catharine, Mary A., Lucy A. and Eliza, Adam, 
Geo. W., John M. and Helen. Mr. Smith is engaged in farming 
and stock : raising on sec. 32, and owns 120 acres of valuable land. 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the Lutheran Church. 

William C. Smith was born in Clinton county, Ind., June 27, 
1838; is a son of John and Margaret (Logan) Smith, the latter a 
daughter of John Logan, one of the pioneers of Clinton county. 
The first ten years of his life was spent on a farm; he went to 
Champaign county, 111., in 1857, but soon returned; he peddled 
cook-stoves throughout Northern Indiana for two years, and in 1863 
came to Oceola, where he engaged with the L. S. & M. S. K. R. 
Co. as watchman; he soon afterward became the agent at this 



838 BISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

place, and except five years, has held that position; was married in 
1861 to Miss Adelia James, by whom he has had 5 children; Chas. 
A., William J., Marion W., Minnie M. and Cora Bell, who was 
scalded to death when two years old. In 1863 Mr. Smith lost his 
right arm when in the act of coupling cars. 

Cornelius Smyser was born in Adams count}', Pa., ten miles east 
of Gettysburg, Dec. 20, 1820; his parents were Michael and Re- 
becca (Terree) Smyser; he attended school with the Studebaker 
Eros. ; was brought up on a farm until 17 years old, when he learned 
the carpenter's trade; but this not agreeing with his health and taste, 
he abandoned it at the age of 20. He went to Wayne count}', Ohio, 
with his parents in 1S38, and in 1841 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and engaged in gardening. This he afterward abandoned and 
worked in a lumber yard awhile. He was married in 1845 to 
Miss Ann Eliza Wilson, by whom he had 8 children; 7 living, viz.: 
Alonzo W., Melissa J., Eliza, Ida, Josephine, Emma and Albert. 
He came to this county in 1852, and is engaged in farming and 
stock-raising. Mr. S. resided 11 months in Pike county, 111. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smyser are members of the M. E. Church. 

Jacob C. Snyder, mechanic and farmer, Mishawaka, was born in 
marion county, Ohio, Sept. 17, 1825. The first eleven years of Mr. 
Snyder's life was spent on a farm: at that early age he manifested 
such a desire to use edge tools that he was apprenticed to a carpen- 
ter. At the age of 18 years he had so mastered his trade that he 
superintended the erection of a large barn for his father, who, iu 
consideration of that work, gave him his time. He followed his 
profession until 1850, when he married Miss Catharine E. Arthur, 
and removed to Madison tp., this county. Here he engaged in 
fanning until 1S65, when he removed to Mishawaka to educate his 
children, of whom there were 6; there are 5 now living, viz.: John 
W., Arthur B., Henry J., Schuyler II. and Sarah M. Mr. Snyder 
pursued his profession in Mishawaka until 1S79. He is this year 
(1880) attending to his farm adjoining Mishawaka. His sons are 
all mechanics also. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder and their children, Henry 
J. and Sarah M., are worth}' members of the Baptist Church at 
Mishawaka. 

John Squires was born in Butler county, Ohio, June 12, 1S10, 
and is a son of Burges and Sophia (Case) Squires, natives of Ver- 
mont. He was brought up on a farm and educated in a subscription 
school, which was taught in a round-log cabin; the seats in this 
pioneer school-house consisted of split logs, as also did the writing 
desks and the floor; the fire-place was very large and in one end of 
the room; the chimney was made of sticks and mortar on the out- 
side of the house; the base of the chimney was in a triangular 
shape, built up for five or six feet with split logs or puncheons, 
inside of which were placed dirt and stone. In 1S2S Mr. S. 
removed to Elkhart county, Ind., settling on Pleasant Plain, near 
where Elkhart now stands. He states that there was then au Indian 
burying ground on the present site of the town of Elkhart. In 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 839 

1830 he visited McCoy's mission in Michigan, near where Niles 
now stands; while there he helped husk corn; he came to this 
county in 1831. He was married in September, 1837, to Miss 
Frances Furrow, by whom he has 9 children, viz.: Mary, Sarah A., 
A. Helen, Benjamin D., Norman N., Charles E., John S., Frances 
A. and Ida E. For 20 years Mr. S. engaged in the lumber busi- 
ness, but is now engaged in farming and stock-raising on sec. 6. 
Another historical fact in connection with the history of Mr. 
Squires should have a prominent place in this biography. He was 
in Fort Stevenson with General Harrison when that place was 
attacked by the British, and states that Harrison would not attempt 
to hold the fort, and was on the point of evacuating it, when one 
Col. Croghan asked for 100 volunteers to help him defend the fort. 
This number he readily obtained and successfully held fort, while 
Harrison and the remainder of his army retired into the woods 
some distance away to await the result. He says that the honor 
of defeating the British at that time rightly belongs to Col. Cro- 
ghan and his 100 brave volunteers, instead of to Gen. Harrison, as 
history gives it. 

N. L. Strong was born in St. Joseph county, Mich., Aug. 23, 
1817, and is a son of Elisha and Maria (Stevens) Strong, the former 
a native of the State of New York and the latter of Ohio. Elisha 
Strong emigrated to Michigan in 1834, and now resides in Oregon. 
N. L., the subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm a part of the 
time. He received his education in Michigan and in Salem, Oregon. 
He came to Mishawaka in 1870, where, in July, 1878, he married 
Miss Mary Chandler, by whom he has one child, George. He 
engaged in the livery business for some time in Salem, Oregon; he 
is now in the same business in Mishawaka, and is doing well, with 
a capital stock of $3,000. 

John C. Strunk was born in Bedford county, Pa., Dec. 16, 1837, 
and is a son of Joseph and Catharine Strunk, natives also of Penn- 
sylvania. Mr. Strunk was reared and educated in Greensburg, 
Ohio, receiving a portion of his education in Greensburg Seminary. 
For 13 years he taught during the wiuter seasons, working at the 
milling business during the summer seasons. He removed to 
Elkhart in 1860, where he kept grocery for three years. He was 
married in 1S62 to Miss Mary J. Johnson, daughter of Henry 
Johnson. He came to Mishawaka in 1861, and is the present 
City Marshal for this place, serving his second term. In 1878 he 
made a trip to York comity, Nebraska, bought some land and 
returned. lie is a member of the I. O. O. F. 

James L. T/wrp was born in Cass count}', Mich., May 18, 1836, 
and is a son of James M. and Prudence Thorp, natives of Delaware, 
who emigrated to Michigan in 1834, and returned to Delaware in 
1S37, where James L. was reared on a farm until 12 years old, 
when his father died. He then lived with his uncle, William 
Tharp, then Governor of Delaware. He received his education at 
the Milford (Del.) high school. He came to Cass county, Mich., 



S40 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

in 1S54, and in 1858 to Milwaukee, Wis. He there was in the 
employ of the omnibus company until 1865, when he located in 
Mishawaka. He was married in 1868 to Miss Julia A. Young, 
and they have 5 children: George, James, Emma, Frank and Ida. 
He runs a respectable saloon in Mishawaka, and has a large custom. 

R. T. YanPelt, M. D., was born in La Porte, Ind., May 4, 1S50; 
was reared in La Porte and Kankakee county, 111., where he 
received his education; his parents are Ryan and Catharine Van 
Pelt, of Walkerton, this county. He read medicine under Dr. 
Smith and Prof. G-unn, of Chicago, and graduated at the Push 
Medical College, of Chicago, in 1876; he then practiced one year in 
the hospital at Chicago, also one year in Kokomo, Ind., and in 1878 
located in Mishawaka, where, by close attention to business he is 
building up a good practice. 

Daniel Vrooman, sec. 17, was born in Schoharie county, N. Y., 
March 11, 1811, and is a son of Bartholomew and Hannah Vroo- 
man, natives also of New York. He was reared on a farm, but 
early learned the molder's trade in Ohio, where his parents bad 
moved when he was but five years old. He first came to this county 
in 1832, but returned soon. He was married in 1S34 to Miss Hul- 
dah Whitney, by whom he had 5 children: James, Martha, Ada- 
line, Fannie and Charles. He removed to this county in 1S45, and 
worked at his trade five years. Mrs. V. died May 29, 1S75; and he 
again married Sept. 9, 1876, this time Mrs. Phoda Gay, who had 6 
children by her first husband; 5 of them are living, viz.: Frank, 
Anna, Ira, Eddie and Hattie. Mr. Vrooman owns 149 acres of land, 
besides some town property in Mishawaka, and has made it all by 
his own exertion. 

Christian Wamhach was horn in Germany March 27, 1846, and 
is a son of Gustus and Anna E. Wambach. He early learned the 
shoemaker's trade; came to Trumbull county, O., in 1860, and to 
Mishawaka in 1868. lie was married Feb. 2:1, 1868, to Miss Mar- 
garet Dielman. by whom he has had 6 children; of these, 5 are liv- 
ing, viz.: Annie, Johnnie. Louisa, Minnie and Emma. Mr. W. is 
engaged in the boot and shoe trade in Mishawaka, and does a good 
business. 

Henry TTe/swas born in Penn tp. Feb. 26, 1847, and is a son of 
Christian and Anna Weis; was reared on a farm and educated in 
the common schools. In 1874 he married Miss Eliza Bevler. daugh- 
ter of George Beyler, of Marshall county, and they have 3 children, 
Mary A.. George I. and an infant girl. Mr. AY. owns 120 acres of 
valuable land on sec. 28, and is engag-ed in farming and stock-rais- 
in»; he and his wife are members of the Evangelical Association. 
Christian Weis, deceased, father of the above, was born in the town 
of Berne, Germany, in 1803. In 1831 he emigrated to America 
and located at Canton, Ohio, where he engaged in farming. In 
1S33 he married Miss AnnaHeim, by whom he had 11 children, 9 
of whom are living, viz.: Christina, Elizabeth (now Mrs. Zimmer- 
man, of Mishawaka), Ulrich, Peter. John. Henry, Mary (now Mrs. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 841 

Kuse, of Mishawaka), Joseph and William. He came to Marshall 
county, Ind. in 1840, and to this county in 1S47; he was a successful 
fanner and stock-raiser, and a very hard-working, industrious man. 
Prior to his death he owned 385 acres of land. He died Sept. 17, 
1876, loved and respected by all. He was a worthy member of the 
Evangelical Association. Mrs. Weis is a member of the same 
Church. 

J. H. Whitsonvf&s born in Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 7, 1830, and is 
a son of Micah and Mary (Mercer) Whitson. He was reared on a 
farm, and educated in the common school and at Kennet Square, 
Chester county, Pa. At the age of 14 years he was apprenticed to 
a machinist, and he soon learned his art and became very efficient. 
He afterward engaged in lumbering for a few years. In 1852 he 
became foreman in the Toledo Iron Works, which position he held 
until 1S56, when he came to Mishawaka. He was married in 
August, 1854, to Miss Emma Zimmerman, by whom he has one 
daughter, Jessie. Mr. Whitson was brought up a Friend. Mrs. 
W. is a member of the Episcopal Church. 

Wm. Whitson, superintendent of the wood works of the St. Joseph 
Manufacturing Company, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., Jan. 
23, ISIS, and is a son of Micah and Mary (Mercer) Whitson, 
deceased. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common 
schools. He early learned the use of tools, and has always been a 
mechanic, although he never served an apprenticeship. He was 
married in 1839 to Miss Elizabeth Fulton, a distant relative of the 
renowned Robert Fulton. They have 7 children, ? viz.: Anna, Elva, 
Loretto, Mary and Adell (twins) Wilzue and Viola. Mr. Whitson 
came to Mishawaka in 1S69, where he has since been foreman, as 
above stated. He now has his second wife, formerly Mrs. Jane C. 
Wright, a native of Adams county, Pa. They are both members 
of the society of Friends. 

John W. Wiggins, farmer, sec. 4; was born in Canada Dec. 3, 
1S40, and is a son of William and Margaret (Glenney) Wiggins, 
the former a native of England, and the latter of Ireland; he was 
raised on a farm, and received a common-school education; went to 
New York in 1865, and came to this county in 1867. He was mar- 
ried in New York in 1867, to Mrs. Antoinette Gay, by whom he 
has had 4 children ; one living, viz.: Jennie. Mrs. Wiggins died 
in January, 1875, and in September of the same year Mr. W. mar- 
ried Fannie Glover, and they have had 3 children, two of whom are 
living, viz.: Nora and Edith. Mr. Wiggins is a member of the M. 
E. Church, while Mrs. Wiggins is connected with the Christian 
Church. He owns 90 acres of land and is engaged in farming and 
stock-raising'; in politics he is a Republican. 

Simon Yenn was born in France May 11, 1840, and is a son of 
Theobald and Christina Yenn, who emigrated to Stark county, O., 
in 1845. Simon was reared on a farm, and educated on a farm. 
He was married in 1862 to Miss Josephine Roth, by whom he has 
had 9 children, 8 living: Simon M., Mary J., Harriet E. Clara O., 



842 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



William H. and Franklin J. (twins) George E. and August B. He 
came to Mishawaka in 1863. He commenced the grocery business 
in 1868, and now carries a stock of $3,000 to $i,000, consisting of 
groceries, provisions, crockery, glassware, etc., and is doing a large 
business. 

Charles Zimmerman was born in Germany Feb. 3, 1S27; was 
reared on a farm and educated in tbe public schools of his native 
country; is a tailor by trade, and came to Mishawaka in 186S, where 
he carries on merchant tailoring, and is doing a good business. He 
was married in 1856 to Miss Magdalena Linsenmyer, by whom he 
had one child, Magdalena. Mrs. Z. died in 1857, and in 1861 he 
married Elizabeth Weise, by whom he has 5 children: William, 
Emma, Mary, Edward and Clara. 







PORTAGE TOWNSHIP. 

This is 37 north, 2 east, bounded on the north by German and 
Clay townships, on the east by Penn, on the south by Green and 
Centre, and on the west by Warren, and contains 28 square miles, 
being four miles north and south by seven east and west. The 
middle of the south side is near the geographical center of the 
county. It is one ot the first townships organized in the county, 
and as its history is the same as that of South Bend, the capital of 
the county, we proceed immediately to give a full account of this 
enterprising city. 

SOUTH EEND. 

"When Alexis Ooquillard established a trading post at the south 
bend of the St. Joseph River in 1824, for the purpose of traffic with 
the Pottawatomie Indians, little did he think that around this post 
would grow up a thriving, bustling city, with manufactories afford- 
ing employment to thousands of men, and whose articles of manu- 
facture would be shipped to every part of the civilized world. But 
all this was accomplished in less than 50 years. The Indian, the 
sole occupant of this land at that time, was sent farther west, and 
where the wigwams of the braves were erected, now stand the 
stately mansions of the whites. Change is written upon every 
hand. The location of the town was well chosen, and was appre- 
ciated by the traveler and others as early as 1830. Says a corre- 
spondent of the Indianapolis Journal under date November 30, of 
that year: 

" Having lately traveled through the north part of Indiana. I am 
of the opinion that a description of it will not be without interest 
to your readers. Traveling west, I passed the southern bend of the 
St. Joseph river, at the intersection of the Michigan road, where it 
is supposed the seat of justice of St. Joseph county will ere long be 
established. This town, I have no doubt, will in a very few years 
become one of the most important towns north of Indianapolis, and 
it is a misfortune that the law of the last session authorizing the 
partial opening of the Michigan road, did not cause it to be opened 
to the St. Joseph at this bend, where salt manufactured at Canan- 
daigua, New York, of a quality far superior to any manufactured 
on the Ohio, is now selling for $3.50 per barrel of five bushels. I 
am pleased to learn that a large number of wagons from distant 
settlements have come to this place, through the prairie without a 
road, for loads of this indispensable article." 

(843) 



844 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The early history of South Bend is closely identified with the his- 
tory of the county, and the history of one is the history of the other, 
therefore more attention will be given to a later period in what fol- 
lows. 

THE NAME. 

South Bend was so named in consequence of the town being lo- 
cated upon the south bend of the St. Joseph river, and therefore only 
expresses locality. Several attempts have been made to change its 
name; column after column of newspaper articles have been writ- 
ten in favor of and against the proposed change. The name St. 
Joseph's City was once proposed and found many advocates, but 
was rejected by the people, and so the name remains as originally 
bestowed upon it by Alexis Coquillard and his associates in the 
beginning. 

LOCATION HERE OF THE COUNTY SEAT. 

The first commissioners appointed by the Legislature of the 
State for the location of the county seat selected a place about two 
miles down the river from South Bend. This did not please the 
people, and a petition was circulated, and the signature of nearly 
every voter in the county obtained, changing it to this place. The 
proprietors of the place offered very favorable inducements to secure 
its location and the change was made. 

When it was settled that South Bend should be the county seat, 
confidence was instilled in the minds of the settlers and those who 
desired to locate here, and improvements were at once commenced. 
The town was laid out, lots sold at a fair price, buildings were 
erected, and South Bend at once began to reach out. Its growth was 
slow for some years, but it has never once taken a backward step. 
A steady growth has always been kept up, which has in the last 
few years been quickened by the introduction and enlargement of 
its manufactories, but never exhibiting a mushroom growth. 

REMINISCENCES OF SOUTH BEND. 

A writer in the St. Joseph Valley Register, in 1876, when the 
minds of men were being drawn to historical events, thus writes 
of the early days of South Bend: 

" South Bend was quite a prominent point in the Indian country 
long before any town was laid out. Niles and Mottville were the 
first laid-out towns on the St. Joseph river, but long before they 
were first settled the American Fur Company had a trading post 
at South Bend, for the sale of Indian goods and the collection of 
furs, which drew around it quite a little settlement of white peo- 
ple, directly or indirectly engaged in trading with or living off the 
Indians. Then as far back as 1827, Col. Taylor opened an Indian 
store at this place, so that when the county was first organized, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 845 

South Bend bad two dry-goods stores. These two establishments, 
and the few people who collected around them, made it, before it 
had a name, more attractive to emigration than either Niles or 
Mottville. 

" In 1831 the new town began to put on the airs of a village, 
though standing trees were not cut out of Michigan street until 
the next year, except as needed for fire-wood or fence rails. The 
Michigan road was cut out in 1832. This cleared the standing 
timber from Michigan and Water streets, and gave us all the room 
we needed for street purposes. All that part of the table land 
between the river and what we call the bluff, was covered with a 
beautiful growth of oak and hickory — mostly burr oak from 40 to 
50 feet high. By proper thinning out and careful preservation of 
the rest, South Bend might have made one of the most delight- 
fully shaded towns in the United States. 

"Among the leading men of 1S30-'31 were Alexis Coquillard 
and Lathrop M. Taylor. They were the Indian traders. Coquil- 
lard at that time had charge of an Indian store owned by himself 
and Comparet, of Fort Wayne. It was successor to the American 
Fur Company's store. Taylor had charge of one owned by him- 
self and Judge Hanna, of Fort Wayne. 

" Samuel L. Cottrell moved into the St. Joseph valley as early 
as 1S27. He was the first elective sheriff in the county. He was 
a large and powerful man and rather combative in his younger 
days. lie served as sheriff two terms afterward. He was always 
regarded as an honest man, and faithfully and promptly discharged 
his official duties. St. Joseph county never had a better sheriff 
than Samuel L. Cottrell. 

"There was considerable building in the new town in 1831, 
though the houses were small — mostly log cabins. Peter Johnson 
built a story-and-a-half frame house on the corner where Coonley's 
drug store now stands, in which he kept hotel for many years. 
Benjamin Coquillard also kept a house of entertainment at the 
junction of Pearl and Washington streets, and so did Calvin 
Lilley, on the ground where E. P. Taylor now resides, at the corner 
of St. Joseph and Pearl streets. Alexis Coquillard also commenced 
the erection of his new dwelling-house, the same now owned by 
Joseph Miller on Michigan street. 

" In the spring of this year Peter Johnson built the first regular 
keel-boat for general freighting on the St. Joseph river. I do not 
remember her name, but I remember well seeing her launched. It 
was done with due ceremony. A man stood on the bow with an 
uplifted bottle of whisky, and as she sailed into the water, broke 
it over the bow, thereby insuring the boats future success. This 
boat did the freighting on the river that year and its share of busi- 
ness for many years afterward. The venerable Madore Crate, still 
living in our midst, was her captain. From that time until rail- 
roads were built into the St. Joseph valley, the river was the great 
highway over which the merchandise into and out of the county 



816 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

was transported. Several steamboats were engaged in the business 
from 1835 to 1852. 

"Horatio Chapin also, at this time located in our midst. He 
started his goods from Detroit by way of the lakes as early in the 
spring as he could, but they did not reach here until July, when 
he opened the first general dry-goods store not connected with the 
Indian trade. He commenced business in a hewed-log cabin on 
St. Joseph street, on the lot where Mrs. Massey now lives. He was 
about twenty-eight years old, and as strict a Presbyterian then as 
when he died. I remember his goods came up the river on Satur- 
day afternoon, and were immediately piled out on the bank of the 
river, but there were no teams to be had to haul them up to the 
store that afternoon. Next morning there were plenty, but next 
morning was Sunday, and no man or beast could work for him on 
that day. So the goods had to lie there, exposed to the weather, 
with nobody to look after them until Monday morning. He was 
one of that kind of men that if he said the horse was 16 feet high 
he would stick to it; at least he never would be argued out of it. 
If he changed his opinion it would be of his own volition, not from 
what any one else would say. For the first year or two he did 
quite a thriving business, and then he was unfortunate in losing 
two stocks of goods on the lakes. He was the first county school 
commissioner, and as such had charge of the sale of the sixteenth 
section of school lands. This office was held by him for several 
years, and as long as iie would keep it, always discharging his duties 
up to the spirit of the law; as he did everything else. 

"To effect the removal of the county-seat from St. Joseph to 
South Bend, a donation of lots was made to the county by the 
proprietors of the latter place, to enable it to build county build- 
ings, but there was a reservation of ten per cent, of the proceeds 
arising from the sale of the lots to be appropriated for a county 
library. This fund with some other was collected together, and 
Mr. Chapin appointed to select and purchase the books. He ac- 
cepted the trust and faithfully executed it, and acted as librarian 
for many years without compensation. Many of those old bonks 
are now in the McClure Library. I had never seen a historical 
book before, except Weem's Life of Washington, and Horry's Life 
of Gen. Marion. Rollins, Gibbon, Plutarch, Josephus, and such 
works opened a new world to me. Though Rollins, Plutarch and 
Josephus may be full of fabulous stories, still I think they are cap- 
ital good books for boys to read as well as men. After Mr. Chapin 
quit the mercantile business he was for a short time engaged in 
warehousing and buying produce. When the branch of the first 
State Bank was established here he was made its cashier, and con- 
tinued in that office until its charter expired. He was a peculiar 
and remarkable character, very intelligent and thoughtful, always 
trying to live a strictly Christian life; yet his temper was so quick, 
and when excited so stubborn and self-willed, that one might as 







' ' 







t. /¥*- 




HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COCNTY. 849 

well attempt to reason with a statue as with him under snch cir- 
cumstances; but when undisturbed by conflict he was remarkably 
polite, kind and accommodating. He died a few years ago enjoy- 
ing the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. 

" It was in this year that John D. Defrees and Dr. Jacob Hard- 
man came and settled among us. The doctor soon commenced the 
practice of his profession. The country was remarkably healthy for 
the first few years, but as the Doctor was the only physician within 
a range of thirty or forty miles he found enough to do. He is still 
living and looking about as young and frisky as ever, always ready 
to enjoy a good dinner, and takes a lively interest in the remi- 
niscences of the past. 

" In the fall of 1831 John D. Defrees and his brother Joseph 
established the first weekly newspaper published in Northern In- 
diana, called the Northwestern Pioneer. I think it was before any 
paper was published in Chicago or anywhere in Southwestern Michi- 
gan. They were practical printers, did their own type-setting and 
wrote their own editorials. The paper was regarded as ably conducted 
and popular with the people, yet it was a premature venture. 
There were not people or business enough to support it. After a 
struggle of a year or so its publication was suspended, and we were 
without a newspaper until 1836, when the Free Press was started 
by William Milligan, from which the Register is a lineal descend- 
ant. 

"After the suspension of the paper, John D. Defrees studied 
law, and in connection Thomas D. Baird got into quite a lucrative 
practice. But his strong inclination to mix in politics drew him 
from the Bar to the State Senate. After the expiration of his term he 
became editor of the Indiana Journal, and a noted politician 
throughout the State. Under the administration of President Lin- 
coln he was elected Government printer at Washington. After fill- 
ing that office with great credit to himself and advantage to the 
public service, he retired to private life. 

" When it was found that the paper would not paj 7 , Joseph H. 
Defrees struck out for Goshen, where the county seat of that county 
had just been located. About all his worldly estate was then 
invested in a printing press and a small quantity of type, — not a 
very flattering investment to raise money on, but ' Joe ' had a cap- 
ital within himself which he did not then comprehend, but Col. 
Taylor did. The Colonel proposed to furnish him with a small 
stock of goods to start as a merchant in the new town. He took 
them without being able to pay a cent down, or to secure any part 
of it. With this small beginning, he soon became the leading mer- 
chant in that county, and has ever since been regarded as one of 
its best and most respectable business men. He has represented 
his county in both branches of the State Legislature, and his dis- 
trict in Congress, with credit to himself and satisfaction to his con- 
stituency. He is still living, enjoying a well-spent life, and 
surrounded by a prospering and highly respectable family. 

53 



850 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

" The late Judge Elisha Egbert was another old settler of 1831, 
and was the first practicing lawyer who located in South Bend. 

" James P. and Daniel Antrim were among the settlers in the 
fall of 1831. They started the next dry-goods store after Mr. 
Ohapin. James P. Antrim was the first Probate Judge of the 
county. He was commissioned in January, 1833, and held the office 
until it was oonferred upon Judge Egbert in 1834. He was con- 
sidered a sensible, straightforward man. He was Justice of the 
Peace for several years afterward. To show how careful and faith- 
ful he was as a public officer, and as a lesson to justices of the 
peace at this day, I will mention that whenever a witness fee was 
paid in, he notified the witness of the fact or paid him the money 
as soon as he saw him. If it was not more than a quarter of a 
dollar he was sure to get it. It was not done for display, but it 
was his way of doing business. He moved away from here a great 
many years ago, and settled in Hamilton county, in this State, and 
was still living a few j'ears ago. Daniel Antrim was quite a busi- 
ness man. He laid out the town of North Liberty, and built a saw- 
mill and grist-mill there, and by hie energy gave his new town a 
brisk start in the world, but the hard times of 1838 struck him, 
spread out all his new enterprises, and before he could gather him- 
self up he fell into the bankrupt stream, and soon floated off and 
out of sight, in company with other wrecks. 

" John S. McClelland settled here in the latter part of 1831. He 
shortly afterward opened a store. He was a quiet kind of a man; 
did not talk much, but was enterprising and regarded as a man of 
good practical sense. At one time he was part owner and princi- 
pal manager of what was called the new furnace at Mishawaka. In 
1838, in connection with John Brownfield, he undertook to build 
glass works in South Bend. The buildings were erected out in the 
woods, about thirty or forty rods from where St. Patrick's church 
now stands. After the buildings were all ready for occupancy, the 
man who was to be their manufacturer of glass whimsically left 
them. The hard times and Mr. McClelland's death, soon afterward, 
put an end to the enterprise. It was said then, and I have no 
doubt it is true, that we have an abundance of the best quality of 
sand for making glass. 

"The late Captain Anthony Defrees was also a settler of i831. 
At that time there was quite a considerable stream of water start- 
ing out of the side of the bluff, a few rods up the river above the 
stand-pipe, and springs came out of the bank all along the bluff at 
about the same elevation to where the bluff runs into the river 
below. It was one continual spirt of water, in all forming a con- 
stant and quite considerable stream at the foot of the bluff. The 
Captain concluded there was water enough, under a head of 16 or 
18 feet, to run a woolen factory, if it could be collected together in 
a race on the side-hill below, where the water issued from the bluff. 
He went to work at it in the spring of 1S32, and cut his race and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 851 

soon bad the water flowing through a flume at the expected eleva- 
tion, but he soon discovered his race was filling up with sand. It 
was found impossible to keep the quick-sand back, and he was 
compelled to abandon the work at considerable loss. No one 
thought at that time of tackling the river and building a dam 
across it; so when the Captain's hydraulic project failed, the pros- 
pects of South Bend as a manufacturing center went down below 
zero. 

The 22d of February, 1S32, being Washington's centennial 
birth-day, the South-Benders held a meeting at the log school- 
house, and were gratified with a very fine address for the occasion 
from Captain Defrees. In the fall of that year he moved out on 
his farm near town, where lie lived for man}' years as an industrious 
and successful farmer. Occasionally he amused himself writing 
for the newspapers. He was an intelligent and thinking man, 
positive and decided in his character, never catering to any set of 
men or party, or in any way seeking popular applause. If anybody 
wanted his opinion they could have it, and if they did not like it 
they could let it alone and no harm done. He worried the storms 
of life until after he was SO years old, and then was gathered to his 
fathers, bearing with him the esteem of all his acquaintances. 

" Peter Johnson was another permanent settler of 1831. As I 
have before stated, he built and owned the first keel-boat used on 
the St. Joseph river for general freighting, and also one of the 
earliest in the hotel business, which he continued for many years, 
and while engaged in this business he kept his boat running on the 
river and acted as one of the Justices of the Peace of the township, 
and during the same time was engaged as a carpenter, building the 
best houses that were being then built iu the town. He built and 
owned the first steam saw-mill that was ever put up in the county. 
He was the architect who erected the old court-house, the walls of 
which were put up in 1832. He served one term of seven years as 
an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court. He was a good neighbor, 
a kind-hearted and peaceable man. After arriving at the age of 
nearly 80 years he departed this life, without leaving aii enemy 
behind him. 

" Samuel Studebaker ought not to be forgotten. He was no 
relation to the present family that I know of, but he had a good 
deal of their enterprise in him. He came here prior to 1S31, and 
the first I knew of him he was residing on a farm now occupied by 
Mr. Wenger. He built one of the first saw-mills in the county. It 
was situated at the mouth of Bowman's creek, on the St. Joseph 
river. I think John Wedner got his mill at the mouth of Ullery 
creek before Studebaker. Along in 1835 or 1836 he got up a two- 
and-a-half story mill-house about a mile this side of Mishawaka, 
on the river bank, intending it for a grist-mill. He expected to get 
his power from the collection of the waters of the big marsh back 
of Mishawaka into a race carrying it to his mill, but he died before 
he got anything more done to it, and the mill-house was allowed to 
rot down. He was among the first to build in South Bend. He 



S52 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

put up a house on the northwest corner of Michigan and Jefferson 
streets, before the county-seat was located here. He was a hard- 
working, plain and sensible man, and a very worthy citizen. 

"Jobu Massey settled here in the fall of 1831. He, in company 
with his brother-in-law, Samuel Eaton, started the first regular 
blacksmith shop. They were both industrious men and got plenty 
to do at good prices. The shop was on St. Joseph street, near Oha- 
pin's store. In a few years, by hard work, they acquired consider- 
able property. Mr. Massey was afterward Tax Collector for the 
county, a duty which is now discharged by the County Treasurer. 
He was a quiet man, a good citizen, and above the average in busi- 
ness capacity. 

" Nehemiah B. Griffith established the first licensed ferry across 
the St. Joseph river at this point. It was in 1831. He was a 
retired Methodist preacher, a man of a good deal of ability, and 
could preach a good sermon. Some people thought he was a little 
too sharp a business man for a good Methodist preacher. 

" Simeon Mason was the first tanner. He built a tan-yard here 
as early as the spring of 1831, and I do not know but he commenced 
it in the fall of 1830. The water- works building is where his tan- 
nery stood. But tanning at that early day and in this county seemed 
to be an impossible business; at least he could not make it go very 
well. He quit the business and left a great many years ago. 

•■ Edmond P. Taylor is one of our oldest residents. He came 
here prior to 1S30, and assisted his brother, L. M. Taylor, in the 
management of his Indian store. After L. M. Taylor went out of 
the dry-goods business, Pitts continued the same on his own account 
for several years at the old stand. He then wound up the business 
and commenced packing pork. He was the pioneer pork-packer, 
and devoted himself exclusively to that business for several years; 
then he went down on the race in the lumber business. 

"Christian Wolf was tiie first hatter. He commenced business 
in the spring of 1831. His shop was a log cabin on Michigan street, 
about where John Klingel's store now stands. He was a good- 
hearted but very peculiar kind of a man. Old Judge Wade used to 
say to him that he had seen many a wolf, but that was the first 
Ch ristian Wolf he ever saw. We generally called him "Governor," 
after the then Gov. Wolf, of Pennsylvania. He was a most obsti- 
nate Democrat. The Washington Globe, then the leading Demo- 
cratic paper in the United States, was his political bible. The 
National Intelligencer occupied about the same position in the 
Whig party. The two papers were of the same size and form, with 
very much the same typographical appearance. For the purpose 
of testing the Governor's political candor, the heads of the two 
papers were cut off and that of the Globe nicelj* put upon the Intel- 
ligencer and handed out of the postoffice to the Governor as his 
paper. He sat down and commenced to read it. A triad of friends 
were casting furtive glances at him without his knowing it. He 
read along a little while and would then look up to the head of the 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 853 

paper and assure himself that it was the Glohe, and read again, but 
still look more confused and mystified than ever; then look up 
again at the head of the paper, and say to himself: ' Yes, it is the 
Glohe; can it be that it, too, has turned traitor?' About that time 
there was a general explosion all around. The Governor rolled up 
the whites of his eyes, casting a glance around upon his spectators, 
and drawing his mouth up iuto a kind of doggish grin, squeaked 
out: ' You think you are smart, don't you?' The Governor went 
to California many years ago, and was a few years since residing 
uear Sacramento, in comfortable circumstances. 

"Samuel Martin was another one of the earliest settlers. In 
1831 he laid off the first addition to South Bend, known as Mar- 
tin's addition. He served as a Justice of the Peace for several 
years, and all the time that he lived here he was regarded by 
everybody as one of the best of men. He died some years since 
in California. 

"William Stanfield was one of the settlers of 1831. He built 
himself a log cabin on Michigan street, on the lot now occupied 
by the Masonic Temple; also a log shop where he did general 
jobbing work, such as repairing wagons, stocking plows, and what 
other work he could do to make a living. He was a kind-hearted 
man, liberal to a fault. His house was the home of all the 
itinerant Methodist preachers in the country, and everybody was 
welcome to his table whether there was much on it or not. He 
moved to California in 1851 and died there. I think if there are 
any two men in Heaven from that State it is he and Samuel 
Martin. 

"I have been under the impression that Tyra W. Bray came 
here in 1S32, but I am now satisfied it was in the year 1831. He 
was a native of North Carolina, and about as poor when he arrived 
here as a healthy, vigorous young man could be, with a wife and 
one child. He was stirring, energetic and public-spirited, and 
soon became well known throughout the county — always ready to 
take hold of and help every public enterprise without regard to 
any particular profit to himself. He was emphatically what people 
call 'a whole-souled, generous man.' His generous and benevo- 
lent disposition frequently led him into embarrassing engagements 
from which he olten suffered pecuniary loss, but he was not the 
man to whine over it or complain about it, or to make it an excuse 
for abstaining from other enterprises looking to the public welfare. 
It would cure almost any croaker or grumbler to be in the company 
of Tyra W. Bray for one day. He was our first County Surveyor 
and held the office until 1837, when he was elected County Clerk 
over as good and well-known a man as Col. L. M. Taylor. In 1S13 
he was re-elected to the same office. In the fall of that year he 
and his wife started on a journey to North Carolina to make a 
visit to their friends — expecting to be absent three months — 
traveling all the way there and back in a two-horse carriage. Who 



S54 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUKTY. 

would think of taking such a trip now, for such a purpose? Rail- 
roads were then unknown in any of the country through which he 
had to travel. What a wonderful change in the facilities of travel 
has taken place since that time! He started off in the prime of 
life, healthy, hopeful and expecting a warm greeting from the 
friends of his youth; but on the third or fourth day of his journey 
he was seized with a violent attack of erysipelas, which ended his 
life in three or four days. He now lies buried at the little town of 
Burlington, on the Michigan road twenty miles south of Logans- 
port. 

li I find that I have made the same mistake in the date of the 
settlement of Robert Wade. He settled here in the year 1831 
instead of the year 1832. I believe he was a native of Kentucky, 
but emigrated here from Wayne county, in this State, where he 
had for some years been a prominent citizen, holding the office of 
either Probate Judge 01' Associate Judge of the Circuit Court, and 
was therefore generally known as Judge Wade. 

"It was understood when he came he had considerable money. 
The word " considerable" may be definitely understood by stating 
that we in those days considered one worth three or four thousand 
dollars and out of debt a rich man. At any rate he was regarded 
as a valuable acquisition to the people of the town. He soon began 
to buy lots and build houses. One amongst the first frame houses 
built in the town was put up by him on what is now known as the 
Odd Fellows' comer. He also put a row of one-story log houses 
on Michigan street along where Hanou's stores are now situated, 
which were used for a variety of shops. He built several other 
buildings in different parts of the town; and at one time, perhaps, 
owned as many houses and lots as any other man in the place; but 
while under the influence of an unfortunate habit a good deal of 
his property slipped away from him. He was a warm-hearted, 
generous man. kind and indulgent to every one, and universally 
recognized as an honest man. At an early period of the California 
excitement he emigrated to that country and I think he died there 
in 1852. 

"Capt. Lot Day settled in this county in the fall of 1831 or 
spring of 1832. He also emigrated to this county from the south- 
ern part of this State, ' in yander on Whitewater.' His worldly 
possessions consisted principally in a large family of robust, healthy 
children, about equally divided as to gender. At first he engaged 
in farming. After a year or two he moved into town and went to 
brick-making and contracting for such job work as he could get to 
do. He was a man of more than an ordinary share of good com- 
mon sense, public-spirited and patriotic. The Whigs of that day 
thought him a little slippery in politics, but in every other relation 
he was always regarded as an honest and upright man, a kind and 
good neighbor, ever ready at any moment to respond to the call of 
charity. By his kindness and shrewdness he soon gained popular 
favor, and in 1833 he was elected one of the Board of County Com- 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COtJNTT. 855 

missioners, and .held the office by repeated elections until 1842, 
when he was elected Sheriff of the county. This office he held for 
two terms. In 1847 he was elected from this senatorial district, 
then composed of St. Joseph, Marshall, and Fulton counties, to the 
State Senate. He served out his term of three years, and shortly 
afterward moved to Oregon, where he lived for many years, follow- 
ing his old trade of brick-maker. Two or three years ago, after he 
had arrived at the age of eighty years, while on a visit to one of 
his sons in Nevada, he departed this life. 

" There were other people living in South Bend in 1831 besides 
those I have mentioned. I can now remember only John D. Last- 
ley, William Oreviston, James DeGrote, Hiram Dayton, Joseph 
Haney, Levi Antrim, Louis Sancomb, William Wood, John Becroft, 
Peter Neddo, John A. Caine, Mr. Algo, Mr. Bobein, Andrew Mack, 
Mr. Cushman, Oliver Bennett, Calvin Lilley, Mr. Roof, and Solo- 
mon Barcdall." 

ADDITIONS TO THE CITY. 

As originally laid out by Alexis Coquillard and Lathrop M. Tay- 
lor, South Bend comprised twenty-six whole and twenty fractional 
blocks. The plat was recorded on the 28th day of March, 1831. 
According to the plat the town was located on the west and south 
hank of the "Big St. Josef" river. Since that time a large num- 
ber of additions have been made, until it covers an extent of terri- 
tory several times as great as originally made. The most important 
addition made to the town was that of the village of Lowell, which 
was annexed in 186S. 

INCREASE IN POPULATION. 

The population of South Bend has ever been on the increase. In 
1831 the population of the town was 12S. This was increased in 
1840 to 728; in 1850 it was 1,653; in 1S60 it was further increased 
to 3,832; in 1870 it had grown to 7,206; in 18S0 it numbered 
13,392. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE TOWN. 

The town was laid out and platted the 28th of March, 1831. hut 
was not organized under town government until 1835, the first 
charter election being held October 3 of that year, at which time 
William P. Howe, Horatio Chapin, Peter Johnson, John Massey 
and James A. Mann were elected trustees. In 1S37, E. P. Taylor 
was elected President of the Board and F. Pv. Tutt, Clerk. The 
organization was subsequently abandoned, and not revived until 
1845. About a year previous a special charter was secured from 
the Legislature. The first meeting of the Board was held January 
31, 1845, all the trustees being present. John Brownfield was 
chosen President, and William H. Patteson, Clerk. 



856 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

The first ordinance passed by the Board was to divide the town 
into five wards. The second ai>pointed Drs. William A. Brown, 
Daniel Dayton, E. S. Sheffield, A. B. Merritt, Louis Humphreys 
and Mr. A. M. Lapierre and B. F. Miller, a Board of Health. This 
Board was appointed in consecpuence of the town being afflicted 
with the small-pox to such an extent that unusual sanitary precau- 
tions and police regulations became imperative. Their term of 
office was to continue so long as 'the epidemic prevailed in the town. 
The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh ordinances were to 
empower the Board of Health to enforce all sanitary measures they 
deemed necessary to stay the epidemic, 

John Hooper was appointed Marshal at this meeting, but only 
served four days, when Evan C. Johnson was appointed until the 
first Monday in March following. 

The first annual election was held Monday, March 3, 1845, result- 
ing in the election of John Brownfield, B. F. Price, William H. 
Patteson, Ricketson Burroughs and Joseph Andre, as Trustees. 
At this election 108 votes were polled. 

The following is a list of elected and appointed officers of the 
town from 1S45 to 1S65, inclusive, with the exception of the years 
1852 to 1S57, the records of which are either lost or destroyed: 

1S45. — John Brownfield, President; Wm. H. Patteson, Ricket- 
son Burroughs, B. F. Price, Abraham Wilson, Trustees; Charles 
M. Heaton, Clerk; Schuyler Colfax, Assessor; Albert Monson, 
Treasurer; William Suavely, Marshal. 

1846. — John Brownfield, President; LathropM. Taylor, William 
H. Patteson, Harrison M. Crockett, Benjamin F. Miller, Trustees; 
Charles M. Heaton, Clerk; Albert Monson, Treasurer; Jacob Grass- 
nical, Marshal; Jacob Hardman, Assessor. 

1S47. — No election was held and officers held over. 

1848. — J. A. Henricks, President; John Hooper, A. M. Lapierre, 
Benjamin Wall, John Becroft, Trustees; Charles M. Heaton, Clerk; 
John Brownfield, Treasurer; Daniel Dayton, Assessor; Charles B. 
Chaudonis, Marshal. 

1849. — No election. 

1850.— S. W. Palmer, President; John M. Veasey, D. P. Ger- 
berek, Abraham Wilson, Trustees. (No election in second ward.) 
J. M. Veasey, Clerk; John Brownfield, Treasurer; Daniel Dayton, 
Assessor; John Becroft, Marshal. 

1851. — Matthias Stover, President; David P. Gerberck, Charles 
A. Stover,* A. G. Deavitt, John Becroft, Trustees; Daniel Mat- 
thews, Clerk; Jacob Hardman, Assessor; John Becroft, Marshal; 
John Brownfield, Treasurer. 

1858. — Henry Carleton, President; Jesse L. Walterhouse, Thomas 
S. Stanfield, E. 'Pitts Taylor, H. A. Finley, Trustees; Daniel Mat- 
thews, Clerk; C. Caldwell, Assessor; Charles Vinson, Marshal. 

1859. — B. F. Price, President: John A. Henricks, Elmer Rose, 
George W. Matthews, Isaac Ford, Trustees; Daniel Matthews, 

"■Resigned and L. M. Taylor appointed to fill vacancy. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 857 

Clerk; Daniel Dayton, Treasurer; John Caldwell, Assessor; Wil- 
liam S. Saunders, Marshall. 

I860.— B. F. Price, President; John T. Lindsey, E. P. Taylor, 
George W. Matthews, Dwight Doming, Trustees; Edwin E. Ames, 
Clerk; Daniel Dayton, Treasurer; Elisha Sumption, Assessor; 
William S. Saunders, Marshal. 

1861. — E. P. Taylor, President; John C. Knohlock, John Hooper, 
Aaron A. Webster, Wright Clapp, Trustees; Edwin E. Ames, 
Clerk; Daniel Dayton, Treasurer; Charles M. Baker, Assessor; 
William S. Saunders, Marshal. 

1862. — E. P. Taylor, President; John C. Knoblock, John Hooper, 
Aaron A. Webster, Wright Clapp, Trustees; George H. Alward, 
Clerk; Daniel Dayton, Treasurer; Elisha Sumption, Assessor; 
Daniel Poof, Marshal. 

1863.— John A. Henricks, President; Charles W. Martin, Wil- 
liam Miller, John Gallagher, Ulrich Foegley, Trustees; George H. 
Alward, Clerk; Elisha Sumption, Treasurer; C. William Price, 
Assessor; Evan C. Johnson, Marshal. 

lsr,4.— J. A. Henricks, President; Charles W. Martin, William 
Miller, Esq., Aaron A. Webster, Ulrich Foegley, Trustees; George 
H. Alward, Clerk; George W. Matthews, Treasurer; Elisha Sump- 
tion, Assessor; Daniel Roof, Marshal. 

1865. — Henry Carleton, President; William G. George, Thomas 
S. Stanfield, L. M. Staples, John Gallagher, Trustees; George H. 
Alward, Clerk; George W. Matthews, Treasurer; Elisha Sumption, 
Assessor; Daniel Roof, Marshal. 

About the first of May, 1865, a large petition was presented to 
the Board of Trustees, asking that a special election be called to 
vote upon the question as to whether an organization should be 
effected under a general charter for the incorporation of cities. 
The prayer of the petitioners was granted and an election ordered 
to be held May 22, 1865, for or against incorporation. The elec- 
tion was accordingly held, resulting in a large majority for incor- 
poration. 

At their meeting held the evening of the 22d of May, the Board 
divided the city into three wards, as follows: 

The first ward to embrace all that portion of said city lying north 
of the center line of Market street, and extending to the western 
boundary of the city." 

The second ward to embrace all that portion of said city lying 
south of the first ward, and north of the center line of Wayne street, 
extending to the western boundary of the city. 

The third ward to embrace all that portion of the city lying 
south of the second ward. 

An election was ordered to be held on the 5th day of June, 1865, 
for city officers. 

Thelast meeting of the Board was held June 0. 1865. The last 
order passed was as follows: " Ordered, that all officers of thecor- 
poration of the town of South Bend deliver to the proper officers 



858 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUHTT. 

of the city of South Bend all moneys and personal property belong- 
ing to said town now in their possession, for the use and benefit of 
said city. 

ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY. 

According to the order of the Town Board, an election for city 
officers was held June 5, at which election 542 votes were cast. 
W. G. George was elected Mayor, together with a full Board of 
Councilmen and the various officers as provided by law. 

The first meeting of the council was held- June 12, 1865. All 
the Board were present. The first business transacted was the selec- 
tion of stated times for meeting of the council. William Miller 
moved the adoption of a seal for the city as follows: Around the 
margin the words "The City of South Bend, Indiana", and in the 
center the National' flag surmounted with the Liberty Cap, the 
sun rising out of a cloud ; above it the word " Peace," and underneath 
it the figures "1865." 

The council elected Charles W. Guthrie Chief Engineer of the 
Fire Department, and Dr. I. N. Green, Clement Studebaker and 
Norman Eddy, members of the Board of Health. 

The first ordinance passed by the City Council was one defining 
the limits of the City of South Bend, as follows: 

Be it ordained by the Common Council of the City oj South Bend: That the 
words "City " or" Corporation " wherever it may occur in this or any other ordi- 
nance hereafter ordained or established by said council, shall be construed to 
extend and apply to all that part of Portage township, St. Joseph county, State of 
Indiana, which was included within the limits of the town ot South Bend, as 
defined by an ordinance of said town of South Bend passed August 26, 1859. 

Since the organization of the city to the present time, the follow- 
ing officers have been elected: 

1865. — Mayor, W. G. George; Clerk, George II. Alward; Treas- 
urer, George "W. Matthews; Marshal, Daniel Roof; Engineer, 
Washington Saunders; Assessor, Elisha Sumption; Councilmen — 
1st ward, William Miller, John Klingel; 2d ward, William Miller, 
Esq., Thomas S. Stanfield; 3d ward, John Gallagher and Israel C. 
Sweet. 

1866.— Mayor, William G. George; City Judge, Alfred B. Wade; 
Clerk, John Hagerty ; Treasurer, John H. Spain ; Marshal, Jacob 
K. Huston; Street Commissioner, John A. Hartman; Councilmen 
— 1st ward, William Miller, John Klingel; 2d ward, Thomas S. 
Stanfield, David Stover; 3d ward, Isaac Ford, Alanson B. Merritt. 

1867. — Councilmen — 1st ward, S. F. Myers ; 2d ward, Thomas S. 
Stanfield; 3d ward, T. W. Defrees; 1th ward, Andrew Russwurm, 
Samuel Perry. 

1868. — Mayor, Louis Humphreys; Clerk, David M. Rennoe; 
Assessors, Lee P. Johnson, Joseph B. Eakle; Marshal, George W. 
Fouke; City Judge, George H. Alward; Councilmen — 1st ward, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S59 

William Miller; 2d ward, William Miller, Esq.; 3d ward, Elliott 
Tutt; 4th ward, Samuel L. Cottrell. 

1S69. — Councilmen — 1st ward, John H. Heedy; 2d ward, Thomas 
S. Staufield, T. W. Defrees; 4th ward, A. Theodore Coquillard. 

1870. — Mayor, Louis Humphreys; Clerk, David M. Eennoe; 
Treasurer, John G. Maugherman; Marshal, George W. Fouke; 
City Judge, George Pfleger; Councilmen — 1st ward, William 
Miller; 2d ward, Lucius Hubbard, Clement Studebaker; 3d ward, 
Adam Barnhart; 4th ward, A. C. Staley. 

1871. — Councilmen — 1st ward, Irwin Skinner; 2d ward, Clement 
Studebaker; 3d ward, Elliott Tutt; 4th ward, A. Theodore Coquil- 
lard. 

1872.— Mayor, William Miller; Clerk, David M. Eennoe; Treas- 
urer, J. G. Maugherman; Marshal, J. A. Hartman; Assessor, Lee 
P. Johnson; City Judge, Mark Whinery; Councilmen — 1st ward, 
Charles Hartman; 2d ward, John E.Foster; 3d ward, Alexander 
Staples; 4th ward, Nathan S. Marsh. 

1873. — Councilmen — 1st ward, Joseph Warden; 2d ward, Seeley 
E. King; 3d ward, William Simmons; 4th ward, Peter Webber. 

1874.— Mayor, William Miller; Clerk, E. W. Hover; Treasurer, 
Jacob N. Massey; Marshal, Eobert Hardy; Assessor, George W. 
Sumption; City Judge, John Hagerty; Councilmeu : — 1st ward, 
Archibald Defrees; 2d ward, A. 1S\ Thomas; 3d ward, M. K Wal- 
worth; 4th ward, Simon Eaff. 

At the regular election this year a vote was taken as to the 
division of the third ward, resulting in a majority for the division. 
The City Council then divided the ward making Lafayette street 
the dividing line, all territory upon the west side of that street 
constituting the third ward, and all territory upon the east side 
constituting the fifth ward. In the division it was found one of the 
aldermen already elected resided in the newly organized third 
ward, and the other in the fifth. A special election was then called 
for the election of an additional alderman in each ward, when T. 
W. Defrees was elected in the third ward and J. M. Asire in the 
fifth ward. 

1875.- — Councilmen — 1st ward, Eicketson Burroughs; 2d ward, 
Eobert Harris; 3d ward, A. J. Jacuith; 4th ward, Dwight Deal- 
ing; 5th ward, Lester F. Baker. 

1876. — Mayor, A. N. Thomas; Clerk, Edward W. Henricks; 
Treasurer, DeWitt C. Bush; Marshal, George Beruhard; Council- 
men — 1st ward, Daniel Dayton; 2d ward, Edmund P. Taylor; 3d 
ward, W. W. Giddings; 4th ward, Louis A. Hall; 5th ward, N. E. 
Richardson. 

1877. — Councilmen — 1st ward, Eicketson Burroughs; 2d ward, 
George F. Kevins; 3d ward, Henry C. Crawford; 4th ward, Jonas 
Lantz; 5th ward, Solomon W. Palmer. 

1878. — Mayor, Lucius G. Tong; Clerk, Edward W. Henricks; 
Treasurer, DeWitt C. Rush; Marshal, Evan C.Johnson: Assessor, 
William L. Farr; Councilmen — 1st ward. Daniel Dayton; 2d ward, 



860 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Nathaniel Frame; 3d ward. James Butler; 4th ward, Timothy E. 
Howard; oth ward, Almond Bngbee. 

1S79. — Councilmen — 1st ward, Sorden Liston; 2d ward, Joseph 
Henderson; 3d ward, W. W. Giddings; 4th ward, John A. Neu- 
perth; 5th ward, William S Weaver. 

1880.— Mayor, Levi J. Ham; Clerk, Frederick B. Williams; 
Treasurer, DeWitt C. Rush; Marshal, George Bernhard; Assessor, 
William L. Farr; Trustees Water-works — J. M. Studebaker, one 
year; Alex. 0. Staley, two years; Jacob Strayer, three years; 
Councilmen — 1st ward, Irwin Skinner; 2d ward, David Stover; 
3d ward, James Butler; 4th ward, Timothy E. Howard; 5th ward, 
George W. Laughman. 



THE SITUATION OF SOUTH BEND. 

South Bend was originally situated on a commanding bluff on 
the west bank of the St. Joseph river at its most southern point, 
and distant from Chicago eighty-five miles east, and west of Toledo 
one hundred and forty-three miles. Its site is elevated, being located 
on the water-shed between waters flowing northward to the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, and south into the Gulf of Mexico. The soil of 
the city is a sandy loam, and its surface level, making, with its 
height above the river, the best drainage and the finest natural 
streets found anywhere. The city is laid out with wide streets, and 
the enterprise of its first inhabitants have lined its spacious avenues 
with forest trees indigenous to the country, the maple, oak and 
walnut. The city has ever had a high character for health, and the 
purity and salubrity of the atmosphere, together with the romantic 
scenery in its vicinity, makes it a desirable locality in which to 
reside or to spend a few months. 

The city is surrounded by a rich and highly cultivated agricult- 
ural region. The beautiful prairies of Terre Coupee, 1'ortage, 
Harris, Palmer and Sumption are within the county, covered with 
productive farms, and celebrated for their large yield of all kinds of 
grain. South and southeast of the city are large tracts of heavily 
timbered lands, furnishing an abundance of the best walnut, cherry, 
poplar and oak lumber. The " barrens," as they are termed, in the 
immediate vicinity of the city, are well adapted to the raising of 
grain, and especially to the cultivation of fruits and berries. The 
deserved reputation of the fruits raised here, and the nearness to 
the great Western markets, make it a profitable business. With 
the variety of soil, the fine climate, the nearness to market, the 
quantity of timber, the great educational advantages of the city, 
this country is far superior in advantages for both the agricultur- 
ist and the artisan, to the wide prairies of the farther West. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTV. 80 1 

ANNEXATION OF LOWELL. 

When the company, spoken of farther on in this work, purchased 
the land upon the east side of the river for the purpose of improv- 
ing the water-power and the erection of buildings for manufactur- 
ing purposes, they laid out in 1837 a town opposite South Bend, to 
which was given the name of Dennison. In course of time the 
name of the place was changed to Lowell. Quite a thriving town 
was built up, and for some years the question of its annexation to 
South Bend was agitated, its interests being closely identified with 
the latter place. In December, 1866, the City Council of South 
Bend passed a resolution of annexation and Lowell became a part 
of the city of South Bend and formed the fourth ward. 

WATER WORKS. 

In 1S72 the question of water works for the city was agitated, 
and the local papers of the city were filled with discussions of the 
various systems proposed. One party was a strong advocate of the 
Holly system and another of the stand-pipe system. On the 20th 
day of March, 1 873, the committee appointed and known as the 
Water Works Committee entered into a contract with certain par- 
ties for the Holly system, the works to be completed and in opera- 
tion by September 15, 1S73, the whole to be completed at a cost of 
$20,000. 

Immediately after this contract was made a large meeting of 
citizens was held at Good's Opera House to protest against the 
action of the committee. Speeches were made by various parties, 
and resolutions passed in conformity with the views of those assem- 
bled. The election for city officers was soon to take place and 
citizens divided upon the question of the Holly versus the stand- 
pipe system of water works. The majority of the Board of Coun- 
cilmeu were in favor of the latter, and a contract was made in the 
summer following for the erection of the stand-pipe, and for laying 
of mains throughout the city. The whole work was placed under 
the supervision of John Birkinbine, who was assisted by his brother 
Harry. The contract made with representatives of the Holly sys- 
tem was ignored, and the work proceeded with. On Monday, No- 
vember 17, 1873, the iron pipe was raised under the direction of 
Alex Staples, of South Bend. 

The stand-pipe is erected upon a foundation prepared for it near 
the water works. The length of tube is 204 feet, diameter five feet, 
weight 43,382 pounds, and capacity 29,500 gallons. It is made of 
108 plates of iron, fastened by 9,856 rivets, and has 1,300 feet of 
calked seams. The weight of the base casting is 10,920 pounds. 
With one exception, it is the highest stand-pipe in the 
world. The whole is encased with brick. Water is taken from 



862 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

above the dam by means of head gates and carried by a flume un- 
der ground to three wheel pits, in each of which is placed a sixty- 
six-inch " American " turbine wheel. The tail water is carried by 
means of a tunnel under the head race of the dam company dis- 
charging into the river below the dam. f 

The pumping machinery consists of three sets known as the 
Flanders pumps, manufactured by the Vergennes Machine Com- 
pany, of Vergennes, Vermont, and are each capable of raising one 
million gallons to a height of 230 feet per day. Each set consists 
of two pumps working at quarter centers. Water is taken from the 
flume and discharged into a 12-inch pipe. The gearing from the 
wheels to the pumps consists of a pair of 30-inch bevel gears, one of 
them morticed, and a 20-inch spur pinion, driving a 60-inch mor- 
ticed wheel. 

The first test of the works was on Christmas day, 1873, and was 
perfectly satisfactory to the entire community. An amusing cir- 
cumstance occurred in connection with the test. J. M. Studebaker 
had wagered Leighton Pine a cow that a stream of water could not 
be thrown so as to reach him in the cupola of the Studebaker 
Wagon Works. At the proper time Mr. Studebaker took his po- 
sition, accompanied by Schuyler Colfax, when the signal was given 
and the water shot upward from the nozzle, and the occupants of 
the belfry beat a hasty retreat, to avoid getting a complete drench- 
ing. As it was. they looked as if they had been in a hard shower. 
The water was thrown far above the belfry and the judges there 
could see all the other streams, so Mr. Studebaker gracefully ac- 
knowledged that he had lost the wager and transferred an animated 
dairy to Mr. Pine. The cow was gaily decorated with ribbons, and, 
preceded by the band and a number of carriages filled with promi- 
nent citizens, marched down the street to Mr. Pine's residence. 

While leading the cow down near dishing & Co's corner, she 
made a lunge for the side- walk, and some officious individual seized 
her by the tail to help her off. To the astonishment and indigna- 
tion of the crowd, he pulled so hard that her tail came off, but 
indignation soon gave way to laughter when it was ascertained that 
the cow had an abbreviated narrative, and had been decorated with 
a false tail for the occasion. The cow was afterward put up at auc- 
tion to be sold for the benefit of the poor. The purchaser donated 
it back for the same purpose, and it was sold a number of times, 
realizing a handsome sum of money for a worthy object. 

Until the spring of 1879 the works were under the control of the 
City Council, but now they are controlled by a Board of Trustees, 
consisting at the present time of J. M. Studebaker, A. C. Staley 
and Jacob Strayer. Everett L. Abbott, on the completion of the 
works, was appointed Superintendent and has been re-appointed 
each year. The original cost of the works was $150,000; present 
value, $200,000. The stand-pipe is visited daily by from 50 to 150 
persons, who obtain from the top a magnificent view of the city 
and surrounding country. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 863 

• PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

A comparison of the old log school-house erected in 1831, with 
the fine buildings now in every ward of the city, will show a wonderful 
improvement. Compare also the methods of teaching of the teach- 
ers of that early day with those of the present, and likewise a 
wonderful change will be seen. The advantages of the present 
generation are hardly to be compared with those of the past. But 
the citizens of South Bend were never content to stand still in any 
enterprise, much less that which pertains to the cause of educa- 
tion. 

The free-school system of this State began in 1853, since which 
time it has continued to grow more and more efficient. For many 
years the old county seminary and two or three private academies, 
in operation at different times, served the purpose of our present 
high school. In 1867 the graded school system was adopted, under 
the superintendency of Prof. Daniel Eyres. The high school com- 
prises a course of four years' study, as follows: 

1st year: 1st term — Arithmetic, grammar, physiology and com- 
position; 2d term — Arithmetic, grammar, physical geography and 
composition. 

2d year: both terms — Algebra, Latin or German, Rhetoric and 
history. 

Junior year: 1st term — Geometry, astronomy, German or Latin 
(Caesar) and bookkeeping; 2d term — Geometry, natural philosophy, 
German or Latin (Caesar and Virgil) and zoology. 

Senior year: 1st term- — English literature, mental philosophy, 
geology, botany and Latin or German ; 2d term — English litera- 
ture, civil government, chemistry, botany, and Latin or German. 

The first class graduated was in 1872, the second in 187A, since 
which time there has been a class graduated each year, the entire 
number of graduates being 57. There are two literary societies 
connected with the school. The following comprises the names of 
the graduating class each year, and the present occupation and 
address of each as could be obtained: 

CLASS OF 1872. 

Bartlett, Chas. H., Principal of High School South Bend. 

Butts (Ellsworth), Ida Stillwater, Minn. 

Green, William M., Prin. Island Grove School Fort Edwards, N. Y. 

CLASS OF 1874. 

Bissell, Frank E., Civil Engineer S. P. R. B Texas. 

Burnett, Emma, Teacher South Bend 

Harper, Libbie A 

Miller (Shetterley), Anna M '' 

Myers (Harris), Gertrude 



864 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

CLASS OF 1875. 

Bissell, Esse C.i Assistant Principal High School South Bend. 

Gish, Wxa. D., livery business " " 

Hibberd, John A., Lawyer '< " 

Warner (Beal), Mary E " " 

Wilklow, Rebecca E., Teacher Le Grande, Oregon. 

CLASS OF 1876. 

Aspinwall, Mary, Teacher South Bend. 

Baker, Geo. A., boot and shoe dealer " " 

Carder (Roberts), Lizzie Chicago. 

Gallagher, Florence South Bend. 

George, Rose P " " 

Harper, Lilian " " 

♦Johnson, Nettie " " 

Massey, Mamie " " 

Meuler (Sack), Anna " " 

^ Brugger (Schultz), Mary Alice, Teaeher " " 

**Studebaker, Laura " " 

Wheeler (Wellmanj, Maud Parsons, Kansas. 

->Wilcox, Grace, Teacher. South Bend. 

CLASS OF IS 77. 

Ford, Emma, Teacher South Bend. 

Gallagher, Chas. A., student of medicine " " 

Henderson, Jacob, D, Deputy County Treasurer " " 

Hibberd, Chas. B., with Logansport Journal Logansport, Ind. 

Ringle, Amy E., Teacher South Bend. 

Rockefaller, Sarah E " " 

CLASS OF 187S. 

Deacon, Harry C, Tobacconist South Bend. 

Lane, Charles H., Clerk Coquillard Wagon Works " " 

Miller,Mary " 

Rose, Ida O., Teacher " " 

Shively, Flora, student Mt. Holyoke Seminary, Mass " '■ 

Tutt, Grace D " 

CLASS OF 1879. 

Allen, Birdie South Bend. 

Baker, John E., Bookkeeper " " 

Lawton, Laura A " " 

McDonald, Albert, Teacher " " 

Memhard, Lillie A., Teacher " " 

Ringle, Hester A " " 

Sack, Rosa A " " 

Sack, Thekla E., Clerk " 

Stephenson, Mary A., Teacher of Music " " 

Walworth, Mary L., student Oberlin College " " 

White, Effie » 

•Deceased. 




*m ^ A »m 




HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 867 

CLASS OF 18S0. 

Brick, Abraham L South Ben. I. 

French, Minnie C " " 

Gish, John L " 

Higinbotham, Helen " 

Holloway, Kittie " " 

Miller, Dora B " 

Studebaker, Lydia A " 

Walworth, Nettie " 

THE HIOH-SCHOOL BOTLDTNG. 

The high-school building was erected in 1872, and is situated on 
Washington street. It is one of the handsomest structures of the 
kind in the State. It has a frontage of 90 feet and aii extreme 
depth of 116 feet, with wings having a depth of 40 feet. It is four- 
stories in height, including the mansard roof. The height of the 
deck of the tower is 100 feet, and affords one of the finest views 
in the city . The building is of white brick and Athens stone 
trimmings, the roof of slate, and the deck tinned. The inside 
finish is of a character to correspond with the outside, and the 
rooms are all heated by steam. The basement extends under the 
whole building and is eight feet deep. It is partitioned off into 
playrooms, wood rooms, two reservoirs holding 400 barrels each, 
and apartments for the steam heating apparatus. The first story 
has one room, 60x38; two. 36x29; two, 18xl6|-; main hall, 49x12 
feet, and two side halls, 20xS feet. The height of the ceiling is 16 
feet. The second story is laid off precisely as the first, with 16 
feet ceilings. The third story has 12 feet ceilings, with an exhibi- 
tion room 86^x44 feet, and two toilet rooms 22x18 feet. The fourth 
story also has 12 feet ceilings, and has one room 24x15 feet, one 
13x12, and one 9xS. 

Three neat and commodious rooms are occupied by the students 
of the high school, the study hall, and the east and west rooms. 
The remaining apartments used by the high school are the library, 
the philosophical room, the laboratory, the two society rooms, and 
the main hall. The superintendent's room is on the first floor. 
The study hall and the east and west rooms are furnished with 
258 single desks of the most approved pattern. The rooms are 
well lighted, the windows being furnished with inside blinds. The 
high school has the advantage of being centrally located; its 
grounds are ample and well kept; and, in short, nothing has been 
overlooked which could contribute to the health, comfort and enjoy- 
ment of the students. An upright piano lends additional interest 
to the chapel and literary exercises. 

There are two societies connected with the high school — the 
Euglossian and the Cleosophic. They have become indispensable 
aids in the culture offered by this school. 

Since the organization of the graded system the following named 
have served as Superintendent of the Public Schools for the city: 

54 



86S HI9T0KT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Daniel Eyres, 1867 to 1868; L. E. Denslow, 1S68 to 1S69; N. K. 
Kidd, 1869 to 1871; David A. Ewing, 1871 to 1875; Alfred Rum- 
mer, 1875 to 1878; James DuShane, 187S to the present time. 

A good story is told on one of the foregoing named superin- 
tendents. This superintendent was a just and lenient man; 
forbearing toward a scholar who failed doing his best, but a terror 
to those evilly inclined. He had a way of looking a crowd of 
boys over keenly for a moment and picking out the hard cases, 
and his judgment was rarely at fault. He would cpuietly find out 
the names of those boys, and he never forgot their names or their 
faces. These boys knew him, too, and any of them would much 
rather skate or slide down hill than to be sent to him for correction 
with a line from their teacher. His look was enough to make a 
bad boy tremble, and when he used the rod, which he always 
abstained from doing when possible, the culprit got a "bulldoze" 
which lasted him for the term, if not the entire year. One after- 
noon three boys came to his room bearing a missive from their 
teacher. A glance at the subdued countenances before him and 
the note in their hands was enough. He was writing and con- 
cluded to finish his task before attending to the matter of 
punishment. " Sit down there," said he to the foremost boy, 
pointing to a spot on the floor close to the stove. " And you, and 
you," remarked he sternly, indicating places beside the first boy. 
They dropped down on the carpet and the writing went on, 
the pen of the superintendent striking off chirography beautiful 
as copper-plate, and with lightning-like rapidity. Presently he 
got up and put some fine hickory wood in the stove and opened 
wide the draft. One of the boys here undertook to speak. " Not 
a word out of you! " was the the quick rejoinder; "I'll attend to 
your cases directly." Silence again reigned in the room, unbroken 
except by the dancing of the superintendent's pen over his paper. 
The sheet-iron stove poured out the heat furiously. The boys were 
close to it and next to the wall. There was no escape. They 
began to pant. Then they opened their vests. Then they brought 
their hats in play to fan themselves, while the perspiration poured 
down their faces in streams. Finally they could stand it no longer 
and one of them broke out with — 

"Please, sir, we hain't been doin' nothin'; we just come here on 
an errand for the teacher!" 

The superintendent dropped his pen and took their note. It ran 
thus: " Please send some chalk ; we are entirely out.'''' The haste 
with which the draft of that red-hot stove was closed, and the boys 
were got off from the floor and seated on comfortable chairs, was a 
caution. The superintendent gave them a big apple apiece, and 
laughed the thing off with them as a good joke as best he could, but 
he was ever after a little distrustful of his ability to determine the 
exact contents of a note before seeing the inside of it. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 869 

WARD SCHOOLS. 

In addition to the high school, there are six school buildings in 
various parts of the city. The Jefferson school building was erected 
in 1S66; has four main and two recitation rooms, and is valued at 
$10,000. The Madison building was erected in 1864, and has the 
same number of rooms and valued at $10,000. The Lafayette was 
originally built in 1854; was burned down and rebuilt in 1S72. It 
has four rooms, and valued at $S,000. Laurel building, in 1871. 
This building has four main and two recitation rooms. The Coquil- 
lard was built in 1863; remodeled in 1871, and has four rooms. 
The South building was built in 187S, and has four rooms. The 
talue of the Laurel is $8,000, and Coquillard and South, $6,000 
each. Each of these buildings are of brick. 

ENUMERATION AND ENROLLMENT. 

A superficial observer might be struck by the disparity between 
the enrollment and enumeration; 1,936 enrolled, 4,267 enumerated! 
It might look to him as though over half the school-going popula- 
tion were in the streets. But such is not the case. A great num- 
ber of them attend private and denominational schools, and in the 
factories and manufacturing establishments are to be found many 
more The bulk of the population of a manufacturing city is nec- 
essarily composed of laboring people whose energies are absorbed 
by the struggle for subsistence. The children of such are by cir- 
cumstances debarred from higher educational culture. They have 
to be content with the merest rudiments of learning. It is there- 
fore not a matter of wonder that the per cent, of children in the 
schools is not so great as, for example, in commercial or college 
towns. But though this is to be greatly regretted, it nevertheless 
gives such places a larger tuition fund in proportion to the children 
in actnal attendance, and it should enable those who are privileged 
to attend the schools to enjoy even better advantages than where 
the tuition fund has to be eked out by direct taxation. 

EFFICIENCY OF THE SCHOOLS. 

Under the management of Prof. Du Shane, with the assistance 
and hearty co-operation of a Board of Trustees alive to the impor- 
tance of the work, tbe public schools have become very efficient, 
reflecting honor upon the superintendent, the trustees and citizens. 
At the present time 35 teachers are employedat an expense of $14,- 
705 for the year; while the total expense for all purposes amounts 
to $22,000. The rate of taxation for school purposes has never been 
over 17 cents on the hundred dollars, ranging all the way down to 
9 cents. There is at present a surplus in the treasury of over $20,- 
000. John Klingel has been a member of the School Board since 
1867, and is deserving of special mention in this connection. 



870 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY 

BOARD OF EDUCATION. 

The Board of Education is composed of the following named per- 
sons: G. F. Nevins, President; Elliot Tutt, Secretary; John Klin- 
gel, Treasurer; James Du Shane, Superintendent. 

During the school year ISSO-'l, 35 teachers were employed. 

TEACHERS. 

For the school year commencing September, 1SS0, there were 
employed 35 teachers as follows: 

High School. — James DuShane, Superintendent; Charles H. 
Bartlett, Principal; Essie Bissell and Eva Hill, Assistants; W. G. 
Schroeder, Special Teacher. 

Ward Schools. — Washington. — Miss Alice Patterson, Principal ; 
Miss Cora Epley, Upper Intermediate; Miss Grace Wilcox, Lower 
Intermediate; Miss Lida 0. Murray, PriifiaryT" 

Jefferson. — Mr. II. J. Burlingame, Principal; Miss Kate Bow- 
man, Upper Intermediate; Miss Kate A. Thrush, Lower Interme- 
diate; Miss Jennie Dickey, Assistant Lower Intermediate; Miss 
Eliza Ebberson, Primary. 

Madison. — Miss Kate E. Merrifield, Principal; Miss Libbie 
Allman, Upper Intermediate; Miss Laura Marsh, Lower Interme- 
diate; Miss Lizzie Greene, Primary; Miss Minnie Scott, Assistant 
Primary. 

Lafayette. — Mr. Frank Conklin, Principal; Miss Ida Weaver, 
Upper Intermediate; Miss Fannie Spain, Lower Intermediate; Miss 
Jennie Betts, Primary. 

Lamel — Miss Lodema Dragoo, Principal; Mr. John Hibberd, 
Upper Intermediate; Miss Alberta Jones, Lower Intermediate; Miss 
Sarah Johnson, Primary. 

Coqaillard. — Miss Carrie Sharpe, Principal; Miss Mary Durant, 
Upper Intermediate; Mr. Lewis F. Meyer, Lower Intermediate; 
Miss Ada Purdy, Primary. 

South. — Mr. Albert McDonald, Principal; Miss Minnie Garrett, 
Upper Intermediate; Miss Emma Ford, Lower Intermediate; Miss 
Anna E. Lyon, Primary. 

SOUTH BEND AS A MANUFACTURING POINT. 

The first building erected for manufacturing purposes was that 
known for years afterward as the " old glass house." It was a 
frame, erected in the year 1S36, and was about 60 by SO feet, with 
a wing. A company was formed for the manufacture of glass, con- 
sisting of John Brownfield, John T. McClelland and Johnson 
Horrell. They were induced to engage in this enterprise by the 
persuasion of S. Johnson, who was a practical glass-blower, and 
who had just arrived from the East. He found an excellent sand 
here, some of which he successfully experimented with, and he 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 871 

became enthusiastic on the subject, and succeeded in imparting 
enough of his enthusiasm to the gentlemen named to induce them 
to furnish the necessary capital; but after the building was erected 
it was found that the clay, such as is used in glass-making, could 
not be obtained, except at a price so high, including transportation, 
that the business would be unprofitable, and the enterprise was 
consequently abandoned. The building remained unused, except 
for public meetings, and by the boys for Sunday ball-playing, until 
the winter of 1837, when the roof fell in from excessive weight of 
snow. The ground was afterward laid out into lots, and is to-day 
covered with residence buildings, so that it is hard to tell the pre- 
cise location of the first building for manufacturing purposes, but 
it was near the crossing of Division and Gen. Taylor streets. 

"A bad beginning sometimes has a good ending" is fully exem- 
plified by reference to the manufacturing interests of South Bend, 
which now flourish upon every hand. 

UTILIZING THE WATEK-POWER. 

The first determined effort at utilizing the great water-power 
afforded by the St. Joseph river, was made by Joseph Fellows, 
Garrett V. Dennison, Thomas W. Alcott, James McKower, Wil- 
liam J. Worth, and John Van Buren, all of the State of New York. 
They purchased in 1835, from Alexis Coquillard, and in 1837 com- 
menced digging a race. They had a large quantity of timber 
in readiness for building head-gates, locks, and other purposes, 
when the scheme suddenly collapsed in consequence of the hard 
times, which prevailed at that time, especially in the East. One of 
the conditions of the sale which Mr. Coquillard made to the com- 
pany named was that they should build a dam, dig a race, and 
make certain other improvements. The conditions not being com- 
plied with, Mr. Coquillard sued for the recovery of the property. 
Judgment was obtained by him in the lower court, but an appeal 
was taken by the company to the Supreme Court. After dragging 
alonw in that court for several years, a decision was finally readied, 
and the judgment of the lower court sustained. Mr. Coquillard, 
when he obtained possession of the property, made large improve- 
ments on the race. This property was afterward purchased by 
Samuel L. Cottrell and others, and finally, in 1S67, it was pur- 
chased by the South Bend Hydraulic Company, representing a 
capital of $100,000. This company was organized in 1867, and in 
the spring of 1868 completed and improved the race, and began 
letting the power to those who would use it for manufacturing pur- 
poses. 

A charter was obtained in December, 1842, from the Legislature 
of the State, for the organization of the South Bend Manufacturing 
Company, and in February, 1S13, the first election of officers was 
held, resulting in the election of Thomas W. Bray, President; 
George W. Matthews, Secretary; Abraham E. Harper, Treasurer. 



872 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

In the spring of 1843 this company hegan the construction of a dam 
across the river, and also of a race upon the east side. The dam and 
race were both completed the following year. The first persons to 
avail themselves of the power were Abram P. and John H. Harper, 
who built upon the race a saw-mill. The second use made of the 
power was also for running a saw-mill. This latter was built by 
William Stanfield, and is yet in successful operation, and now 
owned by E. P. Ta3'lor. Finley & Brown came next and established 
a factory for the manufacture of tubs and buckets. Just after get- 
ting the factory in operation it burned down and was never rebuilt. 
The first grist-mill erected and run by this power was also owned 
by A. It. & J. II. Harper. This is now known as the Reedy Mill, 
and owned by the Phoenix Milling Company, composed of Landon, 
Corbin & Foote. A woolen mill was also erected at an early day 
on the same ground now occupied by the Variety Bracket Works, 
but did not prove a successful business venture. Other factories 
sprung up one after another and lined both the east and west race; 
and not alone in this section, but in various parts of the city were 
works erected, machinery set in motion, and articles of manufact- 
uring skill turned out and sent into every part of the civilized 
world. 

STUDEBAKER BROTHERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 

In 1852 dates the real beginning of what is now known as the 
greatest wagon and carriage manufactory in the world, the success 
of which is indeed marvelous. The man who laid the foundation 
for this grand success was John Studebaker. He was a native of 
Pennsylvania. He served, as the custom there was, a six-year 
apprenticeship at wagon-making in Gettysburg, where in 1818 he 
made his " first genuine Studebaker wagon." Eighteen years after, 
in 1836, he came to the then " Far West" into Ashland county, Ohio, 
and here, joining to what he had by closest economy laid up by his 
own labor, the inheritance he had received from his father's estate 
and that from marriage, he purchased quite a large tract or farm. 
He began the work of improving it with great interest, and 
promised to himself and family, doubtless, much pleasure for his 
future home and comfort there. But his pleasurable anticipations 
of coming ease and good fortune were of short indulgence. He had, 
just before leaving Pennsylvania, been led, in the sympathy and 
kindness of his heart, to lend the use of his name to some of his 
neighbors in the day of their pecuniary trouble. The panic of '37, 
the following year, swept over the State, and among those who 
failed were those for whom he had endorsed notes. The conse- 
quence, which speedily followed him to his new home, was the 
attachment and sale by the sheriff of his new home and all his 
personal effects, thus by one blow sweeping all his earthly posses- 
sions, leaving him quite penniless to begin again life's labor and 
trials anew. The years of toil and poverty which followed these 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S73 

great misfortunes of the parents are reviewed by those worthy sons 
with great feeling and tenderness of affection. 

But John Studebaker knew too well how his fortune had come to 
be found sitting down idly, and groaning and brooding over his sad 
lot, and, therefore, we are told he at once opened a wagon repair and 
blacksmith shop, and toiled at the bench and the forge from four 
o'clock in the morning until nine at night, " I tell you," said the 
youngest of these brothers, '-there was no ten or eight hour system 
then; it was work, work, for as many hours each day as thews 
of iron could stand the strain. And such a thing as money was 
almost unknown. It came in what was called 'store pay,' and it 
was my duty, while the older brothers worked at the forge or bench, 
learning the trade, to ride around the country in a home-made 
wagon and gather the ' store pay,' that consisted of butter, eggs, and 
other country productions." 

John Studebaker was one of those old-fashioned dealing men and 
geuerous to a fault. One of his most marked traits was his unbounded 
hospitality, which was only limited by his means to grant it, With 
a family of ten children, five boys and five daughters, his long days 
of hard labor were no more than sufficient to keep up their support. 
In those days emigrants passed West in wagons, and so great was 
his hospitality to these strangers that he has been known to fill his 
beds and cover his floor with them — take them in until he could 
take no more — and sit up all night to keep up fires to make them 
comfortable. He became so popular that the little inn at the four 
corners had to close on this account. 

THE FIRST PARTNERSHIP. 

Not long after the father's struggles with poverty had begun 
anew, a successful German farmer whom his father-in-law had 
befriended in paying his passage from the old country, learning 
of the sad reverses, invited him to send his sons over to help him 
in his harvesting, for which they should receive good wages. They 
went 60 miles, and, after three weeks, returned home with about 
$ 75. " And that," said one of them, " suggested the partnership 
enterprises that have followed, and to which we owe whatever 
of success we have achieved." From this, and from the beginnings 
of, perhaps, a very large minority of the builders of great fortunes, 
we could peruse and write a homily on the text, " Despise not the 
day of small things." 

With the wearying, exhausting labors of years following this fail- 
ure of 1S37 came no cheer and hope for a better condition, and there- 
fore in lS-tS he concluded to come farther West on horseback, in 
order to examine the country. He returned, and at once made 
preparation to move out here to South Bend, then a village of 1.200 
inhabitants. Two wagons, made by himself and boys, brought all 
his worldly goods, among which and of greatest value, were two 
sets of tools for wagon-making. He bought a shop for §50, but 



S74 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

after carrying on the work for four years,being worn out b} T many 
years of excessive labor, lie relinquished the active business of 
wagon-making to his eldest sons, Henry and Clement. 

0. and H. Stndebaker, both good mechanics, formed the first 
partnership for manufacturing, and by doing much of the mechan- 
ical work themselves, under the oversight of their father, who also 
acted as their agent upon his annual journeys to the great meet- 
ings of the Dunkards ( of which he was an influential member), 
they turned out, beside their repair work, five wagons. The busi- 
ness developed gradually larger until iu 1S57 the partnership was 
estimated at $10,000, At this time Henry withdrew, and made pur- 
chase of a 200-acre farm, upon which he still lives satisfied with his 
comfortable competency and freedom from the great business cares 
by which his brothers have amassed great wealth. As the business 
grew the other brothers were drawn into it, and Peter, having 
been a merchant and trader, seemed to infuse a speculative spirit 
his brother did not possess, and began at once planning to branch 
out and widen the field of their operations. One ol the first things 
he did was to open a branch office at St. Joseph, Mo., "then the 
outfitting station for parties crossing the plains." And from here 
Peter sent in almost innumerable orders for Studebaker wagons. 

The contracted, ill-fitted wooden building gave way to fine, large 
brick structures. From this time on, business and buildings alike 
rapidly grew apace until immense two, three, four and five-story 
buildings covered several squares. But still cramped for room 
they found that they must extend the wagon-making department 
beyond the town limits " that no pent-up Utica might contract its 
powers." It is near the depot, and upon the line of the Lake Shore 
& Michigan Southern railroad, from which side tracks run into 
the grounds, delivering iron, coal, lumber, right at the 'doors of the 
fa <>ries, and taking the finished work from the warerooms. In 
1>74 these buildings and a great amount of finished stock was 
burned. Chicago, Cincinnati and many other cities made large 
bids to attract the firm to locate the new buildings, but their social 
and business ties and large property interests, together with all the 
memories of their business career and successes here, respectfully 
declined all the tempting offers from abroad. 

THE EXTENT OF THE NEW WOKKS. 

The works were rebuilt upon even a more extensive scale than 
before. Upon entering South Bend the traveler will notice a great 
number of very large and really beautiful buildings, bearing the 
immense sign, " Studebaker Brothers' Manufacturing Company — 
Established 1852 — Labor omnia vincit." These buildings, with 
an average height of three stories, cover, together with lumber- 
sheds, stacks, etc., 27 acres. It takes three miles of belting to run 
the vast combination of machinery. The two main driving belts, 
on two Brown engines of 400-horse power each, are of double leather 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 



875 



thirty-six inches wide, and contain the hides of forty-four oxen. 
Last year there were 20,000 vehicles built in these works, thus 
averaging one turned out every nine minutes, calculating ten hours 
for each day's work. For these, 12,500,000 feet of lumber has been 
used, loading 2,083 cars, to haul which would require fifty locomo- 
tives with over forty cars each; 3,000 tons — 300 car-loads — of iron; 
and in varnish 15,000 gallons alone were used. Seventy-five differ- 
ent styles ot vehicles are built here, and there is a finished assort- 
ment equal to two thousand complete wagons kept in stock, with 
a capacity to turn out 100 wagons in a single day. It is claimed 
that already has the Studebaker Company made enough wagons 
"to stretch with their teams across the continent and back again — 
from New York to San Francisco." They have repositories in the 
leading cities of the West, and agents in every city and town'in the 
land. As one has well said, "There appears to be no limit to their 
production, and no end to the demand." 

In no way can be given a briefer or more comprehensive view ot 
the gradual and steady development and growth of this great house 
than by presenting the following table, showing the production of 
farm and freight wagons from 1S6S to 1879 inclusive: 



1868. 
1869. 



Wagons. 
. . . 3,955 



5,115 



1870 6,505 

1871 6,835 

1872 6,050 

1873 10,280 



Wagons. 

1874 11,050 

1875 15,000 

1876 16,250 

1877 17,500 

1878 18,000 

1879 20,000 



Total 137,440 

The number of hands have increased in the same proportion, 
from 190 in 1868 to 800 in 1S79. 



coquillard's wagon works. 

In 1865 A. Coquillard established here a factory of modest pre- 
tensions, with a capacity for manufacturing one hundred wagons per 
year. He had at the outset to meet with competition from houses 
long established and with agencies scattered throughout the country. 
In the face of competition and in spite of the gradually increasing 
stringency of the times, the business has been successfully prose- 
cuted, and by degrees the annual production has swelled until now 
the capacity of the works is not less than 3.500 vehicles per year, 
employing'in their construction 125 hands. The product of the 
factory now goes throughout the whole country. North, South, East 
and West. In 1S75 Mr. Coquillard completed one of the finest fac- 
tories in the city. The building is of wood, four stories high, 
strong and convenient, with an attractive exterior. It has a frontage 
of 78 feet on Market and 66 feet on Mill street. It is devoted en- 
tirely to the manufacture of the wooden portions of the wagons and 



876 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

other vehicles. The motive power here used is an American 
turbine water-wheel, 66 inches in diameter, and of 110-horse 
power. On the corner of Water and Lafayette streets, Mr. Coquil- 
lard occupies three quarters of an acre, on which are located smith, 
paint and finishing shops, offices, repository, storerooms and sheds. 
The main structure is of brick, with a frontage 66 feet on Lafayette 
and 78 feet on Water street. A sketch of Mr. Coquillard is found 
elsewhere in this work. 

SOUTH BEND CHILLED-PLOW COMPANY. 

The St. Joseph Reaper and Machine Company of South Bend 
commenced the manufacture of the South Bend chilled plow in 
1876, and in that year distributed only 650, which were considered 
little inure than specimens to advertise among fanners their merits. 
The business of the second year, notwithstanding they suffered the 
disaster of a fire, was quite large, the company selling 4,672 plows, 
an increase of over 700 per cent., and leaving many orders unfilled. 
On the first day of July, 1S78, the company was re-organized under 
the name of the South Bend Chilled-Blow Company, with Adam 
S. Baker, President; J. C. Knoblock, Treasurer; George W.Baker, 
Secretary. This year the sales of the company were over 10,000. 
In 1870 there were sold 35,000. In 1880 will be manufactured 
50,000. The works of this company are located on Washington 
street, one mile west of the court-house, on the site of the old 
Northern Indiana College. One hundred and fifty men are now in 
the employ of this company. 

OLIVER CHILLED-PLOW WORKS. 

From an interview with James Oliver, the inventor of the 
chilled plow, as published in the Inter- Ocean, the following ex- 
tract is taken: 

" I was born on the 28th day of August, 1823, at the family 
homestead 'of Whitehaugh, Lidisdale Parish, Roxburgshire, Scot- 
land. While yet a mere boy my parents decided to try their for- 
tunes in the New World, and the year 1835 found us located in 
Seneca county, New York. I found employment with a neighbor- 
ing farmer, at the wages of fifty cents a week, and I remained with 
him until the fall of 1836. when the family came West, and I with 
them, and settled at Mishawaka. I soon found work as a chore 
boy for Mr. Philo Hurd, besides sawing wood for him and two 
other families, and earned that winter $15. In the summer of 
1838 I became an apprentice to Mr. A. Sandiland, who was build- 
ing Fox threshing-machines. From there 1 went to work in a 
blast foundry in Mishawaka, owned by the South Bend Iron Works 
of that day, and superintended by Mr. Richard Inwood, who is now 
a resident of this city. This company wound up its affairs in 1840, 
and now, at the age of 17, I was once more thrown upon my own 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 877 

resources. That fall I took a job of ditching to lay water pipes for 
a distillery, then building by the Lee Brothers, of Mishawaka, and 
I continued with them at $15 a mouth (boarding myself) until I 
could see a better opening, meantime learning the cooper's trade." 

But even here Mr. Oliver had to stop and pay a tribute to his 
wife, whom he alluded to as "the noble little woman who has sym- 
pathized with and cheered me in my troubles, and rejoiced with 
me in my successes. I can truly say, that choice was the crowning 
success of my life. All honor to my wife. After marrying, my 
own house being rented, I paid §12 to a fellow workman for a small 
shanty which he had built on the bank of the river on some land 
belonging to Eastern parties. I spent $18 in improvements. My 
wife borrowed a loom and made a rag-carpet for our new home. 
Although I have lived in better houses since then, I often look 
back to that time as the happiest of my life." 

Owing to the dullness of the coopering business, Mr. Oliver de- 
termined to learn the trade of a molder, and accordingly went to 
work for the St. Joseph Iron Company. In 1853 he was given a 
difficult contract for making cast chairs for the Michigan Central 
Road, and carried it through successfully. In 1855 he began the 
manufacture of plows on a small scale at South Bend. The success 
of this enterprise is better described in his own words : 

" We were now fairly launched in business and I had accom- 
plished a part of my long-cherished idea, yet very soon found out 
it was not all glory doing business for one's self. True, we did all ot 
our own work, but at the best, that was not much. Our casts ran 
but three heats a week, and only amounted to from 1,500 pounds 
to one ton. Our money was soon exhausted, and our surroundings 
not being of that inviting character to induce capitalists to invest, 
we were truly in a most unenviable state of affairs, when to crown 
all our misfortunes, a tremendous freshet swept the dam away and 
flooded the furnace." 

But he managed to weather this misfortune, and soon afterward 
bought a horse and wagon, that he might sell and deliver plows 
outside of South Bend. Of this Mr. Oliver said: " I found it up- 
hill work delivering all my plows and repairs personally; still I 
kept at it, and by dint of hard labor very soon had eighty agencies 
established within a radius of fifty miles. We worked hard, and 
did all in our power to make it pay, yet the cost of delivery and 
the commission paid to agents left our margin of profits very small 
indeed." 

But years rolled on, and the plow business increased, and during 
the whole of this time Mr. Oliver had never ceased thinking and 
studying over the one great object of his life — the production of a 
complete chilled plow, an implement to produce which fortunes 
had been unsuccessfully spent during the twenty-five years previous. 
In alluding to this period of his life, the inventor said: " Nothing 
daunted, I determined to solve the mystery. When I announced 
my determination people held up their hands in admonitory horror 



878 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and regarded me with feelings of astonishment not unmixed with 
contempt, which latter they were free to express. Plowmen who 
had spent 3'ears in experimenting and abandoned the project of a 
complete chilled plow as impossible, advised me not to under- 
take it. Those who had aided me with money and influence forsook 
me, and I was classed with the fools who pursue the fallacy of 
perpetual motion. Although feeling keenly the cuts of former 
friends, I determined to succeed. Day and night, for years, I 
thought of nothing else, and made everything bend to this one 
great object of my life. My first success was attained when I 
adopted the plan of using hot water in the chills which dried the 
moisture in the flasks and prevented " blow holes." My next was 
a method of ventilating the " chills " by grooves along the face of 
the mold, which allowed the escape of the gases that form within 
the flasks when melted iron is poured in, and thus permitted the 
liquid metal to come in direct contact with the face of the chill 
and all its surface, thus removing all the soft spots in the mold- 
boards and leaving the surface smooth and perfect. But my 
crowning success was the discovery of the annealing process, which 
deprived the metal of its brittleness. When I made that I could 
justly claim that for the first time a full, perfect and complete 
' chilled plow ' had been made." 

EXTENT OF THE GREAT FACTORY. 

The foundry as used at present is 500 feet in length by 160 feet 
in width. The new addition to the foundry, upon which the brick 
work was proceeding when we were there ten days ago, and which 
will be completed and occnpied within 30 days, is 500 feet long by 
60 feet wide. This will make the foundry 500 by 220 feet in size. 
They are now running daily three cupolas, with a melting capacity 
of 50 tons of iron. In 30 days another 20-ton cupola will be added, 
making a melting capacity of 70 tons daily. The help employed 
in the foundry is 150 molders. and 50 helpers and laborers. The 
total capacity for production daily is 500 plows completed, and 
4,000 points. 

The grinding room is 300 feet in length by 60 feet wide. Help 
employed here. 100 men. Grindstones running, S9. Capacity of 
this department is 500 plows and 4,000 points daily. The machine 
and forge shops are 200 by 60 feet, and employ 75 men. The dry 
grinding room is 200 by 60 feet, with 25 men. The polishing room 
is 200 by 50 feet, and employs 25 men. The wood shop is -200 by 
50 feet, and here 50 men are employed. The daily capacity of the 
wood-working shops are 500 plows. Bending room, 200 by 50 
feet, and same capacity daily. Paint room 300 by 60 feet, divided 
by brick fire walls into three sections of 100 feet each. Men 
employed here, 25. 

The warehouse and shipping depot is 1,200 feet long by 40 feet 
wide. Along these warehouses on either side are side tracks of the 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 879 

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad, and that ofthe North- 
western and Grand Trunk railroad, making splendid shipping 
facilities. The storage capacity here is 50,000 plows and halt' a 
million points. Here 20 men are constantly employed. The four 
beam sheds are each 480 by 30 feet, and each capable of holding 
125,000 plow beams. The engine room is 24 by 56 feet, and sup- 
plied with a Corliss engine, the finest in the West, of 700-horse 
power. Boiler room, 50 by 75 feet, furnished with the latest 
improved sectional boilers. 

The great factory has 1,794 feet of line shafting. There is one 
continuous section of shafting 467 feet in length, which is probably 
the longest in the West. There are 60 counter shafts, and 671 
bearings to be oiled daily. The immense establishment occupies 
5,314,600 square feet of ground. There are 520 operatives on the 
pay rolls, besides clerks, salesmen and other employees, — a total 
of 600 men. 

BIEDSELL MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 

In 1856, in the small town of West Henrietta, New York, J. C. 
Birdsell began the manufacture of a clover separator and thresher. 
Remaining at West Henrietta until 1864, the works were removed 
to South Bend, the cheaper freights and abundance of timber being 
the considerations, and in 1866 J. B., V. O. and B. A. Birdsell 
became co-partners under the style of J. J. C. Birdsell & Sons. In 
1870 the co-partnership was merged into a joint-stock concern, 
under the name of the Birdsell Manufacturing Company, with a 
capital of $50,000. In 1871 the capital was increased to $100,000, 
and in 1872 to $150,000. George V. Glover became connected with 
the company in 1873. The works are located at the corner of Divis- 
ion and Columbia streets, and were erected in 1872 at a cost of 
$118,000. The main building is 165 x 65 feet, five floors; the 
foundry is 40 x 60 feet, and blacksmith shop the same size, besides 
which there are offices, sheds, etc. 

SOUTH BEND GAS-LIGHT COMPANY. 

In January, 186S, a company was organized with a capital of 
$50,000, for the purpose of supplying the city with gas. The works 
were located on lots 105 and 106,"at the foot of Jefferson street, near 
the river. John A. Henricks, Thomas S. Stanfield, Clem Stude- 
baker, H. Baker and O. S. Witherell composed the first Board of 
Directors. T. G. Turner was elected Secretary and Treasurer. On 
the first day of December, 1868, the works were completed and the 
city was lit up with gas. The company started in with four miles 
of main, 81 consumers and 30 public lamps. This has been 
increased until now there are seven miles of main, with 371 con- 
sumers and 119 public lamps. The gas furnished is 16-candle 
power and made from the second pool Youghiogheny coal. An 



880 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

average of 28,000 feet of gas is consumed per day. The officers in 
1880 are C. Studebaker, President; J. M. Studebaker, Secretary 
and Treasurer; John Drew, Superintendent. 

OTHER MANUFACTORIES. 

Since the completion of the dam across the St. Joseph river, as 
well as the east and west race, various manufactories have been 
established, some of which have lived and nourished, while others, 
from some cause, have existed but a short time; but where one 
failed another has quickly taken its place, and notwithstanding the 
depression of the times from 1873 to 1870, the number and value 
of their products constantly increased. Fnrniture factories, iron 
foundries, bracket works, woolen mills, flouring mills, croquet 
works, paper mills, file works, and other manufacturing interests 
have sprung up until nearly every branch of industry is now repre- 
sented and 2,500 men find constant employment at remunerative 
wages. In 1865, when all manufactured articles were valued at 
double what they now bring, the sales of the manufacturers of the 
city reached $565,000. The products now annually made will reach 
$5,000,000. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

The first organized effort at protection from fire was in 1853. A 
small hand-engine was purchased and a company was organized as 
•'St. Joseph, No. 1," with E. P. Taylor, Foreman; John Caldwell, 
Assistant. This company had a very large membership; many who 
are now staid and dignified men were then proud to "run with the 
machine." Very soon after the organization of this company 
another was formed with Lot Day, Jr., as Foreman. In 1857 
another engine was purchased and " Union Hose Company, No. 3" 
was organized. These engines did duty until 1865 when a steam 
engine was purchased, which was given the name of " Young Hoo- 
sier." In 1873 the City Council organized a regular fire depart- 
ment and appointed Edward Nicar as Chief Engineer. Captain 
Nicar occupied the position of Chief for three years, when Joseph 
Turnock received the appointment from the council, and served 
one year. O. H. Brusie was his successor, and served three years, 
and was succeeded by A. B. Culver. The department at present is 
composed of the following companies: Delta Hose Company, No. 1, 
Eagle, No. 2, Union, No. 3, Young Hoosier, No. 4, Mazeppa, No. 
5, Stand-Pipe, No. 6, and Belief Hook and Ladder Company. 

The different hose companies have taken part in several tourna- 
ments, invariably being successful in taking and carrying off prizes. 

RELIGIOUS. 

When in January, 1831, Bev. N. B. Griffith came to South Bend 
there was not a church edifice here, nor even in the entire county. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 881 

A few Catholic priests had previously been here and a mission 
started in the neighborhood of Notre Darae, but no effort had 
been made to unfurl the banner of the cross in the town of South 
Bend. A class of earnest and devoted Methodist brethren was 
formed in April, 1831, and a few Protestants of other denominations 
united with them, and thus began an effort for the salvation of 
men in this community. As the county became settled, and the 
town increased in population, other religious bodies were formed, 
until to-day there are seventeen organizations represented in the 
city, nearly all of whom have commodious houses in which to meet 
for worship. 

FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

The first religious exercises held by the Methodist Episcopal 
denomination was on the evening of January 30, 1831. Early in 
April Rev. N. B. Griffith organized a class, consisting of Samuel 
Martin and wife, Benjamin Potter and wife, Benjamin Ross and 
wife, Rebecca Stull,and Simeon Mason, of which class Martin and 
Ross were appointed leaders. In June, 1S31, William Stanfield 
and wife came to South Bend and were added to the class by certifi- 
cate and Stanfield was soon afterward appointed leader. About 
the same time Samuel Newman and wife were also added by letter. 
In August, 1831, Dr. Jacob Ilardman, and a few months later 
Samuel Good were also added. The first report of this mission made 
to the Conference was in 1832, when it was reported as having 180 
members, few of whom resided in South Bend, the district being a 
large one. South Bend still remained as part of a circuit until 1814, 
and had as pastors during that time Revs. N. B. Griffith, R. S. Robin- 
son, George M. Beswick, Boyd Phelps, T. P. McCool, S. R. Ball, 
J. Wolf, James S. Harrison, David Stiver, William M. Foley, W. 
Griffith, Zachariah Gaines, William T. Huffman, E. Holstrick and 
S. B. F. Crane. In 1844 it was made a station, since which time 
there have served as pastor, Revs. John H. Bruce, John B. DeMott, 
Milton Mahon, John P. Jones, T. C. Hackney, Henry C. Benson, 
E. S. Preston, James Johnson, James C. Read, A. A. Gee, C. S. 
Burgner, William Wilson, Joseph C. Reed, G. Morgan, S. T. 
Cooper, Clark Skinner, C. A. Brooke, John Thrush, J. H. Swope, 
G. M. Boyd, H. A. Gobin, J. C. Stevens and S. P. Town. 

In 1835 a house of worship was erected, but being badly con- 
structed, was not accepted from the contractors. Previous to this 
time meetings were held in the old log school-house and in private 
houses. The second story of a house on the corner of Pearl and 
St. Joseph streets was now fitted up as a school room, and there the 
the Methodists held their meetings. On the 5th of March the 
trustees met and resolved to erect a frame church 35x45 feet, and 
14 feet ceiling. In June a lot was purchased, and on the 6th of 
July a contract for building and plastering was let. In February 
following it was discovered that the church was built on the wrong 



882 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

lot, which caused considerable trouble, but finally an exchange was 
effected and the building permitted to stand, and early in the fall 
of 1836 it was finished and occupied. 

In 1S50-'51 a brick church, 48x72 feet, was built on the corner 
of Main and Jefferson streets, and was dedicated by Dr. Berry and 
John L. Smith on the 17th of August, 1851, the basement having 
previously been occupied for several months. In 1869-'70 the 
church edifice was enlarged, remodeled and modernized. The 
basement was finished and occupied Dec. 25, 1869, and the main 
audience room some months afterward. 

CHRISTIAN. 

The Christian Church, of South Bend, was first organized in the 
summer of 184-1, four miles north of the city, with a member- 
ship of twelve. W. Mcllvaine was appointed elder, and meetings 
were held every Lord's Day, the Church enjoying occasionally preach- 
ing by John Martindale, Reuben Wilson and others. In the spring 
of 1851, through the efforts of Elder Mcllvaine, the old South Bend 
Seminary was obtained, and worship commenced with weekly meet- 
ings. Gideon Drapier was chosen elder, and E. A. Drapier and R. 
Wilson, deacons. The total membership now numbered 15. These few 
members, though meeting with many trials and difficulties, con- 
tinued to struggle for an existence, and by their untiring, industry 
and zeal succeeded in procuring the necessary means with which to 
purchase a lot on Main street, where they built a brick church edi- 
fice, which was formally opened in the spring of 1853, Elder John 
O'lvane, of Indianapolis, officiating. The Church now began to 
prosper, receiving frequent accessions to its membership. About the 
year 1854 several brethren from New Jersey united, among them 
Frederick J. Thomas, who was chosen elder, and labored during 
the fall and winter of 1855-'56. The church also enjoyed the min- 
istrations of W. J. Homer, under whose supervision a successful 
protracted meeting was held. Elders Thomas and Mcllvaine offi- 
ciated during the succeeding two years. J. Belton was called to the 
pastorate in 1S65, serving about three years. He was succeeded 
for a short period by H. N. Lord and W. B. Hendrix. In 1870, 
William P. Ailsworth was called and officiated one year, followed 
by J. Belton, who again assumed charge. J. Hurd next became 
the pastor. In the winter of 1877-'78 Rev. George W. Sweeney 
and Rev. J. H. Stover held a protracted meeting with this Church, 
resulting in 125 additions to its membership. Mr. Stover was at 
once called to the pastorate and assumed charge iu April, and has 
since continued to serve in an acceptable manner. Before the re- 
vival meeting was held the Church numbered but about 70. Its 
present membership is 340. The old church building was torn 
down and a new edifice erected at a cost of $3,500. The eldership 
is composed of A. N. Thomas, Nathaniel Frame, Robert Myler, 



' ■' H •>, 



i 






r.:; 





HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 885 

diaries Hartman. The deacons are Henry F. Clipfell, William D. 
Bulla, Abram Huston, David A. Ireland, James Savidge, Joseph F. 
Pearson and W. J. Masters. 

REFORMED. 

The Reformed Church of South Bend, connected with the General 
Synod of the Reformed Church in America, and organized in 1849 
by Rev. David McNiesh, and the brick church on the S. W. corner 
of Lafayette and Market streets, was erected that year. The 
Church continued under" the ministry of Revs. F. Beidler, C. A. 
Evans, W. T. Van Doren and G. H. Treke until 1861, when it 
ceased an active existence. 

It was re-organized March 31, 1870, by Rev. W.J. Skillman. A 
commodious frame chapel was built on the JN. W. corner of Lafay- 
ette and Sample streets, in 1873, in which a mission Sunday-school 
is held each Sabbath at 3 p. m. In the church building which has 
been remodeled and a lecture room added in 1880, preaching ser- 
vices are held each Sabbath morning and evening, and Sunday- 
school at 9 a. m., besides a week evening prayer service and a young 
people's meeting. The present pastor, Rev. ]ST. D. Williamson, 
took charge of the Church July, 1872. 

EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION. 

The first church edifice erected by this denomination in South 
Bend was in 1S54, and the second, in 1S71. Those who have labored 
here since the organization of the body are Rev. G. C. Platz, W. 
Kolb, C. Glaus, W. Ficht, A. B. Shaeffer, George Messner, H. 
Welty, C. Angenstein, S. Dickover, B. Uphaus, J. J. Esher, S. Wolf, 
F. Weithaup, Mr. Ragatz, J. Fisher, B. Rub, J. Keiper, W. W. 
Steffey. H. Strickler, P. Goetz, G. Eckhart, J. Fuchs, A. Nicolai, 
E. L. Kiplinger, C. Kohlmeyer, R. Reigel, M. Hoeher, M. Speck, 
W. Bockman, C. Ude, J. M. Gomer, E. Evans, P. Roth, C. Ade, 
J. Kaufman, G. A. Hartel, M. Krueger, C. Heim, B. Hoffman, J. 
Berger, S. Kiplinger, J. K. Troyer, D. S. Oakes. In September, 
1876, the Church decided to tear the old building down and erect a 
larger church edifice. A building was accordingly erected 42x68 
feet, with two towers in front. This was dedicated Dec. 10, 1876. 

MICHIGAN STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL. 

This charge was organized in 1S69, with 137 members and 16 
probationers, resulting from the missionary labors of Rev. T. C. 
Hackney. Rev. William R. Nickels was appointed pastor Sept. 
13, 1869, and served two years. During his ministration the church 
edifice and parsonage were built. Rev. Clark Skinner was the next 
appointed and served one year. Rev. John H. Cissell was appointed 
September, 1872, and served three years. Rev. J. L. Boyd was 
appointed to succeed Mr. Cissell. 

55 



886 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COCNTT. 

FIEST PRESBYTERIAN. 

This religious body is well represented and has a neat and com- 
modious house of worship on the corner of Washington and Lafay- 
ette streets, erected in I860, and dedicated April 3, of that year, 
Rev. T. H. Nixon preaching the sermon on that occasion. The 
audience room is 80x45 feet, and the entire length of the building 
95 feet. The height of the tower and spire is 145 feet. Rev. George 
T. Keller is the present pastor. 

OTHER RELIGIOUS BODIES. 

The Roman Catholics are represented by three churches — St. 
Joseph's, fourth ward, Rev. Father Yenniard, pastor; St. Patrick's, 
Division street, near Chapin, Rev. P. Lauth, pastor; St. Joseph's 
(Polish), Monroe street, near Chapin, Rev. V. Czyzewski, pastor. 
The African Methodist Episcopal, Monroe street, near Lafayette, 
Rev. J. W. Harper, pastor. Baptist, southeast corner Jefferson and 
Main streets, Rev. T. E. Egbert, pastor. Episcopal, Lafayette, near 
Jefferson, Rev. Walter Scott, Rector. German Methodist Episco- 
pal, Division street, near Lafayette, Rev. William Keller, pastor. 
Second Presbyterian, corner Market and St. Peter streets. Reformed 
Mission, corner Lafayette and Sample streets. St. Peter's Evan- 
gelical, corner Water and Michigan avenue, Rev. Philip Wagner, 
pastor. St. Paul's Lutheran, corner William and Jefferson streets, 
Rev. Henry Stock, pastor. 

MASONIC. 

The Masonic order is well represented here with three lodges, 
one chapter, and one commandery, together with an Eastern Star 
Lodge for ladies. 

St. Joseph Lodge. No. 45, was instituted by charter in 1842, 
having worked two years previous under dispensation. The lodge 
has always been in a nourishing condition, and meets the first Mon- 
day in each month, at its hall in Lincoln Block, 118 Michigan 
street. The present officers are John E. Kelley, W. M.; John W. 
Harbou, S. W. ; John McBain, J. W.; Jasper E. Lewis, Sec; Ed. 
Nicar, Treas. ; John M. Smith, S. D.; Frank Stimson, J. D.; Geo. 
H. Alward, Tyler. 

South Bend Lodge, No. 294, was instituted in 1863. It has 
regular meetings the first Friday in each month. Its present offi- 
cers are Herbert S. Fassett, W. M.; Henry C. Knill, S. W.; Lewis 
T. Van Nest, J. W.; C. Sanders, Sec; J. A. Barnhart, Treas.; O. 
II. Palmer, S. D. ; Charles J.Smith, J. D. ; George Macomber, 
Tyler. 

Germanm Lodge, No. 301, was instituted in 1S62, and conducts 
the services in the German language. It has its regular meetings 
the first Thursday in each month. The present officers are John 
Klingel, W. M.; C. Iverson, S. W.; John Steffens, J. W. ; William 
Stacker, Sec; John Kleindinst. Treasurer. 



HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S87 

South Bend Chapter, No. 29, was instituted in 1855, and holds 
regular meetings the second Monday in each month. Its present 
officers are Elmer Crockett, H. P. ; Chauncey N. Lawton, K. ; 
James E. Mills, S.; George H. Alward, Treas.; C. Sanders, Sec. ; 
Herbert S. Fassett, C. of H.; W H. Saunders, P. S. 

South Bend Commandery, No. 13, was instituted in 1866. It 
has regular meetings in their Asylum, at Masonic Hall, the first 
Tuesday in each month. Its officers are W. A. Foote, E. 0. ; Edwin 
Nicar, Gen. ; C. G. Conn, Capt. Gen.; J. H. Nevius, Prelate; Sam- 
uel T. Applegate, Treas.; James E. Mills, Recorder; William S. 
Saunders, S. W.; Henry Speth, J. W.; John Graveson, Sd. B.; F. 
M. Jackson, Sw. B.; A. N. Knapp, W. ; George Macomber, Senti- 
nel. 

Eastern Star Lodge, No. 2, was instituted in 1871, and has reg- 
ular meetings on the fourth Wednesday in each month. Its present 
officers are J. H. Nevius, W. P.; Mrs. C. N. Lawton, W. M.; Mrs. 
C. H. Underwood, A. M.; Mrs. Helen Macomber, Sec. 

ODD FELLOWS. 

Two lodges and one encampment are represented by this order 
in South Bend. 

South Bend Lodge, No. 29, was the first lodge of the order 
instituted here, its charter dating back to 1846. It now holds 
regular meetings in Odd Fellows Hall, every Wednesday evening. 
Its officers for the present term are George Ford, N. G. ; Jesse W. 
Jennings, Jr., V. G. ; Elias W. Hoover, Treas.; F. G. Brown, Eec. 
Sec; D. A Newton, P. S. 

Robert Blum Lodge, No. 278, was instituted in 1867, and has 
regular meetings every Thursday evening at 112 Michigan street. 
Its present officers are John Enpp, N. G.; Gnstav Ronaski, V. G. ; 
Godfrey Poehlman, Treas.; Chris Neidman, R. S.; John Haslen- 
ger, P/S. 

South Bend Encampment, No. 9, was instituted in 1867. It 
holds its regular meetings the first and third Friday evenings of 
each month, at its hall, 74 Washington street. Its present officers 
areD. A. Newton, C. P.; Daniel Dayton, H. P.; Alfred Hall, 
Scribe; C. W. Martin, Treas.; Charles Kimball, S. W.; G. W. 
Sumption, J. W. 

The order owns a large and fine hall, underneath which are two 
store rooms and a number of offices, which yield a good revenue. 

KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS. 

Crusade Lodge, No. 14, is the only representative of this order, 
and lipids its regular meeting every Tuesday evening in Homer 
Block. Its present officers are L. A. Hull, P. C. ; John Steele, C. 
C; James L. Mack, V. C; J. C. Neville, P.; J. N. Carver, M. at 



888 HISTORY OF ST. JOSErH COUNTY. 

A.; R.Freund, K of R. and S.; W. H. Longley, M. of E.; E. B. 
Morey, M. of F.; Martin Ranbuhler, I. G.; John Pool, O. G. 

GOOD TEMPLARS. 

The Independent Order of Good Templars is represented by 
Guiding Star Lodge, No. 371, which was chartered in 1S66. Its 
officers are H. A. Weston, W. C. T.; Mrs. Eliza Hain, W. V. T.; 
A. K Weston. W. R. S.; Fred White, W. F. S.; George Frink, 
Treas. ; Eddie Spencer, "W. M.; Mrs. Emma Quick, W. I. G.; Lewis 
"Webster, W. 0. G. 

GERMAN SOCIETIES. 

South Bend Turn- Ver'ein meets at Turner Hall the first and third 
Tuesdays in each month. George Rockstroh, Pres.; George K. 
Meyer, Yice-Pres.; Jacob P. Futter, Sec. 

South Bend Maennerchor meet in their hall near the corner of 
Water and Sycamore streets, east side, the first Monday in each 
month. Henry Schaal, Pres.; "William Schermann, Vice-Pres. ; 
Robert Seifert, Sec. 

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 

This body meet at hall corner Washington and Michigan streets. 
Its present officers are Edwin Nicar, Post Com.; John Worley, Sr., 
V. C; William Dodd, V. C; Herman Culver, Chap.; George W. 
Longhman, "W. E. Gorsuch, Q. M.; Dr. Daniel Dayton, Surgeon; 
A. T. Putnam, Officer of the Day ; John Steele, Officer of the Guard; 
John J. Mayer, St. Major; Joseph Turnock, Q. M. Sergeant. 

PLEIADES CLUB. 

This club was organized in 1867 with seven members: hence its 
name. The membership was afterward largely increased, some of 
the most talented young gentlemen and ladies in the city becom- 
ing identified with it. The society was social in its nature, meeting 
at the private residences of one of their number and passing the 
time in social conversation, reading essays, and in music, both 
vocal and instrumental, declamations, recitations and orations. 
Sometime during the holidays of each year an entertainment was 
given, to which special invitations were extended to those they 
were desirous of having present. As an illustration the following 
programme of their annual entertainment is given: 

Opening Chorus Club 

Address J. R. Foster 

Tableau, — "Statuary." Club 

Duet, — (Flute and Piano,) " Potpourri " from Norma.. . .T. M. Hill, Flo. Turner 

Song, — " Sweet Molly Matilda Jane," May Turner 

Tableau, — "King James' Submission to Richard I," Club 

Duett— (Vocal,) " Larboard Watch," T. M. Hill, H. G. Van Tuyl 

Duett, — (Instrumental,) " Warblings at Eve,". . . .Minnie Dayton, Addie Hartman 

Club Paper,— " Constellation," H. G. Van Tuyl 

Duett,— (Flute and Piano,) " Sounds from Home," T. M. Hill, Flo. Turner 

Song, — "We'll have to Mortgage the Farm,"- Club 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 889 

ACTING CHARADE, — " STAGE STRUCK." 

Fred Maywood E. Blodgett 

Mr. Maywood W. A. Bugbee 

Mrs. Cowslip Flo. Turner. 

Cora Neville May Turner 

Quartette— (Vocal,) " Hail us ye Free," T. M. Hill, H. G. VanTuyl, Flo. 

Turner, May Turner. 

women's literary club. 

This club was organized in 1874, composed of ladies entirely, 
and devoted to the systematic study of art, literature, science and 
history. It has now about 20 members and is in a nourishing con- 
dition, meeting weekly. The ladies own a choice library, which is 
soon to be thrown open to the general public. The club is exert- 
ing a great influence upon society and awakening a strong interest 
in»the general and generous culture of the mind. 

HOTELS. 

The first hotel opened in South Bend was that kept by Peter 
Johnson in 1831. Others were soon after opened, and the place 
has never lacked accommodations for the traveling public. At 
present there are three hotels that are first-class in their appoint- 
ments, depending upon the traveling public for their support. 
These are the Oliver House, situated on the corner of Main and 
Washington streets, and under the management of Knight Brothers. 
This hotel was opened in 1879. The Grand Central, situated on 
Michigan street, Frank Knill, proprietor. The St. James, near the 
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railroad depot. Besides these 
are the Knntsman House, Dwight House, South Bend House and 
Union House, all of which are patronized more by regular boarders 
than the traveling public. 

PUBLIC HALLS. 

South Bend has two" 1 large public halls suitable for concerts, 
theatrical performances and other purposes: Good's Opera House, 
Washington street, opposite the Court House; and Price's Theatre, 
Michigan street. 

DECORATION DAY. 

Annually, on the 30th day of May, are honors paid by the living 
to the noble dead. On this day the widow and the orphan, the 
surviving comrades, citizens and friends, all gather together and 
with loving hands strew the graves of the lost ones with beautiful 
flowers. As illustrating how the day is observed in South Bend, 
and elsewhere in St. Joseph county, the following account of the 
services of May 30, 1879, is given — the one day being typical of 
each annual recurrence of the day since the close of the war. Says 
the South Bend Tribune : 



890 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

"There could be no more appropriate time in all the year for 
strewing the graves of our fallen heroes with emblems of love and 
affection than this, when spring, stepping down the corridors of the 
seasons, with generous hands adds her rare blossoms to the bounteous 
wealth of summer's bloom. There is a time of year when we can 
find richer flowers, but this is the season of the simple wild flowers 
and of the border beauties of the garden, and they, after all, better 
represent the simplicity and hardihood of the soldier's life, than 
the luxurious mid-summer roses. 

" Yesterday, too, was as beautiful, blue-skyed, spring-tide a day as 
could have been wished. There was no lowering weather to inter- 
fere with the outward ceremony of the occasion. It was a day to 
bring thousands to see how the dead soldier is honored by his 
country and thereby emulate the youth of our land to those deeds 
of patriotism which make men true citizens of a republic. # 

" This day's ceremonies, originated so many years ago by that 
bluff, rough-riding soldier, General Logan, has taught us all, we 
believe, to give more thought to our dead. A glance through our 
own cemetery yesterday showed that loving hands had been busy 
all day placing floral offerings on the graves of children, husbands, 
wives, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. There was not a 
grave whose inmate had a living friend or relative in our midst, 
but that friend had left some floral tokens on the grassy mound 
above. All honor to the day. 

"its observance 

in South Bend was all that the most ardent lover of a soldier's 
memory could wish. Business was generally suspended during the 
afternoon, and several of the factories closed the entire day. Flags 
floated, not only from most of the manufacturing establishments, 
but from many business houses and private residences. By every 
outward act was shown the inner desire to make the day what it 
was designed to be — a day sacred to the soldier dead. 

" THE PREPARATIONS. 

" Unusual care was taken this year for a proper observance of the 
day, by the following committees: Executive — George Pfleger, 
Edwin JNi'car, Wilbur Gorsuch; Finance — J. P. Creed, John W". 
Harbou; Music — A. B. Clifford; Speaker, etc. — A. N. Thomas, J. 
P. Creed, G. W. Loughman ; Decorations, etc. — J. M. Pierce, Her- 
man Culver, M. G. Huey; Marking graves — Wilbur Gorsuch, 
Hanford Roberts; Invitation — L. J. Ham, John G. Greenawalt, J. 
R. Gerhart; Flowers— G. B. Liebig, D. W. Gillen, K J. Bern- 
hard. These committees made the most complete arrangements 
and prepared a programme which was faithfully carried out. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSErH COUNTY. 891 

"THE ASSEMBLY. 

" Early in the forenoon people flocked into the city from every 
part of the county to witness or to participate in the ceremonies. 
Shortly after the noon hour crowds began to gather at the court- 
house square, the front at which the procession was to form and 
march to the cemetery. By three o'clock the square was one mass 
of humanity, and in the streets about it were such throngs of vehi- 
cles as to fairly blockade the passages. At this hour the different 
organizations which were to march in procession began to file along 
the streets from their respective places of rendezvous and into the 
court-house square. They consisted of Auten Post of the G. A. R., 
the South Bend Encampment, the Knights of Pythias, of Misha- 
waka, the Knights of Pythias, of South Bend, and six hose com- 
panies of the Fire Department, the Belief Truck Company, the 
City Officials, the Polish Sunday-school, the South Bend Cornet 
Band, the Mechanics' Cornet Band, musical chorus, etc. 

"the procession. 

"Promptly at 3:30 o'clock the organization, marshaled by Capt. 
Joe Turnock, officer of the day, and his aids, Major O. S. Witherill 
and Lieut. J. G. Greenawalt, formed on Washington street in the 
following order: 

"Platoon of Police; South Bend Cornet Band; Officer of the 
day and Aids; Auten Post, No. 17, G. A. R. and other honorably 
discharged soldiers and sailors; Speaker and Chaplain; Memorial 
Day Chorus; Polish Sunday-school; Mayor, Council and other City 
Officers; South Bend Fire Department; Mechanics' Cornet Band; 
South Bend Encampment, No. 9, I. O. O. F.; South Bend Lodge, 
No. 29, 1. O. 0. F. ;' Mishawaka Lodge, K. P. ; Crusade Lodge, No. 
14. K. P.; Citizens in Carriages. 

" The procession was the largest ever seen at any Decoration day 
ceremonies in this city, and as it passed up the center of Washington 
street presented a magnificent appearance. On each side the walks 
were lined its entire length with pedestrians, and the yards were 
filled with enthusiastic spectators. 

" At the close of Mr. George's address a chorus, the words of 
which were written for this occasion by Judge T. G. Turner, of this 
city, were sung to the old and well-known melody of the ' Sweet 
By-and-by.' The piece was well rendered and the effect was grand. 
We also give Judge Turner's words entire: 

Let us shout a loud anthem to-day, __ 

Let us sing a sweet song for our braves ; 
To the heroes who sleep let us lay 

Love's tribute on grass-covered graves. 

On the scroll of immortals each name 

Is engraved in those lines which ne'er fade; 

In the sanctified temple of fame 
Let our tribute to glory be paid. 



892 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

With each lisp of the glad freeman's tongue, 
With each throb of the bold freeman's brain, 

Let grateful, sweet poeans be sung, 
While nature joins in the refrain. 

While we're borne toward the goal by time's tread, 
How we sigh for that immortal rest! 

Where we'll meet ye, O glorified dead, 
In the home of the brave and the blest. 



In the sweet by-and-by, 

We shall meet our clear loved ones again ; 
In the sweet by-and-by, 

In a world without sorrow or pain. 

ROSTER OF THE DEAD. 

"At the conclusion of the'number by the cornet band, the ros- 
ter of the dead was called by J. R. Gerhart. It includes those 
buried in our cemetery who fought in the Revolutionary war, the 
war of 1812, the Blackhawk war, the Mexican war, and the war of 
the rebellion. The list is as follows: 

" 1776.— Isaac Ross and Peter Roof, Sr. 

" 1812.— Thomas J. Allen, Archibald Defrees, Christopher W. 
Emrick, Daniel Heck, Peter Johnson, John Meredith, John Mack, 
Peter Roof, Jr., Ransom Curtis. 

- L847.— W. S. Saunders, H. J. Blowney, John H. Fisher. 

"1861. — John Auten, Xelson C. Baker, LewisTJarr, George W. 
Bucher, Charles L. Barnhard, IT. J. Blowney, Henry Brown, John 
Becraft, Henry Bulla, Benjamin Coonley, James K. B. Custer, 
Stephen Davenport, George Dodd, George Embick, James Ellis, 
Norman Eddy, Owen M. Eddy, M. G. Ebberson, William Eaker, 
Irvin B. Eaker. William Fowler, John II. Fisher, Henry Fisher^ 
A. B. Goodrich, F. A. Harrington, George W. Hart, S. Iliggin- 
botham, Noble M. Howard, Frank A. Hardman, William Huey, 
Charles Hadley, Israel Hogue, D. F. Jaquith, Henry Johnson, 
Joseph Keasey, Henry M. Kuney, IT. Z. Knapp, James Kimball, 

A. F. Lee, H. J. Lengle, Jefferson Laughlin, C. C. Lewis, Alexan- 
der McCannon, John McGill, B. F. Morell, James C. Martin, Wm. 
Nunnelley, Ruel Newton, Victor Ochie, John M. Owens, C. W. 
Price, Ira R. Payne, Alexander Peak, Lewis C. Peterman, Thomas 

B. Roberts, Wm. M. Rogers. Daniel C. Schenck, Frank A. Stover, 
Robert Sample, James Thompson, Ami How Tarbell, M. Van Horn, 
Henry Woolman, Daniel Whiteman, Charles Walterhouse, Aaron 
Walterhouse, Robert Wade, Alfred B. Wade. Mark Whiuery. 

" HON. W. G. GEORGE, 

the speaker of the day, followed with an oration, which we sub- 
stantially give below: 

" In New England a day was selected for placing floral decorations 
upon soldiers' graves prior to the time when Congress proclaimed 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 898 

it the first of the Dies Festi. of the new-born republic. In New- 
England, too, grew from the observance of local custom to be for- 
mally acknowledged law, the institution of Thanksgiving day, and 
the day we again now celebrate obtained its merited respect, re- 
ceived its hearty recognition, and assumed its national character 
before lingering legislation records it upon the nation's calendar 
as a daj 7 sacred to national gratitude. 

" But legislation can give no authority to, or obtain the observ- 
ance of, these festal days unless sustained by the popular heart that 
gave them birth. If that heart responds not to the peals of the bells 
— ' proclaiming liberty throughout all the land, and to all the in- 
habitants thereof,' Independence day will live only in history. If 
that heart is ungrateful for the gathered harvest, for labor rewarded 
and peace and plenty assured. Thanksgiving day will be but a sea- 
son of gloom. And if it be not rejoiced at the restoration of peace 
and the sight of a re-united country, and throbs with no sympathy 
with loyal sacrifices and heroic achievements, the hand prompted 
by its feeble and frigid pulsation will strew but withered flowers 
and noxious weeds upon a patriot soldier's unhonored grave. But 
this heart is not callous and unfeeling; it still beats with fervor and 
with health, inspired by the glorious deeds of the past and their 
ever present results. 

" Upon this day it again prompts us to bring the annual votive 
flowers of spring's perfected glories — to rehearse the lessons of the 
past, and to do honor to ourselves by the remembrance of our brave 
dead. Again we enter with reverent tread the portals of the ceme- 
tery, with muffled music, furled flags, bearing floral tributes to our 
silent dead. Again as comrades we greet them; again in softened 
tones of endearment the mother calls her son, the wife her husband. 
We call for them the roll, but they respond not. They answer not 
in cheery tones that greeted the reveille when they arose from the 
frozen earth of the bivouac — in the wild huzzas that met the first 
opening of the battle — in the grateful cheers that betokened a hard- 
fought fight — the enemy's retreat and saluted a victory-crowned 
banner — in the moan of ebbing life on the hospital couch or in the 
prison den. No audible sound is heard. Their silence is indeed 
golden and eternal. 

"Yet touched by Memory's transforming and life-giving wand, 
the palsied tongue and pallid lips become reanimate, and to loving 
hearts and waiting ears they speak: Thus touched they utter no 
uncertain sentiments; to our questioning they reply with no doubt- 
ful lessons. They appeal to our memories, our hearts and our 
consciences with words of tenderness, of reverent rejoicing and 
with precepts of duty. They speak of the past. They speak of the 
enthusiasm that thrilled them when the tocsin of war was sounded; 
their eagerness for the fray in support of freedom's flag; of the sad 
parting with mother, wife and child; of the hurried rendezvous; 
the fond anticipation of a short, sharp, decisive struggle; of the 
speedy restoration of peace, and the early vindication of the majesty 



894 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

of the law. They speak, too, of the surprise of the nation at the too 
late discovery of the vast and secret preparations for its destruc- 
tion; the dispersion of the navy, the demoralization of the army, 
the depletion of the treasury, and the far-spread infection of 
treasonable designs. They rehearse the lagging campaign, the 
bickerings of commanders, and the lukewarmness of pretended 
patriotism. They tell of early reverses, sad disappointments, and 
gloomy forebodings for the future; of sickness in camp and hospital; 
of drooping hopes, of waiting ears for news from the battle held, of 
fearful suspense, of midnight march, of deadly ambuscade, of labor 
in the trenches, and dreary and enforced idleness in camp; of escapes, 
of wounds, of imprisonment in foul dens, of the dead line and of 
death — of all the horrors of fratricidal war. But they speak, too, 
of privations willingly endured, dangers voluntarily incurred, cease- 
less labor gladly undergone, risks daringly and gallantly assumed, 
and death most chivalrously encountered; of woman's Spartan 
bravery and heroic sacrifices, of dashing assaults, of well-contested 
fields, of the enemy's retreat, and of countless victories on land and 
sea. They speak of disaster, but also of success; of doubt, and yet 
of undying hope; of transient defeat, but still of final and complete 
victory. 

"While thus speaking of the past must we not also hear from 
them the precepts of duty their lives and glorious death prescribe 
and enforce? 

" They died that the republic might live, — not the death of the 
hireling or mercenary, but that of the patriotic citizen soldier; and 
the chief lesson taught by their self-devotion, is the duty of patriot- 
ism. Of this duty, so well exemplified in the lives and deeds of 
our cherished comrades, let me briefly speak. Patriotism is not a 
bare sentiment, nor simply a noble passion. It is not mere attach- 
ment to the place of birth, nor pride of country alone. It compre- 
hends all these and more. It is not an affection existing in all, it 
exerts not an ecpaal force over all, n6r is it not subject to cultiva- 
tion by education, nor to increase of power by exercise and habit. 
It is a duty, based upon moral and natural obligations, fostered by 
education, and superior to the calls of all other limited and particu- 
lar affections. It should direct and limit the more confined and 
partial actions of personal and private affections within their proper 
and natural bounds, and never permit them to encroach on those 
sacred and first regards we owe to the great public to which we 
belong. Wherever true patriotism prevails in its genuine vigor 
and extent, it swallows up all sordid and selfish regards, it con- 
quers the love of ease, power, pleasure and wealth; and when the 
partialities of friendship, gratitude, or even of family ties, come in 
competition with it, it prompts us to sacrifice all, in order to main- 
tain the rights and promote and defend the honor and happiness of- 
our country. 

11 To pursue private interests in subordination to the good of our 
country, to be examples in it of virtue and obedience to the laws, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 895 

to promote such laws as may improve and perfect it, readily em- 
bracing every opportunity for advancing its prosperity, cheerfully 
to contribute to its defense and support, and if need be, to die for 
it, — these are the duties which the patriot gladly renders his 
country. 

" Patriotism is not spasmodic in its action, blazing forth only as 
in a comet's erratic course, in times of public trials or danger, upon 
great occasions and upon great incentive, but it is a rule of con- 
duct, constant, equable, incorruptible and enduring. Wealth can- 
not bribe. Power cannot seduce it. Ambition cannot blind it. 
Friendship cannot sway it from justice. Fear cannot intimidate it, 
injustice cause it to swerve, nor luxury corrupt and enervate it. 

" Patriotism is not mere attachment to a particular spot of earth, 
or home, or place of nativity; but it imports an affection for that 
moral system or community, governed by the same laws and insti- 
tutions, and whose several parts are united upon the basis of a 
common interest. 

" Patriotism seeks to be effective to the interests of the State, 
vindicate its rights, redress its wrongs and secure its prosperity. 
To accomplish these results it must be educated, fearless and self- 
sacrificing. It must be educated, for from the moral and intellect- 
ual, and not the mere brutal, elements of its constituents, proceed 
the assured strength and centered glory of the State. Education, 
by and for the State, is a necessity of its well being, a requisite for 
its preservation, and the only safety of the republic. Plutarch pre- 
serves the reply of the Lacedemonian to the inquiry, ' what he 
knew how to do,' in these words: 'I know how to be free,' and 
apt was the reply, for 

— Men who their duties know, 

But know their rights and knowing 
Dare maintain ****** 
These constitute the state. 

" Education being necessary it must be furnished to all who are, 
or may become, citizens, by the State, and it must be directed by 
the State for the purposes and in the interests of the State. The 
citizen must be taught to be robust and to develop his physical 
powers so tSiat in peace, the industries of the country being thereby 
increased, prosperity may abound, and so that in war, prepared for 
its fatigues, inured to its difficulties, and accustomed to its weapons, 
he may become a bulwark and defense to the commonwealth. He 
must be taught the science of government, that in peace he may 
assist in the management of the State, intelligently choose such 
officers as may be the best and most capable friends to its constitu- 
tion and liberties, and conduct such offices as he may be called 
upon to fill, with credit to himself and advantage to the country. 
He must be educated in the principles of justice, in observing the 
laws, in equalizing the burdens of the citizens, in the giving of re- 
wards to the meritorious and the meting out of punishment to the 



896 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

criminal. He must be taught that no man can be a good citizen 
unless he be just; that dignities should be conferred not through 
favor or partiality; that punishment should be awarded without 
fear and without mistaken clemency. He should remember ' that 
to show mercy when punishment ought to be inflicted, is not mercy, 
but infirmity.' He will discriminate between loyalty and treason. 
To his just mind treason will ever be odious; nor can he be influ- 
enced by a sickly sentimentality to strew flowers with equal hand 
over the graves of the fallen traitor and the murdered patriot. 

"As all citizens must bear the burdens of the State, and are 
entitled, when deserving, to its highest honors, it is the reciprocal 
duty of the State to' furnish this education to all. As from the low- 
liest hamlets have often arisen the great leaders of the people, the 
saviors of liberty, and the martyrs of freedom, so it is the interest 
of the State that to the humble and the poor as well as to the lofty 
and rich these privileges be freely furnished by it. 

'' So, too, must this education be for the State. In molding the 
character of the child reference must be had to his future adapta- 
bility as a citizen. Of him political duties will be required in 
peace and perhaps in war. In these he must be instructed for the 
advantage and benefit of the State. As the nation is the protect- 
ing genius of the individual, the family and the lesser communi- 
ties, so it is the duty of the citizen to yield the most implicit obe- 
dience to its commands. It would be suicide to permit the doctrine 
of a divided or superior allegiance to be taught in the schools or 
upon the soil of a republic. The will of the people is the supreme 
law; the liberty of each citizen the chief aim of a free nation, and 
to sustain these there must be banished from the mind of the indi- 
vidual the intolerable political heresy of a higher or more potent 
power than the authority of the nation, whether such superiority 
be claimed for a domestic State or a foreign principality. 

" But education without bravery would be useless to the State. 
The citizen must be fearless. In peace, frankly and freely declare 
his views of public affairs, from pulpit, press, or forum, and at the 
ballot box. Neither the blandishments of superior social position, 
the allurements of ambition, the suggestions of selfish policy, the 
threats of the powerful, or the fear of personal loss, should render 
his ballot venal, or his tongue restrained from the utterance of the 
truth. He who would be thus influenced is a coward, and he who 
would by fraud or violence seek at the polls to override the will of 
the people is as great a traitor as he who seeks to subvert it by an 
appeal to arms. In war, neither the fatigue of the march, the hor- 
rors of the dungeon, nor the fear of death should deter the brave 
citizen from obeying his conntry's call to arms in a just cause. 

To fight 
In a just cause and in our country's glory 
Is the best office of the best of men ; 
And to decline when these motives urge ' 
Is infamy beneath a coward's baseness. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 897 

He should be brave, not with mere, reckless, brutal daring, throw- 
ing his life away when public good is not certain to result from 
certain death, but with that sustained, heroic courage which 
launches him into extremest dangers when certain death is likely 
to serve his country." 

RAILROAD BUSINESS. LAKE SHORE & MICHIGAN 

SOUTHERN RAILWAY. 

Tonnage received for 1879, lbs 119,340,923 

" forwarded for 1879, lbs 56,745,438 

Total for 1879, lbs 176,080,360 

Total for 1878, lbs 136,740,310 

Increase over 1878, lbs 39,346,050 

Increase over 1877, lbs 57,415,481 

MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD. 

Tonnage received for 1879, lbs 36,434,362 

" forwarded for 1879, lbs 14,720,006 

Total for 1879, lbs 51,154,368 

Total for 1878, lbs 24,392,836 

Increase over 1878, lbs 26,761,532 

Increase over 1877, lbs. 30,446,368 

NORTHWESTERN GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY. 

Tonnage received-for 1879, lbs 23,983,247 

" forwarded for 1879, lbs 9,262,183 

Total for 1879, lbs 33,255,430 

Total for 1878, lbs 34,941,480 

Decrease for 1879, lbs 1,696,050 

Increase over 1877, lbs , 1,511,204 



RECAPITULATION. 

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, lbs 176,086,360 

Michigan Central, lbs 51,154,368 

N. W. Grand Trunk, lbs 33,245,430 

Total for 1879, lbs 260,400,158 

Total for 1878, lbs 196,074,626 

Total increase over 1878, lbs 64,411,532 

Total increase over 1877, lbs 89,373,053 

The increase for 1879 over the previous year exceeds the total ton- 
nage for 1879 just 10,243,765 pounds, or over 5,000 tons! 



898 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTT. 

In another form the aggregate tonnage for 1S79 may be expressed 
in round numbers, as follows: 

Received, tons 89,870 

Forwarded, tons 40,364 

Total, tons 130,243 

To transport this enormous amount of freight would require 
13,024 cars loaded to their full capacity of ten tons each, 8,804 of 
which would be used by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 
alone. The number of cars, fully loaded, used by the Studebaker 
Bros. Manufacturing Company alone was over 2,000. 

The amount collected for freight in 1879, including advance 
charges, was as follows: 

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway $143,526 09 

Michigan Central 41,455 22 

N. W.'Grand Trunk .' ... 32,185 22 

Total $217,167 33 

The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern received for passenger 
tickets here, for the year 1879, $54,225.25. 

The Michigan Central received on same account $6,138.S7, an 
increase of $314.39 over the preceding year. 

The Northwestern Grand Trunk sold 3,633 tickets, for which the 
sum of $4,855.66 was received. 

The aggregates for the year are: 

Collected for freights $217,167 33 

Collected for fares 65,210 78 

Total collected $282,387 11 

The following table shows the amount of freight, in pounds, 
received and forwarded for each of the last ten years, and the total 
for the decade: 



Tear. Amount in Lbs. 

1870 68,376,326 

1871 86,808,053 

1872 135,032,536 

1873 153,058,448 

1874 144,801,343 



)'"</•. Amount in IJ>s. 

1875 160,263,764 

1876 151,101,009 

1877 171,113,105 

1878 106,074,626 

1879 260,486,158 



Total 1,527,206,868 

Reduced to tons, the figures are 763,603; to carry which would 
require 76,360 cars loaded with ten tons each! 

SOUTH BEND OF TO-DAY. 

Should Alexis Coquillard from the unseen world be permitted to 
look down on South Bend to-day, what a change would he observe! 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. S99 

When he recalls the year 1824, with not a white man in what is 
now one of the most populous portions of the State, save himself, 
surrounded by the red men of the forest who brought their furs to 
be exchanged for blankets or some gaudy trinkets pleasing to the 
uncultivated mind, and now witnesses the smoke ascending from a 
half hundred factories, and hears the hum of the machinery, what 
thoughts must pass through his mind! The beautiful St. Joseph 
river, with water clear as crystal, is now employed iu turning the 
wheels that put in operation scores of manufactories that furnish 
employment to thousands of men. Where once stood a forest is 
now covered with residences of man, from the humble tenement to 
the palatial brick or stone. The Indian trading post has given way 
to the palace stores, where are gathered from all quarters of the 
civilized and uncivilized world, that which pleases the eye, excites 
the appetite, or affords comfort to the body. No more do the peo- 
ple gather in the old log school-house, or in some beautiful grove, 
"singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord." To- 
day they gather in beautiful temples, adorned by the hand of man, 
and where it can almost be said that upon " fiowery beds of ease " 
they are " carried to the skies." The old lug school-house, where 
children were taught only the rudiments of the English language, 
has been displaced by buildings which are an honor and credit to 
the place, and which are furnished with every modern appliance for 
a practical education. The old stage-coach, the coming of which 
was anxiously watched with the hope that it would bring news from 
home, is known no more, but in its place the iron horse comes 
' bounding in, tarries but a moment, and is off like the wind. An 
average of fifty trains of cars daily are brought in or pass through 
the city, instead of the tri-weekly coach of a third of a century ago. 
With its large manufactories, its elegant churches, beautiful resi- 
dences, fine hotels, good schools, and every comfort which taste and 
money can procure, South Bend is indeed a model city. 

BIOGRAPHICAL. 

We continue the history of Portage township and the city of 
South Bend by giving biographical sketches of many of the most 
prominent pioneers and citizens, as follows: 

George Alward is a native of the "Empire State," and was born 
Feb. 24, 1S34. He is the son of Squire and Abigail Alward; his 
father was a native of New York, and his mother of New Jersey. 
They were of English descent. Mr. Alward is a self-made man. 
He staid at home and worked on the farm in the summer time and 
attended school in the winter, until 18 years of age. He then 
taught school during the winter months, and in the spring and 
summer attended the high school, going home during vacations and 
assisted in carrying on the farm. He settled in this city in 1855, 
and engaged as clerk in a dry-goods store, where he remained a 
number of years, and was afterward Deputy Recorder and Deputy 



900 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Auditor, and City Clerk from 1861 to 1867, and was elected City 
Judge in 1868, which position he held nntil 1870, at which time 
that office was abolished, its duties being performed by the Mayor. 

In 1S66 he commenced the study of law and was admitted to 
practice in the courts of this State in 1867. He immediately 
engaged in the active practice of his profession. Mr. Alward is 
an ardent Republican. He is a prominent member of the Masouic 
fraternity and has held the highest offices of the different branches 
of the order in this city. He was married in Michigan to Martha 
F. Hodgkinson, daughter of James S. and Margaret Hodgkinson. 
She was born in New York in 1836. They have 4 children, George 
A., James S., Henry B. and Albert F. Mr. Alward and wife are 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in this city. 

Andrew Anderson was born in Whitehall, Washington county, 
N. Y., on Oct. 6, 1830. He is the son of Andrew and Lucinda 
(Goodrich) Anderson; father a native of Scotland, and mother of 
Massachusetts. He received a classical education at Union College, 
in New York State. He commenced the study of law in 1854 and 
graduated at the Albany Law School in 1855, and was admitted to 
the New York Bar in 1S55. He migrated to this State in 1S56 
and settled in South Bend, where he has since resided and con- 
tinued the practice of law. In 1862-'3 he was elected to the State 
Legislature from this county. He was married in this city May 4, 
1857, to Mary E. Chapin, daughter of Horatio and Mary E. (Story) 
Chapin. She was born in this city Oct. 6, 1836. Her father was 
one of the pioneers of St. Joseph county. He located here at an 
early day as a merchant, and was one of the leading men of his day. 
They have 2 children: Emma (wife of James Du Shane, of this 
city) and Miss Jennie Anderson. Mr. Anderson is one of the lead- 
ing attorneys in this city and has a large and lucrative practice. 
For years has been interested in the trial of nearly all the promi- 
nent cases tried in the courts of this county. 

Joseph B. Arnold, Jr., the son of Joseph and Harriet (Botsford) 
Arnold, who were natives of Massachusetts. They .migrated to 
this State in 1849, and located in Elkhart county, where they 
resided until 1859, when they came to St. Joseph county and set- 
tled in South Bend, where they now reside. The subject of this 
sketch was born in the State of New York in 1839. He came to 
this State with his parents in 1849. His early life was spent on 
the farm and at school. He received a liberal education, and at 
the age of 20 he began the study of law. In 1861 he entered the 
Union College of Law in Chicago, where he remained until he 
completed his studies. He was admitted to the Indiana Bar in 
1S63, and he immediately opened an office and commenced the 
practice of law in this city. In 1870 Mr. Arnold formed a co- 
partnership with Mr. J. P. Creed, the firm name being Arnold & 
Creed, and they have since been engaged in the law and abstract 
business. They are among the leading lawyers of this city, and 
have a large and lucrative practice. Their abstracts of titles are 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 901 

full and complete of all property in St. Joseph county. Mr. 
Arnold in 1875 organized the People's Savings Bank, and became 
its first president, which position he still holds. 

George Barnhard, City Marshal, was born in Germany Nov. 14, 
1840; the son of Adam and Catharine (Manurer) Barnhard. He 
came to this country in 1860, settled in the city of New York, and 
removed to this county in 1804, where he has since resided. He 
enlisted in Co. E, of the 26th Reg't New York Vols., and was in 
the service about 20 months, being in the battles of Cedar Moun- 
tain, second Bull Run and many others; he was mustered out of 
the service Oct. 3, 1S62. He then went to Rome, N. Y., and 
removed from there to this place, where he has since resided. He 
was elected Marshal of the city of South Bend in 1876, and re- 
elected to the same office in 1880. He was married in New York 
in 1864 to Catharine Carman, who was born in Germany Sept. 14, 
1841. He is a member of the order of Odd Fellows, and he and 
his wife are members of the German Evangelical Church in this 
city. Politically, Mr. Barnhard is a staunch Democrat. 

William L. Barrett is one of the pioneers of South Bend; he 
was born in Caledonia county, Vt., March 10, 1S10. He spent his 
early life at home on the farm, and at the age of 16 he learned the 
■jeweler's trade, and has been engaged in that business ever since. 
He began work at Franklinville, N. Y., where he worked four 
years, and in 1835 came to South Bend, opened a jewelry store, and 
has been engaged in the trade continuously ever since, being the 
oldest jeweler in the city, and has done more business in his line of 
trade than all the other stores of the kind in the city. He was 
married in the State of New York in 1834 to Harriet Newton, who 
was born in New York. They had 3 children by this marriage, 
one now living. He is one of the pioneer Masons of South Bend, 
and organized the second lodge in the county. He has been a 
member of First M. E. Church of this city since 1835. 

William W. Brick, one of the pioneers of St. Joseph county, 
was born in New Jersey Feb. 13, 1808. He visited this State in 
1829, and in 1831 located in the county permanently. He bought 
and entered lands in Olive tp. When he first started in life he had 
but $9 in money. He was married in Cass county, Mich., to Miss 
Elizabeth May, who was born in 1814. He had by this marriage 
13 children, 8 of whom are now living. Mrs. B. died in 1850. He 
was married in 1S51 to Eliza Willmynton, who died the next year. 
He was again married in 1S57 to Elizabeth Calbert. They had 2 
children by this marriage. Mr. Brick has held many town and 
count}- offices, and was the first Justice elected to that office in the 
county. Politically, he is a Republican. 

John M. Brownfield was born in Uniontown, Fayette county, 
Pa., Dec. 24, 1808. His education was such as the common 
schools of that time afforded. He is the son of Thomas and 
Elizabeth Brownfield, natives of Virginia, of English descent. At 
15 years of age he was employed in a dry-goods store, in which he 

56 



902 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

continued six years. When 21 years of age he began business in 
his native town in connection with his brother, Col. Ewing Brown- 
field, which business they continued for three years. In 1832 he 
was married to Lydia A. Beeson, daughter of Joseph Beeson, of 
Pennsylvania. She died in this city in 1S53. By this marriage 
he had 4 children, 2 now living: John, Jr., a practicing attorney in 
this city, and Lydia A., wife of Marvin Campbell, of South Bend. 
In 1856 he was married to Elizabeth Ellis, in the city of Philadel- 
phia; she is a native of Maryland. In 1S33 Mr. Brownfield visited 
friends at Niles, Mich., and while there visited a number of places 
with a view of locating in the West. He came to this State in 
1834 and located at South Bend, Ind., where he now resides. He 
continued in the mercantile business, and passed successfully 
through the financial panics of 1837, '40, '57, etc. When the 
branch bank of the State of Indiana was located here he was 
appointed Director on the part of the State. He was President 
of this bank for 12 years. He has been President of the South 
Bend National Bank from its organization to the present time. 
He was President of the South Bend Iron Works for several years. 
Mr. Brownfield has been an honored and leading member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for more than 50 years, a class-leader 
for many years, has been Superintendent of the South Bend Sab- 
bath-school also for several years, and for a time a Trustee of the 
Asbury University. He at one time donated $1,000 toward its 
endowments. He was elected to the General Conference, which 
met in the city of Brooklyn, May, 1872. He has been actively 
identified with every enterprise and movement that had for its 
object the improvement and advancement of South Bend. He has 
always been a strong adherent of the Democratic party, and in 
other years regarded as the " wheel horse" of the Democracy in St. 
Joseph county. 

Willis A. Bughee was born in the city of South Bend Sept. 17, 
1845. His father, Mr. Almond Bugbee, was a native of Vermont, 
and settled in South Bend in March, 1837. His mother died in 
1861. She was a native of the State of NewYork, and her maiden 
name was Adelia A. Crocker; she was a frequent contributor to the 
press and magazines. He received a good common-school educa- 
tion under able and careful, instructors, and also a commercial 
education at Chicago in 1S64- 5. He graduated at the " Law De- 
partment" of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in March, 
1867, and received the degree. of "Bachelor of Laws." This 
entitled him to practice in all the courts of Michigan. He was 
further admitted to practice at the Bar of St. Joseph county, Indi- 
ana, April 8, 1867, and shortly afterward entered the law office 
of Hon. Andrew Anderson. Mr. Anderson had in 1856 estab- 
lished a complete set of records of title to all of the real estate of 
St. Joseph county, and he procured the assistance of Mr. Bugbee 
in revising, enlarging and perfecting them. A partnership was 
formed, which lasted for some time. Afterward the records were 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 903 

leased by him of Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Bugbee subsequently 
became sole proprietor by purchase from Mr. Anderson. These 
records had obtained such a reputation for accuracy and reliability, 
that in his specialty as an examiner of titles many hundreds of 
thousands of dollars have exchanged hands upon his opinion of 
the title. The attention paid to details, the method, arrangement 
and artistic appearance of his written abstracts, called forth the 
highest praise from many of the largest loan, trust and insurance 
companies of the country, into whose hands they fell for critical 
inspection. The supervisor of loans of a trust company located in 
New York city adopted Mr. Bugbee's abstract as a model or form 
for business in Michigan and other parts of the West. Prior to 
engaging in business for himself, and with a view of seeing the 
country and of selecting a location for his future, he made a trip 
across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and 
made a short trip into Mexico, and on a previous occasion, a trip 
into Canada, thus visiting tiie four extremes of the country, on the 
east, west, north and south, but found no place that attracted 
him more than his native city, where he has always remained. 
Mr. Bugbee's inclinations have been toward a literary career, and 
he lias written a vast number of anonymous articles for the press, 
some of which have attracted general attention. On two occasions, 
several years apart, he was offered and urged to accept a position 
as associate editor of the St. Joseph Valley Register. He is an 
active member of the First Presbyterian Church, and has for many 
years acted as a member of the Board of Trustees of that Church. 
He was in 1880 elected an elder of the Church, to fill a vacancy 
caused by the death of Dr. Louis Humphreys, but declined the 
honor. In April, lS73,he was married to Evelyn E. Badet, of New 
London, Conn. He has witnessed the growth of South Bend from 
a small village to its present size and prosperity, and has grown up 
with the growth of the city, and has a deep, earnest, and abiding 
interest in the welfare and prosperity of his native place. 

Dr. Daniel M. Calvert was born Oct. 29, 1847, in St. Joseph 
county, Indiana, where his parents resided for 40 years. Thomas 
D. Calvert, father of D. M., was born at Lauchester, England, in 
1818. Mr. Calvert, Sr., kept a dairy near Philadelphia, Penn. 
Mrs. Sarah (Curry) Calvert was a native of Ohio, was born in 1829. 
Came to this county a few years later with her parents. She was 
joined in marriage to Mr. Calvert and lived contentedly on the 
homestead for 50 years, which is three miles north of South Bend. 
D. M. Calvert was married Sept. 11, 1873, to Miss Eliza Sher- 
burne, of Lorain county, Ohio. 1869 to 1S73 taught school in this 
county; studied dentistry in 1874 and 1S75, which business he has 
followed since. He lived one year in Buchanan, Mich., then moved 
to South Bend, where lie now resides. Pie became a member of 
the Baptist Church Feb. 25, 1872. Mrs. C. is a member of the 
same Church. He has been very successful in his business and is 
well known in the county. 



904 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Marvin Campbell, the eldest son of Samuel A. and Harriet 
(Cornell) Campbell, was born in Valparaiso, Ind., March 13, 1849, 
His parents located in Porter county, Ind., in 1834, where they now 
reside. His father is a native of the State of New York, and his 
mother of Ohio. The subject of this sketch received his education 
at the Valparaiso College, and at the age of 20 he was placed in 
charge of the mathematical and scientific department of the Valpa- 
raiso high school, which position he held for one year. He then 
earae to this city and taught mathematics and the sciences in the 
high school in this place for two years. He then resigned and 
entered into partnership with Mr. Cole, under the firm name of 
Cole & Campbell, and engaged in the hardware trade. In 1874 he 
purchased the interests of Mr. Cole in the business, and purchased 
the building he now occupies, Nos. 15, 17 and 19, Market St., and 
has increased the business from time to time. He now has with- 
out doubt, the largest retail hardware store and tinware manufac- 
tory in the State. He also has a large wholesale trade. He employs 
12 hands and carries a stock of not less than $25,000. Mr. Camp- 
hell has also become popularly known in the lecture field. His 
lecture on ''The Relation of the Bible to the State,'' has been highly 
spoken of by the press and clergy of Indiana. He has also taken 
an active part in the political affairs of the country, and his voice is 
often heard in defense of the principles of the party to which he 
belongs. He has been a life-long Republican, and is one of the 
leaders of that party in this county. He was married in this city 
May 27, 1874, to Lillie A. Brownfield, daughter of John and Lydia 
A. Browniield. She was born in this county in 1852. Her father, 
John Brownfield, is one of the early settlers and leading men of 
South Bend. They have 2 children, John B. and Harriet. Mr. 
Campbell is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife 
are members of the M. E. Church in this city. 

James W. Camper, the son of William and Elizabeth Camper, 
who were natives of Virginia and came to this State and located in 
South Bend in 1834, was born in 1836 in this city, where most of 
his life thus far has been spent. He began to learn the gunsmith's 
trade when but 14 years of age, and has been engaged in that busi- 
ness ever since. He began business for himself in this city in 1867. 
He also followed for a short time the butcher business and the 
manufacture of chairs. He is now engaged exclusively in the sale 
and manufacture of guns and sportmen's goods. He was married in 
1865 to Miss Mary A. Smith, of this city. Politically, he is a 
Republican? " 

John Cassidy, M. D., the son of John and Rose Cassidy, who 
were natives of Ireland and came to this country and settled in 
Michigan at an early day, was born in Michigan in the year 1838; 
his early life was spent at home on the farm. He received a class- 
ical education, and studied medicine at the Rush Medical College 
of Chicago, at which institution he graduated in 1S65. He first 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

began the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Louis Neg- 
non, the physician and surgeon in charge at Notre Dame and St. 
Mary's College. Dr. Negnon was a surgeon of the French army 
under Napoleon. Dr. Cassidy has been the physician of Notre 
Dame and St. Mary's ever since he began the practice of medicine- 
He was married in 1S70 in this city to Corselia Asclier, who is a 
native of Ohio. They have 5 children, and are members of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

Reese J. Chesnutwood is the son of Abram and Sarah Chesnut- 
wood, who were natives of Pennsylvania; father of German and 
mother of Welsh descent. He was born in Pennsylvania in the 
year 1816; went with his parents to Ohio when a small boy, 
where his early life was spent, He came to this State in 1851 and 
located in South Bend, engaging in the dry-goods trade, which he 
continued a short time, and then sold out and went into the lum- 
ber business, which he continued until 1859. This year he was 
elected County Recorder, which office he held for eight years. In 
1869 he was appointed U. S. Internal Revenue Collector for the 
Ninth District of Indiana; this office he held until the Ninth and 
Tenth Districts were consolidated, Jan. 1, 1876. In January, 1879, 
he began the manufacture and sale of cigars. He employs ten 
hands and has a very large trade. Mr. Chesnutwood's education 
was confined to such as the common schools of Pennsylvania af- 
forded at that day, and such instruction as he received at home. 
He was married in Ohio in 1842, to Miss Martha A. Fisher, who 
was born in Philadelphia, Pa. They have 2 children, a son and a 
daughter. The son is now married and resides in the city, being 
Deputy Revenue Collector for this district. The daughter, Sarah 
F., is the wife of Thaddeus S. Taylor, of this city. Mr. Chesnut- 
wood is a member of the Masonic order, and has held all the promi- 
nent offices of the lodge, chapter and commandery. Politically, he 
is a staunch Republican. 

Henry F. Clipfell, agent U. S. Express Company, was born in 
Colon, Mich., in 1840; he spent his earl} 7 life on a farm, up to 1S66, 
when he was engaged as express agent at White Pigeon, Mich., 
and in 1871 was transferred to South Bend, where he has since had 
charge of the U. S. Express Co's business, being their general agent 
at this point, He was married in White Pigeon June 17, 1870, to 
Miss Elizabeth M. Dale, daughter of Amos Dale, ot White Pigeon. 
They have 2 children now living: Mary E. and Carroll S. Mr. 
and Mrs. C. are members of the Christian Church. In 1861 he en- 
listed in the 11th Mich. Vol. as a member of the regimental band, 
in which capacity he served one and one-half years; he then went 
into the Quartermaster's department, where he continued until the 
close of the war. 

ScJiuyler Colfax, ex-Vice President of the United States, and 
lecturer, was born in the city of New York, March 23, 1823; was a 
grandson of Gen. William Colfax, who commanded Washington's 
life-guards. In 1836 he removed with his mother, who was then a 



& 



o 



906 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

widow, to Northern Indiana. He settled at South Bend, and 
studied law, and became in 1845 editor of the St. Joseph Valley 
Register, a "Whig paper issued at South Bend. In 1S50 he was a 
member of the convention which formed a new constitution for 
Indiana, and he opposed the clause that prohibited colored men 
from settling in this State. As a Whig candidate for Congress he 
was defeated in 1851, but was elected in 1854, was six times re- 
elected, and continued to represent this district until 1869. In 1856 
he made an eloquent speech in Congress on the subject of the con- 
flict in Kansas. He was chosen Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in December, 1863. During the civil war he was a 
friend and confidential adviser of President Lincoln. lie performed 
a journey across the continent to California in 1S65, and was again 
elected Speaker of the House about the end of that year. He 
gained a high reputation as a presiding officer, and was the most 
popular Speaker of the House since Henry Clay. In 1S6T lie was 
chosen Speaker for the third time. In May, 1868, he was nomi- 
nated as candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United 
States, by the Republicans, who at the same time nominated Gen. 
Grant for the Presidency. They were elected in 1S6S, receiving 
214 electoral votes out of 294, which was the whole number. 

He is still a resident of South Bend, and devotes his time prin- 
cipally to the lecture field, in which he excels. During the Presi- 
dential campaign of 1880 he was waked up to take a public part in 
favor of the Republican nominees, and soon was able to rejoice 
with his co-laborers in the fruits of a great Republican victory. 

Lucius F. Copeland is the son of Lucius F. and Olive Copelaud. 
They were natives of the State of New York. His father is of 
English and his mother of Scotch descent. The subject of this 
notice spent his early life in Rochester, N. Y., was educated in the 
high schools of that city and in the University of Virginia, and 
afterward was engaged with Messrs. Prichard & Co., on a Govern- 
ment contract. 

In 1S60 he visited Europe, making an extensive tour of the con- 
tinent, being absent one year; on his return he continued his busi- 
ness under his contract with the Government. In 1863 he enlisted 
in the 13th New York Volunteers, and was soon after transferred 
to a Pennsylvania regiment and assigned to post duty in Washing- 
ton, D. C.j with rank as Lieut.-Colonel, in which position he con- 
tinued for ten months. In 1865 he attended lectures at the Albany 
Law School for two terms, and afterward continued his law studies 
in the office of F. G. Wicker, Esq., of Albany, N. Y. In 1S66 he 
returned to Rochester, N. Y., and was for a short time engaged in 
mercantile business; in the fall of the same year he went to St. 
Louis and took charge of the extensive saddlery and hardware 
house of E. A. Corbin cv. Co., where he remained about one year; 
he then joined an excursion party and visited New Mexico, return- 
ing to St. Louis in 1868; he then moved to Johnson county, Iowa, 
where he was engaged in the practice of law for a short time. He 



HISTORY OF 8T. JOSEPH COUNTY. 907 

then returned to New York and opened a law office, and in 1870 
he visited Europe, being absent one year and seven months. In 
the spring of 1875 he moved to Berrien county, Mich., and engaged 
in the practice of law; in 1878 he came to South Bend and con- 
tinued the practice of law. Col. Copeland for a number of years 
has been in the lecture field, and has most deservedly been denomi- 
nated the " Prince of Orators."* So popular have his lectures become 
that he has calls from nearly every State in the Union, and during 
the lecture season his time is fully occupied, having many more 
calls than he can fill, and has received some very flattering notices 
from the leading papers in the States where his lectures have been 
given. As a political speaker Col. Copeland stands to-day without 
a rival; and during the campaign but recently closed, the demands 
for him were greater than for any other man on the stump. As an 
advocate in the trial of causes he stands in the foremost rank, and 
there are but few if any in the State able to cope with him before 
a jury. Mr. Copeland was married to Miss Emily C. Mead, of Ber- 
rien Springs, daughter of William Mead, Esq., of that place. 

Alexis Coquillard, manufacturer of the celebrated " Coquillard 
wagon," was born in Detroit, Mich., April 29, 1825. Mr. Coquil- 
lard comes from a long-lived race of people, whose name has been 
prominently connected with the early development and growth of 
Michigan and Northern Indiana. Benjamin Coquillard, pere, was 
in early life married to Sophia Andre; they were natives of Detroit, 
where they resided until 1S29, when they removed to Indiana and 
located in this county; as the result of this union one child was 
born to them, Alexis, who is the subject of this sketch. Alexis 
Coquillard, Sr., the head of the family in America, was stationed in 
this county as an employe of the American Fur Company at a 
time when there was not another white man in the count}'. He 
afterward founded and platted the wealthy and enterprising city of 
South Bend. In 1840, while St. Joseph county was yet a wilder- 
ness, zealous representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, men 
who knew neither danger nor fatigue in the accomplishment of their 
self-imposed missions, pushed their way into the wild, unbroken 
fastness, and there began laving the foundation of the Notre Dame 
college. The first name on its rolls was that of the subject ol our 
sketch, who piloted them across the river when in search of the 
grounds. The fabulous stories of golden treasures in California, 
which were circulated throughout the country in 1S49, found lodg- 
ment in the breast of the young man, and he determined to seek 
his fortune in the New El Dorado of the West; and though but 25 
years of age, in company with others, that year visited the golden 
shores of the Pacific, where he remained nine months, and suc- 
ceeded beyond his most sanguine expectations. He returned to 
Indiana and purchased a farm in this county, which he operated 
until 1854, when he engaged in the real estate business and the 
manufacture of lumber, in which business he has been engaged to a 
large extent up to the present time. He continued to increase his 



908 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

landed possessions until 1865, at which time he established the 
Coquillard Wagon Works. This business has been constantly increas- 
ing until his sales amount to more than 3.000 vehicles per annum. 
The timber from which they are constructed comes from a tract of 
2,000 acres in the county, on which at an early day he erected 
a steam saw-mill. He is also the owner of one of the best farms in 
the county of over 500 acres, a short distance from the city limits. 
Mr. Coquillard, in addition to the above, is the owner of some 40 
houses in South Bend, besides a large amount of unimproved real 
estate. He is also the owner of large tracts of land in Michigan, 
Iowa, Nebraska, and some of the Territories. 

Socially Mr. Coquillard is one of the most genial of men. The 
distinguishing characteristics of his nature are strength of purpose, 
independence of thought and action and love of right and truth. 
He takes an active interest in all enterprises, promotion of the pub- 
lic good, or in the diffusion of knowledge. He is a man of great 
energy and perseverance, and when he once undertakes a thing, he 
seems to know no such word as " fail." Five feet seven inches in 
height, he is blessed with an excellent constitution, and is the very 
picture of health. He is still a bachelor, " heart-whole and fancy 
tree." As a justification of this fact, Mr. Coquillard states that 
when young he was too poor to contemplate matrimony, and is now 
too busy to think of it. Politically, be is a Republican, and enjoys 
the distinction of being the wealthiest man in St. Joseph county. 
He contributes liberally to all charities, and is a man whose worth 
is felt and appreciated in the community in which he resides. His 
portrait is given on page 703. 

Alexis T. Coquillard, the only child of Alexis Coquillard, the 
chief founder of the city of South Bend, was born in the city 
of South Bend, on the 13th of February, 1836. At the time of his 
birth his father lived in the house north of the Strayer gun shop, 
on Michigan Street. When young Coquillard was three years of 
age, his father removed to the brick house on Michigan street, now 
occupied by Hon. Wm. Miller, where they lived until the young 
man was about 24 years of age. He began his school life with his 
cousin Alexis Coquillard, now manufacturer of the celebrated 
" Coquillard wagon,'' in a log school-house that stood near the site 
of the University of JMotre Dame, which was the beginning of 
that celebrated institution of learning, where he remained until 
the University was built; he then entered the college, being one of 
its first students, where he continued his studies until 1S54. _ Jan. 
7, 1855, his father received fatal injuries by falling from the ruins 
of a large flouring mill that had recently burned, and died 
Jan. 8, from the injuries caused by his fall. He was mar- 
ried in 1859 to Miss Mary Ellen Pike, daughter of Charles Pike, 
Esq., of Niles, Michigan. She was born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 
1842. They had one child, Alexis Charles, who resides with his 
father in this city. In 1860 Mr. Coquillard was employed on the 
detective force in Chicago, under C. P. Bradley, chief of that 
department, who at once recognized the ability of Mr. Coquillard 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 909 

and promoted him from time to time, placing him in charge of a 
large force of men. His reputation as a skillful detective soon 
became known throughout the Northwest, and complicated and 
difficult cases from all parts of the country came to him, and as 
evidence of the ability and skill he displayed in this most difficult 
business, has hundreds of highly nattering testimonials from the 
Government authorities, the leading railroad officials and business 
men of the Northwest. In 1868, at the request of the leading 
men in Indianapolis, he went to that city and organized "Ooquil- 
lard's Merchant Police," having a large force of men is his employ. 
In 1869 the prominent men of that city, having a due appreciation 
of his services, presented him with a very fine gold-headed cane, 
with the name of the donors engraved thereon. In 1868 he aban- 
doned the business and has since given it no attention whatever. 

In 1868 he purchased the land where the village of St. Edwards, 
Nebraska, is now located, and afterward sold a half interest in the 
same to John N. Lederer and W. H. Longley, of this city, with a 
view of platting a town, and in 1876 they organized and were incor- 
porated under the laws of Nebraska, as "the St. Edwards Land 
and Emigration Company," of which Mr. Coquillard was elected 
president and manager for the term of five years. The company, 
besides having a large number of town lots, own a large tract of 
land adjoining the village of St. Edwards. In 1879 Mr. Coquil- 
lard contracted for 25,000 acres of land in Oconto county, Wis., 
and soon after formed a joint-stock company composed of John N. 
Lederer, T. E. Howard, Esq., ~W. H. Longley, Andrew Kusswurm, 
Godfrey Poehelman, James Daughtery, Edward T. Lomont, and 
himself. Mr. Coquillard was elected president and general mana- 
ger of the company. The company at once began to improve and 
open their land to actual settlers, and are now rapidly disposing of 
it, their sales being very large. Mr. Coquillard in 1880 started the 
Globe, in the interests of these two land companies, for the purpose 
of bringing the property before the public. The paper has been a 
success from the start, and now has a circulation of 5,000 copies. 
In connection with his other responsibilities Mr. Coquillard does a 
general real-estate business, and buys and sells property of every 
description. 

In 1872 he was elected City Councilman from the fourth ward, 
which office he held for two terms. He afterward received the 
nomination for the office of Mayor, and was defeated by a small 
majority. 

Through costly litigation the entire fortune of his father was 
swept away, and Mr. Coquillard, left without means, has by his 
own efforts acquired his present property and cared and provided 
for his mother, who died but recently. He is one of the represent- 
ative men of South Bend, and has been identified with many of 
the public enterprises of the city. Portrait on page 739. 

James N. Corning is the son of Nathan and Pheba (Willson) 
Corning, father a native of New Hampshire and of Scotch descent, 



910 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

and mother of New York and of English descent. The subject of 
this sketch was born in Mentor, Lake county, Ohio, in 1835. His 
early life was spent at home on the farm. He received a liberal 
education; was three years in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, 
where, he engaged in oil speculations. In 1867 he emigrated to this 
State and located in South Bend, where he has since resided. He 
was married in Ohio in 1862 to Mary A. Thompson, who was born 
in Lake county, O., in 1837; they have 2 children. Mr. Corning 
is one of the leading men of this city; has now been Justice of the 
Peace for four years, in which capacity he has the confidence of the 
people, and his time is fully occupied with the duties of his office. 
He is a Democrat, and also a member of the Masonic fraternity in 
this city. 

Jonathan P. Creed was born in Benton, Yates county, N. Y., 
Dec. 2, 1S44. Went to common schools and worked on a farm 
until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. Enlisted Aug. 
14, 1862; served until July 14, 1865. Was wounded at the battle 
of Gettysburg, Pa., July 4, 1863, in his right arm, near the shoul- 
der, the ball passing through into the side. After his discharge from 
the army he went to school at Lima, N. Y., at which he received 
an academic education. In 1867 he removed from New York to 
South Bend, Ind., and began the practice of law, in which he is 
still engaged. 

James Daughter}/ is the son of James and Elizabeth Daughtery. 
who were natives of Ireland, and came to this country at an early 
day. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1826, where he spent his 
early life; was employed in a woolen factory until he was 29 years 
of age, when he moved to Ohio and engaged in tanning for a num- 
ber of years. He came to this county in 1864, and followed farm- 
ing some time, and had charge of the county house for two years. 
He was elected Sheriff in 1878, which office he now holds. He was 
married in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1849 to Miss Anna E. Shaffer^ 
They have 5 children now, living. He is a member of the Masonic 
order, and politically is a Democrat. 

James Davis is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in 1812, 
the son of Robert and Margaret Davis, who were natives of Penn- 
sylvania. He commenced the study of law in Pittsfield, 111., when 
21 years of age and while holding the office of Clerk of the Cir- 
cuit Court, and was admitted to the Bar in 1S36, and continued the 
practice until the year 1876, when, owing to poor health, he was 
obliged to abandon the active practice of law, and accepted a posi- 
tion as special agent of the U. S. Treasurer's department, with 
headquarters at Chicago, which position he held two years. Mr. 
Davis has always been an active politician, and for many years was 
chairman of the county central committee of the Republican party, 
and held the office of City Attorney for two years. He was mar- 
ried in 1851 to Miss Elizabeth Heaton, daughter of Charles M. 
Heaton. They have 4 children by this marriage. 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 911 

Daniel Dayton, If. D., is not only one of the earliest pioneer 
settlers in South Bend, having arrived here in 1836, but was the 
first regular medical graduate that commenced practice in this city; 
and he has continued the practice of his profession at the same 
place, without intermission to this date, — a period of 44 years. 
Probably no physician is now or ever has been more widely or 
favorably known in this section than the venerable Doctor. 

He is a native of the granite-bound hills of New Hampshire, 
Orford, Grafton Co., where he was born May 27, 180G, the son of 
James and Lucinda (Morey) Dayton, the former a native of Con- 
necticut and the latter of Massachusetts, and of English ancestry, 
the original family having come to America in 1640. The Doctor's 
youth was passed upon his father's farm; in 1S31 he graduated at 
Union College, N. Y. The same year he first commenced the 
study of medicine during his last term at Union College, one of the 
professors being a physician, — by name Joslyn; afterward attended 
his first medical course at Dartmouth College, N. H., and graduated 
in 1836 at the Geneva (N.Y.) Medical College, and commence prac- 
tice in Syracuse. 

He was married in 1836 to Catharine Pells; soon afterward he 
emigrated with his wife to the West, and located at South Bend, 
where lie soon established an extensive practice. He had the mis- 
fortune to lose his wife by death, which occurred in 1840. He was 
married again in 1844, at South Bend, to Miss Ann M. Wade, who 
is still living; they have a family of two children, whose names 
are Mary, now the wife of Sam'l T. Applegate, of this county, and 
James H., who is a graduate of the Annapolis (Md.) Naval 
Academy, and a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy. 

Dr. Dayton has been a member of the order of Odd Fellows for 
30 years; has also been a member of the Congregational Church 
for many years. In politics is a Republican, and has served the 
community in various local public offices. He was one of the 
members of the first Board of School Examiners; also Township 
Trustee, Corporation Surgeon several years, and also served as U. 
S. Examining Surgeon for enrollment for two years during the war 
of the Rebellion: also served as County Coroner two years. 
Although so actively employed during the many years of his resi- 
dence in this county, he always found time to attend to the wants 
of those in distress. It mattered not to him whether called up at 
the hour of midnight to attend to the wants of the millionaire, where 
pay for his services was secured, or by the poorest citizen, whose 
only pay could be his grateful thanks for his generous labors. Of 
the latter class of practice no physician in this county ever had 
more or was as cheerfully attended to. After a long and honorable life 
the Doctor is still hale and hearty, still in the practice of his pro- 
fession, honored and respected by all. 

Dr. Edward Harmigan Dendoio was born at Mount Pleasant, 
near South Bend, St. Joseph county, Indiana, on the 17th of June, 
1844. He is the third son of the late Henry Denslow, one of the 



912 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

early settlers of the county, and a man widely known and universally 
respected. Edward worked on his father's farm up to the year 
1870, with the exception of some time spent on several occasions 
in travel with circuses and theater companies, in the West. As 
might have been expected, he yielded to the temptations afforded 
by these diversions and contracted habits of inebriety which at one 
time seriously threatened to be his ruin. True, however, to the 
home-bred proclivities of his boyhood he returned, finally, to the 
farm and fireside of his father, and Oct. 26, 1865, was united in mar- 
riage to Annie S. Johnson, a lady of attractive manners and excel- 
lent judgment. Soon after his marriage he became excessively 
addicted to drink and his utter ruin seemed almost inevitable. In 
the early part of 1870, however, commenced that extraordinary 
development which changed the whole tenor of his life and brought 
about in him almost a new creation. The result was, in fact, a new 
birth, if there ever was such a phenomenon. Almost without premon- 
ition, certainly without expectation or desire, some unseen influence 
took control of his physical organism while utterly unconscious; he 
was carried through a series of exercises of the most extraordinary 
character. One of his first experiences was to have the glass in 
which he was conveying intoxicating liquor to his mouth, seized by 
an unseen hand and dashed in pieces. His love of strong drink 
immediately left him and has never returned. His habits of life 
became abstemious almost to the degree of asceticism. By an 
influence, of the origin of which he had no personal knowledge, he 
was impelled to very frequent physical exercises of great severity 
and of unusual kinds. 

After a lapse of about three years, in 1873, he found himself in 
possession of healing powers of singular efficacy. He immediately 
opened rooms in South Bend and began to combat the various 
diseases to which our flesh is heir, with almost incredible success. 
Bight in the home of his boyhood, in the midst of those who had 
known him from his birth, and had watched him through his varied 
experiences, he sought, and successfully too, occasions for the exer- 
cise of his great gift. Thus, where he is best known, he has coin- 
batted, unaided and alone, prejudice on the one hand and malignity 
on the other, until he has put all his foes under his feet and, with- 
out personal blemish, has established a reputation of which philan- 
thropist or healer of whatever pretentions may well be proud. He 
uses no drugs, relying alone, upon that medicatrix naturce which, 
in his case, follows the "laying on of hands." 

Dr. Denslow is now in the full maturity of a well-developed man- 
hood. In stature he stands about five feet and eleven inches. His 
physique is eminently sturdy and symmetrical. His capacious chest 
and powerful muscles denote great capacity for strength and endur- 
ance. The high tone of his nervous system is denoted by the silky 
texture of his hair and the auburn tinge of his full beard. Bhreno- 
logically, the coronal region is prominent, giving assurance of a high 
moral and religious nature. The intellectual faculties are wel 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 913 

indicated, while the organs giving perceptive power are normally 
full. His basal brain gives evidence of sufficient combativeness to 
face a foe, and enough destructiveness to remove all impediments 
in the path of right. Large adhesiveness bind him firmly to his 
friends, while the domestic group impels to an almost passionate 
love of home. Tolerant of all opinions and the just views of others, 
he is so constituted that he cannot help demanding a recognition of 
his own personal rights and convictions. The fame of this curiously 
constituted gentleman has already gone far beyond the boundary of 
his almost rural home, and, if life and health are spared him, he will 
ultimately, without doubt, achieve an almost world-wide renown. 
This, however, will be in the line of doing good, as he eschews all 
other methods of distinction. 

L. M. Dunning, M. D., was born in the State of Michigan in 
1850, son of Oscar and Martha Dunning, natives of the State of 
New York, father of Scotch and mother of English descent. He 
received a liberal education and came to this county in 1878; began 
the study of medicine in 1870, attended the Medical College of 
Buffalo, and graduated at the Rush Medical College of Chicago in 
1872. He commenced the practice of medicine near Troy, Mich., 
in 1872, where he remained until he removed to this city. The 
Doctor ranks among the leading physicians of South Bend, and was 
the organizer of the Berrien Count)- Medical Society, of which he 
was president one year; is a member of theOdd Fellows order; was 
married in Cass county, Mich., in 1876, to Miss Harriet Blanchard; 
they are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in this 
city. 

Samuel Dunning, M. D., son of James and Mary Dunning, who 
were natives of Ireland and came to this country at an early day, 
was born in Canada in the year 1845; his early education was quite 
limited, being only such as the common schools of that day afforded. 
He began the study of medicine in 1868, and after completing his 
studies began to practice in the city of Detroit, and came to this 
city in 1879, where he now resides and continues the practice. He 
is recognized as one of the leading physicians and has a large and 
lucrative practice. He was married in New York in 1869, to Miss 
Bell Jones, of that State, who was born in 1811; they have one 
child, Flora B., born in 1871. 

James H. Ellsworth was born in St. Joseph county, Ind., in 
1852, and has always resided in this city; he is the son of Aaron B. 
and Frances L. (Harwood) Ellsworth, who were natives of New 
York and came to this State at an early day. Aaron Ellsworth was 
one of the pioneers of St. Joseph count)' and one of the most prom- 
inent citizens of South Bend. The subject of this sketch was edu- 
cated in the schools of this city; attended law lectures in the Union 
College of Law of Chicago; was admitted to the Indiana Bar in 
1873 and in June, 1875, began the practice of law in this city. He 
is secretary of the " Western Accident and Relief Association," 
which office lie has held since the organization of the company. He 



914 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

was the originator and organizer of this company and has had the 
general management and supervision of the same. Politically, he is 
a Republican. 

Chauncey N. Fassett, editor of the South Bend Register, was 
born in South Bend July 30, 1849; when three years old the family 
removed to Middlebury, Elkhart county, and thence in 1857 to 
Goshen, and the next year to Lebanon, Southwestern Missouri; 
there, in 1S63, they were cut off by the rebels from all communica- 
tion with the North; they returned to Goshen, and in February, 
1873, back to South Bend. Here Mr. C. N. Fassett began as local 
editor for the Union, was then on the Register two years, and next 
on the Tribune one and a half years. Oct. 12, 1878, in company 
with D. S. and F. A. Marsh, H. S. Fassett and E. M. Herr, he 
bought the Register establishment; Mr. D. S. Marsh retired from 
the firm in May, 1880. A further notice of the paper is given in 
another chapter. Oct. 31, '77, he married Anna H. Thrush, daughter 
of the late Rev. John Thrush, once pastor of the M. E. Church in 
South Bend. She was born in Baltimore Oct. 31, '57. Mr. Fassett is a 
Republican, a member of the A. F. and A. M., and was City Clerk 
in Goshen three terms. Present residence, 32 Lafayette street. 

Gustav Fihentscher was born in Bavaria, June 2, 1831, son of 
Martin and Katharine (Sornmer) Fikentscher; educated in the com- 
mon schools of Germany; emigrated to this country in 1866, 
arriving in South Bend June 29; followed his trade of miller for a 
year, then photographing for four or five years; in 1873 com- 
menced as local editor for the Courier, when Messrs. Brownfield, 
Jr., and Fassett Broadus were proprietors; February 19, 1874, he 
took possession of the Courier, since which time he has conduced 
the paper with success. January 24, 1880, he was married to 
Adele Lemien, of Chicago, a native of Prussia, and they now re- 
side at 79 Lafayette street. Politically, Mr. F. is a Democrat. 

George Ford, was born in South Bend, Jan. 11, 1846; son of 
Isaac and Emeline Ford, natives of the State of New York. His 
father was a cooper by trade and came to this State and located in 
South Bend Sept. 3, 1845, where he resided until his death, which 
occurred Sept. 16, 1880; he was engaged in the cooper business 
until within the last four or five years of his life. The subject of 
this sketch was educated in the schools of this city, and while a boy 
learned the cooper trade, at which business he worked for a time; 
he began the study of law in March, 1S66, in the law office of Col. 
Norman Eddy, then one of the leading lawyers of South Bend; in 
1869 he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, 
where he continued his studies until he graduated ; he then re- 
turned to South Bend and engaged in the practice of law, where 
he has since resided and continued the business. In 1872 he was 
elected Prosecutor of the Court of Common Pleas, which office he 
held until that court was abolished by the Legislature; he was then 
appointed Prosecutor in the Circuit Court to fill a vacancy, and with 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 915 

the exception of two years has held that office ever since, having 
recently been re-elected to that office for another term. 

Isaac Frame was born in the State of Ohio in the year 1818; 
son of Jesse and Nancy Frame, who were natives of Virginia, and 
came to this comity in 1832, and settled in Warren township, 
where the subject of this sketch spent his early life; when quite a 
young man he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed for 
many years. He was married in this county in 1846, to Miss 
Emily Jones, who was born in Ohio in 182S, and died in 1862; 
they had six children. He was again married in this city in 1863, 
to Miss Lucinda Huff, of this city, and they have 2 children. ' Mr. 
Frame has held the office of Constable in this township for more 
than ten years; has held the office of Justice of the Peace four 
years, and Deputy Sheriff two years, and now holds the office of 
Constable. Politically, he is a Republican. 

Nathaniel Frame was born 'in Wayne county, Ind., July 31, 
1820; son of William and Nancy (Crowel) Frame, natives of Vir- 
ginia, who located in Warren tp., tins county, in 1836, where they 
resided during the remainder of their lives. Nathaniel now owns 
the old homestead; he was married in 1842 to Caroline Wayne, of 
this State, who was born in Henry county, Ind., in 1824; they have 
7 children: Sarah, wife of William. H, of this county; Lucinda, wife 
of Abram Staples; Julia A., wife of Theodore R. Marble; James J., 
Abram W., and Rosetta, wife of Frank Wells, of this county. Mr. 
Frame has held a number of important township and county offices; 
was County Commissioner twelve years, and a member of the City 
Council two years. Politically he is a staunch Republican and an 
earnest supporter of the nominees of that party. 

Hon. William G. George was born in Pennsylvania in 1832; he 
graduated at the Pennsylvania College in 1851; came to this State 
and settled in South Bend May 1, 1854; began the study of law in 
1850, and was admitted to practice in 1854; was Assistant Adju- 
tant of R. H. Milory's staff in 1S62; assisted in the organization of 
the city of South Bend; in 1S65 was elected its first Mayor, and 
held that office for two and one-half terms, without compensation. 
He was married in 1856 to Miss Lydia Pfieger, of Pennsylvania, 
and they have one child. Politically, Mr. George is a staunch 
Republican, and was the first to vote the Free Soil ticket in Leba- 
non, Pa. ; he has always taken an active part in political affairs. Mr. 
George is one of the oldest attorneys now in active practice in this 
city, also one of the leading lawyers, having a large and lucrative 
business. 

William Gibson was born in Ohio in 1836; his parents came to 
this State in 1837 and settled in Elkhart county, where they re- 
mained five years, then came to this county, where the subject of 
this sketch has since resided. He was raised on a farm and received 
a liberal education; in 1860 he learned the photographer's art, 
and has sinde been engaged in that business. He was married in 



916 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Berrien count}*, Mich., in 1859, to Elizabeth II. , who was 

born in Ohio in 1S39, of Virginian parentage. 

Benjamin Gingrich was born in Waterloo county, Canada, in 
1843; he learned the carpenter's trade when a young man, at which 
he worked until 1865, when he migrated to this State and located 
in South Bend, where he continued to work at his trade until 1870; 
he then engaged in the manufacture of furniture in connection with 
George Byler; the partnership continued until 1872, when Mr. 
Gingrich conducted the business alone until 1879; he then entered 
into a co-partnership with Conrad Liphart, and the new firm con- 
tinne'the business of manufacturing and sale of furniture; they 
occupy two large stores on Michigan street, and own and operate a 
large factory. Mr. Gingrich was married in 1866 to Miss Elizabeth 
Byler, who was born in Marshall county, this State, in 1S42; they 
have 2 children now living; both are members of the German 
Methodist Church in this city. Politically, he is a Republican. 

Henry Ginz, native of Hesse Darmstadt, town of Alzey, German}* ; 
was born Feb. 6, 1830; his parents were Jacob and Catharine Ginz, 
natives of that place. His father followed the business of a 
tanner, which he carried on for many years; he and his wife both 
died at the above-named town. Henry Ginz received the advan- 
tages of a common-school education in Germany until the age of 
14 years, when he was apprenticed to learn the cabinet-maker's 
trade; at the end of his term of apprenticeship, which was three 
years, he commenced work at his trade, at 19 years of age, in 1849. 
He participated in the rebellion of that year under Gen. Seigel, 
who served so gallantly in our late war. This rebellion proving 
unsuccessful, he, with many others, escaped to Switzerland to save 
their lives, where he remained for a few months, when, by decree 
of the German Government, all non-commissioned officers (Mr. 
Ginz was a Sergeant) and privates were pardoned. Mr. Ginz then 
returned to Germany and worked at his trade. In 1S54 he emi- 
grated to America, landing at New York City and coming direct to 
La Porte county, Inch, where he followed his business until 1864; 
he then moved to Indianapolis, where he was in business until 1869, 
when he moved to South Bend, opening a grocery store and bakery, 
which he conducted for three years; then discontinued the above 
business, and in 1872 bought an interest in the " Knoblock Flour- 
ing Mill;" since this time Mr. Ginz has been identified with the 
milling interest in South Bend. The mill has four run of stone 
and has a capacity for grinding 100 bbls. of flour a day. In 1878 
Mr. Ginz was uominated in his district as their Representative in 
the State Legislature. He is a Democrat, and although it was a 
Republican district he ran ahead of his ticket so that he was elected 
by a handsome majority; his opponent was Judge Stanfield. In 
1S59 Mr. Ginz was married to Miss "Wilhelmina Myers, of South 
Bend, and they have 3 children, living at home, Adolph, Clara and 
Harvey. Mr. G. now resides in South Bend, surrounded by his 
family, and is one of its substantial citizens. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 919 

Daniel Greene is a son of John and Mary A. (Jackson) Greene, 
who were natives of Delaware, and came to this county in 1832, 
where they resided until the time of their death. He was born in 
Greene county, O., in 1818, and came to this county with his 
parents in 1S32; he has been engaged in farming most of his life, 
but for the last ten 3'ears has partially retired from active business 
life, being at present engaged in insurance business. He was mar- 
ried in 1849, in this county, to Miss Mary Leeper, daughter of 
Samuel Leeper, of this city, and they have 3 children now living, 
Elizabeth Ann, wife of Dr. J. A. Kettering, of Colorado; Howard 
M. and Edna. Mr. Greene is a member of and Elder in the First 
Presbyterian Church in this city. He has always taken an active 
part in political affairs and contributes liberally of his means for 
that purpose, and has always been considered one of the "wheel 
horses" of the Republican party in this county. 

Hzekiel Greene was born in the State of Delaware in 1810; his 
early life was spent at home on the farm, and farming has been 
his principal business during life; he came to this county with his 
parents in 1832 and settled in Greene tp. ; in 1854 he engaged in 
mercantile business in South Bend and was for some time U. S. 
Deputy Revenue Collector; in 1864 he was elected County Treas- 
urer, which office he held for two terms of four years each; he was 
married in this county to Sarah Garwood, daughter of Joshua 
Garwood, who was born in Ohio in 1S12, and died in 1854. Mr. 
G. is a member of the Presbyterian Church. 

Levi J. Ham, M. D., was born in York county, Me., Nov. 16, 
1805. His ancestors came from the highlands of Scotland in 1720, 
settling in Portsmouth, N. H. There were four brothers, George, 
Samuel, Benson and Matthias, each of whom married Scotch ladies. 
The descendants of George and Benson settled on the west side of 
the Salmon Fails river, in Newington, Dover, Great Falls and 
Rochester. Matthias went to North Carolina, and many of his 
descendants are now to be found scattered up the Mississippi as far 
as Dubuque and St. Paul. Samuel, the great-grandfather of 
Levi J., went over into Kittery, Me., and settled upon the very 
ground where the great navy yard is now located. His descendants 
pushed up the east side of the Salmon Falls river and became very 
numerous in York county, Me., particularly in Shapleigh, Acton 
and Newfield. Samuel, the paternal grandfather of Levi, and John 
Mildram, his maternal grandfather, were in the battle of Bunker 
Hill, June 17, 1775, armed with shotguns. About 1796 Mr. 
William Ham, Jr., was married to Miss Esther Mildram, in Shap- 
leigh, York county, Me., and they raised a family of 9 children, 7 
brothers and 2 sisters; all lived to the age of men and women. Five 
of the brothers have been members of the Legislature of their native 
State. 

The subject of this sketch was brought up on a farm till he was 
16 years old, when he went to Newburyport, Mass., and fitted for 
college. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1S28, and took his 

57 



920 HISTORY OF ST. JOSBPH COUNTY. 

medical degree from Bowdoin College, Maine, in 1831. After the 
completion of his medical course he at once went to practice in his 
native county. He immediately rose to distinction as a surgeon. 
The study and practice of his profession has been a life business 
with him; he has now (1880) one of the finest libraries in the State 
of Indiana. It is very large, and the volumes were selected with 
great care. Aside from his professional studies, his reading and 
taste have been mostly in the direction of the natural sciences. His 
published writings have been mostly on medical subjects, printed in 
the journals of the day. 

In September, 1835, he was nominated and elected a State 
Senator from his native county. Young as he was his education 
and business tact placed him at the head of one of the most impor- 
tant committees at that time in the State, that of the " North- 
eastern Boundary" question. The question came near involving 
the nation in a war with Great Britain. He was also placed at the 
head of the Committee on Education. He retained the head of these 
important committees as long as he was a member of the Senate. 
He had fine diction. The last two years he served as President of 
the Senate. He took a deep interest and an active, leading part in 
the maturing and passage of the bill for the erection of the Maine 
Insane Asylum. He was on the Board of Trustees for that insti- 
tution from 1840 to 1845. In the latter year he was again elected 
to the Senate, but declined to serve, having decided to leave the 
State. 

In 1846 he removed to Erie county, N. Y., where he continued 
the practice of his profession with renewed zeal and eminent suc- 
cess till February, 1859, when he removed to his present home in 
South Bend, Ind. He soon had a lucrative practice. At the 
breaking out of the great Rebellion he was appointed Surgeon of 
the 48th Reg. Ind. Vol., by Gov. O. P. Morton. The Regiment 
was moved to the front early in 1862, and he was put in charge of 
the Central Hospital at Paducah, Ky., after the great battles of 
Fort Donelson and Shiloh. The wounded of both these great 
battles were brought to Paducah for care and treatment. After 
the battle of Shiloh the necessity of surgical work was so great 
and pressing that for eight full days and nights he stopped but just 
13 hours. May 1, 1862, the regiment moved forward to Corinth, 
Miss. He was in the siege of Corinth in 1862, which lasted from 
May 1 to June 30. During his service of three full years in the 
army he was in 22 battles besides the numerous skirmishes, among 
them those of Iuka, Miss., Sept. 19, 1862 ; Corinth, Miss., Oct. 4 
and 5, 1862; Fort Gibson, Mav 1, 1863; Forty Hills, May 3, 1863; 
Raymond, Miss., May 12, 1863; Jackson, Miss., May 14, 1863; 
Champion Hills, May 16, 1863; Big Black River, May 18, 1863; 
at the siege of Vicksburg, which lasted from May 19, 1863, to July 
4 following; Helena. Ark., Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge 
in November, 1863, and at Kenesaw Mountains in 1864. After 
the battle of Iuka he was appointed Post Surgeon, and had charge 



HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 921 

of all the wounded of both sides after that terribly sanguinary 
battle. Early in 1S63 there was a Board of three Surgeons of each 
division of the army called the "Operating Board," who had 
chargejj of all the capital operations. He was Chairman of the 
Board of the 7th Division of the 17th Army Corps in all the 
great battles in the rear of Vicksburg, and at Lookout Mountain 
and Mission Ridge. He was Medical Director at one time of the 
17th Army Corps, under the gallant McPherson, and is now a 
member of the American Medical Association. He was elected 
Mayor of the city of South Bend in May last (1880), against his 
will. 

He has 2 children, one son and one daughter. His son, Hon. 
M. M. Ham, is editor and proprietor of the Dubuque Herald, 
Iowa, and he is now a Senator in the Legislature of Iowa. The 
daughter is a single lady, and is housekeeper for her father. 

Dr. Ham's portrait will be found on page 757. 

W. H. Hanford, physician and surgeon, was born in Clark 
county, Ohio, in 1825; his early life was spent on a farm until four- 
teen years of age ; he then learned the printer's trade, and subse- 
quently studied medicine, in which he graduated; he came to this 
State and located in South Bend in 1866. 

John W. Harbox was born in Oneida county, N. Y., January 24, 
1S47, son of Fritz and Judith Harbou; father is a native of Den- 
mark and mother of New York; he came to this State Oct. 16, 
1872, and located in South Bend, Ind. ; he worked at the carpenter's 
trade two years and was then employed in the County Clerk's office 
about one year, when he was appointed Deputy Clerk, which po- 
sition he held until May, 1880; in 1879 he was appointed Justice 
of the Peace, and was elected to the same office April 9, 1880, for 
the full term of four years. He is a member of the Masonic order 
in this city; politically he is a Republican. He was married Oct. 
3, 186S, to Miss Juliette Pearly, of Schoolcraft, Mich., and they have 
one child. 

Robert Harris, physician and surgeon, is a native of Ohio, and 
was born March 14, 1823; he spent his early life at home on the 
farm; at the age of twenty-one he began the study of medicine, and 
in 1848 graduated at Starling Medical College, and commenced the 
active practice of medicine and surgery in 1849; in 1851 he mi- 
grated to this State and located in South Bend, where he has since 
resided. Dr. Harris has always had a large and remunerative prac- 
tice, and is one of the leading physicians of South Bend. He was 

married in this city in 1852 to Miss Sophia — , who was 

born in Ohio in 1831 and died in — - — , leaving her husband and two 
children to mourn her loss. He has been a member of the City 
Council two years, and takes an active part in all public enterprises. 
He is one of the leaders of the Greenback party in this city, and is 
an earnest supporter of the doctrines and nominees of that party. 

David Haslenger, Justice of the Peace and Notary Public, was 
born at Zang, Wurtenburg, Feb. 18, 1849, son of Frederick and 



922 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Catharine (Schwaeble) Haslenger; emigrated to this country in the 
summer of 1867, settling at Plymouth, Ind., and came to South 
Bend in April, 1869. Aug. S, 1871, Mr. H. married Minnie Am- 
bos, of South Bend, who was born in Philadelphia July 27, 1S53, 
and their children are Anna, Gustave, Bertha and Frank. Mr. 
Haslenger followed cabinet-making from 1869 to 1871, then was 
insurance agent, Notary Public and finally Justice of the Peace, 
which office he now holds, having been first elected in 1876, and 
re-elected in 1880. Politically he is a Democrat. He represents 
the Glens Falls, Liverpool & London and Globe, North German, 
London & Lancashire and Firemen's insurance companies; all re- 
liable and safe. He is also a prominent member of the South 
B md Msennerchor and of the Turn-Verein, and has been president 
and secretary of both these societies for several years. 

John Hay was born in Pennsylvania in 1S39, son of David and 
Nancy Hay, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Virginia, 
who came to this State and located in this county in 1S64. .Mr. 
Hay enlisted in 1861 in Co. I of the 57th Eegt. of Pa. Vols., and 
was in the service nearly three years; he was in the battles of Bull 
Run, Chancellorsville, Battle of the Wilderness, Gettysburg and 

others; he lost one arm in the battle of . He was in the 

mercantile business in this city for twelve years, and in 1878 was 
elected Treasurer of St. Joseph county, which office he still holds. 
He was married in 1866 to Mary Zahniser, of Pennsylvania, who 
was born in 184S; they have 3 children: Minnie. Winnie and Nan- 
nie G. 

Joseph Anderson, a native Indianian, was born in Wayne county, 
near Newport, July 6, 1S29; his father and mother were from 
North Carolina, and emigrated to Indiana at an early day. While 
he was quite young his father died, and his mother lived many 
years afterward. He was a student, for a while, under Barnabas C. 
Hobbs, at Richmond; shortly after leaving school he entered 
Wittenberg College at Springfield, Clark county, O., where he 
remained for several sessions. He taught some after leaving col- 
lege, and while teaching school at Marion, Grant county, he com- 
menced the study of the law under the Hon. Isaac Van Devanter, a 
prominent young lawyer of that town. After spending a summer 
in Marion he emigrated to South Bend, where he has ever since 
resided. At his adopted home he continued the study of law under 
Hon. Elisha Egbert, now deceased; he attended a law class taught 
b} T Hon. Thomas S. Stanfield several winters in succession; was 
a partner for several years of the late lamented Norman Eddy; he 
was elected to the House of Representatives in 1870; re-elected in 
1S72; elected to the Senate in 1874; elected to the Council from the 
2d ward of this city in the spring of 1S79. 

Wool/man John JETolloway. The subject of this sketch was born in 
Clark county, Ohio, Feb. 6, 1826. His father, George Holloway, 
was a Virginian by birth, his early home having been near Win- 
chester, Va. In an early day he, with his father, William Hollo- 
way, came to Ohio, settling in the Scioto Valley near Chillicothe. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. !>28 

Mary Woolman Holloway, mother of Woolman J., was born near 
Mt. Holly, New Jersey. Her father, John Woolman, was one of 
the early 'pioneers of Southern Ohio, having crossed the Alleghenies 
twice on foot from New Jersey, and also one of the early explorers 
of the Territory of Michigan. He was a nephew of the John Wool- 
man of colonial times, who was among the first men of those times 
to oppose the introduction of African slaves and slave-holding in 
the colonies. His writings on this and other subjects have been 
edited and published in book form by James G. Whittier, the noted 
Quaker poet and scholar. 

In the fall of 1 S30 George Holloway, with his family — consist- 
ing of his wife Mary, daughter Martha, and three sons, Woolman 
J., William Franklin and Uriah Branson (Woolman J. being the 
elder), and his father-in-law, John Woolman, his wife and family — 
removed to the '" Indian country," the then " Territory of Michi- 
gan." They located first near the wigwam of Pokagon, one of the 
chiefs of the Pottawatomies, on Pokagon Prairie, now Pokagon tp., 
Cass county, Mich. The Indian title to the lands in Northern 
Indiana having been extinguished by treaty, these lands were put 
into market by the Government. In 1831 George Holloway pur- 
chased a tract in Greene tp., St. Joseph county, Ind., and thereon 
erected the usual pioneer log cabin, into which he removed with 
his family in April, 1832. Here he resided until his death, June, 
1875. His wife and sou, William Franklin, died in 183S, a year 
ever memorable to the early settlers as the ''sickly season." Uriah 
Branson removed with his wife and son to Colorado Territory in 
1859, and subsequently became identified with the Territorial Gov- 
ernment and early organization of that State. At the beginning 
of the war of the Rebellion he enlisted in the 1st Colorado Regi- 
ment but subsequently became Captain of Co. L. in the 2d Colo- 
rado Cavalry, and served until the end of the war with distinction. 
At the close of the war he returned to Colorado and located at Pue- 
blo, with the view of practicing law. Without his solicitation he 
was made Marshal of the Territory. Removing from Colorado he 
located at Shreveport, La., and was elected clerk of the Circuit 
Court for the parish of Caddo. During that year the scourge ot 
yellow fever visited Shreveport, and he, his wife and son, the en- 
tire family, were among the many victims of the fell destroyer. 
The early days of Woolman J. were spent on the farm, with usual 
routine of farm life, in the midst of the many vicissitudes of pio- 
neer experience. The first work to be done was to reclaim the 
"wild lands," and bring them under the civilized hand of agricult- 
ure. 

The organization of society and the building of log school diouses, 
were among the first objects of the early settlers. The opportunities 
for education were, indeed, limited. The log school-house was 
generally miles away from the cabin, and the schoolmaster was 
considered an " apt scholar " if he could " cipher " to the " double 
rule of three." Grammar, philosophy and science were matters 



924 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

hardly to be dreamed of in those log-cabin schools. There were 
tew books, and newspapers were to be seen only now and then. 
But the log-cabin school aud country " debating society " were the 
seminaries and universities for the young men of those pioneer days. 
Between work on the farm in summer and the three months at school 
in winter, "Woolman J. managed to acquire the simple rudiments of 
education, and himself became one of the teachers in the log semi- 
naries in St. Joseph county. In 1853 he became a resident of youth 
Bend, and in 1S59 was elected to the office of County Auditor — an 
office of honor and trust. He was twice elected to this office the 
constitutional terra, and performed the duties of that important 
office to the full satisfaction of the people of St. Joseph county. 
The first four years of his official life were during the war of the 
Rebellion, during which time St. Joseph county assumed many re- 
sponsibilities and was not wanting in patriotic action. She con- 
tributed liberally for bounties to soldiers enlisting in the county. 
She raised revenues and paid considerable sums to the families of 
soldiers who were absent in the field, and for other relief. During 
his term of office the county jail was built, the county asylum en- 
larged and improved, and other valuable improvements made by 
an able Board of County Commissioners. The credit of the county 
was maintained, and on retiring from office in 1867 he was grati- 
fied with the fact that St. Joseph county had but little debt, and 
was not burdened with onerous taxes. In the meantime he had 
been admitted to the practice of law at the Bar of the St. Joseph 
Circuit, but did not engage actively in the profession of law. 

Mr. Holloway was first married in June, 1859, to Miss Mary A. 
Smith, of Cass county, Mich., who was born in Sussex county, Del., 
her parents having been among the early settlers of Cass county. 
Mrs. Holloway died in May, 1862. Mr. Holloway was married again 
to Miss E. A. Perkins, of St. Joseph county, in February, 1865. She 
was born in Southern Ohio; her parents were from Virginia and 
among the earlier settlers of St. Joseph county. 

Mr. Holloway is still a citizen of St. Joseph county, resident of 
the city of South Bend, and for the past ten years has been identi- 
fied with one of the leading manufacturing industries of South 
Bend and of the great AVest. During this time he has been actively 
engaged in commercial life, and is well and favorably known in 
many of the Western and Southern States. 

Mr. Holloway's portrait will be found on page 917. 

John Hopper was born in New York in 1809; came to this State 
in 183S and located in South Bend, where he now resides. He 
worked at home upon the farm until he was 18 years of age, then 
served an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, and was engaged 
in that business for over 30 years. He then secured a contract for 
the construction of a portion of the Lake Shore & Michigan South- 
ern railroad, and was engaged in that business for some years. He 
was married in January, 1832, to Miss Caroline Stanford, of New 
York, and they had 2 children. Mrs. H. died in 1836, and Mr. H. 



HI8T0EY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 925 

was married again in 1840, to Pheba Smith, of Kentucky, who 
died in 1843, leaving 2 children. He was married in 1849 to Eliza- 
beth Godfrey, of Michigan, who was born in 1826; they have 2 
children now living. Mr. H. is one of the old pioneers of St. Joseph 
county, and one of the most respected men in South Bend. 

Richard In/wood was born in England in 1S12, and came to this 
country in 1833. He spent his early life at work in manufactories 
and in farming; was in the employ of the Mishawaka Iron Works 
for a number of years. He was married in 1843 to Miss Catherine 
A. Rush, who was born in Ohio in 1821 and died in 1858; they 
had 3 children. He was again married, in this county in 1861, to 
Miss Martha Green, who was born in Ohio in 1821; they have one 
child. Mr. Inwood has a farm of 400 acres in Centre tp., under 
high cultivation and worth at least $60 per acre. He also owns a 
tine residence on Washington street in this city, where he now 
resides. He is a member of the First M. E. Church in this city. 

George J. Kenney, the oldest son of Thomas and Mary Kenney, 
natives of Ireland, who came to this country in 1828, and to Indiana 
in 1S53, locating in South Bend, where they have since resided. 
The subject of this sketch was born in Buffalo in 1S46, where he 
spent his early life. He came to this State with his parents in 
1853, and has been most of the time in the grocery trade, in which 
business he is now engaged. His store is now located on the cor- 
ner of East Water and Emerick streets, and he is doing a large 
business. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and 
politically he is a Democrat. 

/Samuel L. Kilmer, M. D. — This gentleman is one of the rising 
physicians, and although he has been in practice here but for a 
short time, he has a good business. He was born in Ashland, Ohio, 
in 1849, and is the son of Isaac and Anna (Gilmore Kilmer, who 
were natives of Pennsylvania and are of German descent. He 
received a liberal education and commenced the study of medicine 
in 1876 at the Rush Medical College of Chicago, graduated in 1S79 
anil commenced the practice of medicine the same year in South 
Bend, where he now resides. His office is on the corner of Michi- 
gan and Washington streets. 

John Klingcl has been identified in a marked degree with the 
business and educational interests of South Bend for the past 28 
years. He was born at Wallhalben, Rhein Pfalz, Aug. 31, 1835, 
and is the youngest son of Philip Klingel, who was a French sol- 
dier under the first Napoleon during the last battles of that great 
conqueror. The subject of this sketch received the advantages of a 
good education in the schools of his native town until he was about 
15 years of age, when, in the spring of 1850, he emigrated with 
his parents and one sister to the United States, whither three broth- 
ers and one sister had preceded them several years. The family 
located, on their arrival, in the town of Rome, Oneida count)-, N. 
Y., where the)' remained one year, at the end of which time, in 
company with his parents, one sister and two brothers, he came to 



926 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Indiana, arriving at South Bend May 1, 1852. Soon afterward P. 
Klingel & Sons commenced in the boot and shoe trade at No. 80, 
Michigan street. All of the firm being practical shoemakers, quite 
a large business in manufacturing boots and shoes was soon estab- 
lished. In the early spring of 1856 our subject made a tour ot the 
West, but returned to South Bend in the fall of that year, when he 
became the sole proprietor of the flourishing business established 
by P. Klingel & Sous. He added to the former business that of 
dealing in hides and leather, which was continued under the firm 
name of John Klingel & Bro., until 1872, when, partly on account 
of failing health, the business was sold out to other parties. In 1873 
Mr. K. made a trip to Europe for his health, attended the great 
AVorld's Exhibition at Vienna and many places of note on the con- 
tinent. Returning home much improved in health, he engaged in 
traveling for the sale of furniture, and later and up to the present 
time for the " Coquillard Wagon Factory." 

When South Bend was organized as a city in 1864 he was elected 
as Councilman from the first ward, and at the expiration of his term 
was re-elected, but resigned his seat soon after commencing his 
second term. He received no opposition at either of the above elec- 
tions. In the same year he was appointed a member of the City 
Board of Education, to which position he has been steadily re-elected 
and served the city faithfully, with the exception of one year, while 
in Europe, up to the present time. To illustrate the well-earned 
esteem in which he is held, it is said that no matter what political 
party was in power, whenever his name came up for election to the 
above office there was never a single vote cast against him. All the 
school-houses in the city except two have been built since Mr. K. 
was a member of the Board, and no one is better known or more 
popular among the school children of South Bend than their friend 
John Klingel. He is now Treasurer of the School Board, and when 
in the city devotes nearly his entire time to the educational inter- 
ests of the place. Under Mr. Klingel's direction graded schools 
were first established in South Bend, and the first superintendent 
appointed. 

In 1S75 the City Council transferred the City Library, consist- 
ing of over 2,000 volumes, to the City School Board. The library 
was at once removed to the high-school building, and Mr. Klingel 
volunteered his services as librarian, and for over two years devoted 
two days of each week to this work free of charge. Under his direc- 
tion it became one of the most popular institutions in the city and 
increased to 2,500 volumes. 

Mr. K. was one of the first members of Germania Lodge No. 
301, A. F. & A. M., and has been Master of said lodge off" and on 
for 10 years; also is a member of South Bend Chapter No. 29, Pv. 
A. M., and a Sir Knight of Warsaw Commanderv No. Id. 

Mr. Klingel was married Dec. 6, 1857, at South Bend, to Miss 
Fyette Dice, a daughter of John K. Dice, of this county, and an 
early settler. Mr. and Mrs. K. are very pleasantly situated in South 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 927 

Bend, and have a family of 3 children, all at home. Their names 
are Albert, Clara and Cora. 

John C. Knoblock is the son of Frederic and Saloma Knoblock, 
who were natives of Strasburg, Germany, and came to this country 
in 1829, and settled in Canton, Ohio. In 1833, they migrated to 
Indiana and entered Government laud in Marshall county, where 
they cleared and improved a farm. The subject of this sketch was 
born in the city of Canton, Ohio. Nov. 3, 1830. While yet a small 
boy he learned the shoemaker's trade, so as to be able to make the 
boots and shoes for the family, and at the age of 13 came to Indiana 
with his parents, and worked on the farm for five years. He then 
started out from home on foot and walked to South Bend, where he 
hired out at $10 a month as a teamster for A. R. & J. H. Harper, 
who, as soon as they became acquainted with the young man and 
his good qualities, gave him a position in their flouring mill, the 
mill being now known as the " Phoenix." While at the mill he 
became acquainted with a millwright who was about to embark in 
the grocery trade, and he was induced to take a position in his store 
as clerk, where he remained for several vears, until he had acquired a 
full knowledge of the business. March 3, 1853, he began business 
for himself in copartnership with Kasper Rockstroh, and continued 
in business with varying snccess until 1871, when his estate was 
worth over $75,000. He then was induced to engage in the manu- 
facture of furniture. Some time after the establishment was remod- 
eled and converted into a factory for the manufacture of reapers. 
In 1876 the building was again changed and he began in company 
with others the manufacture of the celebrated South Bend chilled 
plow, which he still continues. In 1865 he engaged in a general 
milling business, which he has continued ever since. In 1870 he 
was one of the organizers and charter members of the St. Joseph 
County Savings Bank, which has proved a success to its managers, 
and a great benefit to the people. He was treasurer of this institution 
for four years, and has been one of its trustees since its organization. 

From 1866 to 1870 he was a member of the Board of County Com- 
missioners, but owing to the pressure of private business he 
declined to be renominated for that office. He was also a member 
of the Town Council for a number of terms before the city was 
organized. Politically, he has been a staunch Republican since 
1860, and is a zealous supporter of that party and its nominees. 
He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to the lodge, chap- 
ter and commandery, and has held at various times prominent offices 
in each of these divisions of the order. He is quite liberal in his 
religions views, believing that if the people are properly educated 
they will be of necessity right in matters pertaining to their salva- 
tion. 

He was married in this city in 1S53, -to Miss Lissetta Myer, 
daughter of John M. and Wenina Myer. She was born in Bavaria, 
Germany, in 1836. They have had 3 children, 2 of whom are 
n'ow living. The eldest, Clara L., was born Dec. 12, 1854, and 



^•28 HI8T0RT Or ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

died when nine years of age. Their second child, Hattie Lee, was 
born Dec 21, 1S56, and is the wife of George "W. Reynolds, of this 
city. The youngest, Otto M. was born June 19, 1859; he still lives 
with his parents. 

Mr. Knoblock is a self-made man; he started in life for himself 
in this city without a dollar of capital, and by honest industry 
has accpiired a competence. As an evidence of his public spirit 
and enterprise, he intends to donate a building to the city for the 
establishment of a school of philosophy and physiology and kindred 
subjects, the institution to be so arranged as to be self-sustaining. 
A good portrait of Mr. Knoblock will be found in this volume. 

WilliamKnobloch was born in Ohio in 1832, and is the son of 
Frederick and Mary (Watson) Knoblock, who came to this State 
and located in Marshall. He engaged in the grocery business in 
1864, which he continued three years; then engaged in the manu- 
facture of furniture and tables, which he continued until 1872; then 
sold out and, in connection with his brother, engaged in the retail 
furniture trade, which they still continue and are doing a very large 
business. Mr. Knoblock is a member of the Odd Fellows order, and 
also of Turn-Verein. He was married in 1853 to Josephine Knob- 
lock, of South Bend, who was born in Ohio in 1833; they had 3 chil- 
dren by this marriage; Mrs. K. died in 1865, and in 1866' he was 
married to Christina D. Scheyer, of this city; they have 3 chil- 
dren. Politically, Mr. Knoblock is a Republican. 

John iV. Lederer was born in the town of Arsburg, Bavaria, in 
1833. He was educated in the college and gymnasium of Hof; came 
to this country in June, 1853, and to Indiana, locating in South 
Bend, where he was employed as a bookkeeper for Harper & Devoe, 
at which business he continued for about three mouths; he then 
worked in a flouring and grist mill for a short time, and afterward 
worked on the railroad for several months. He then, in connection 
with J. C. Knoblock, engaged in the grocery and bakery business, 
which he continued until 1859, at which time he built a meat mar- 
ket onWashington street and engaged in the sale of meats and pack- 
ing of pork. He was married June 27, 1860, to Miss Antoinette 
Bauar, daughter of Francis and Maria (Elman) Bauer, of this city; 
they have one child living, Annie, born Jan. 1, 1872. In 1872 Mr. 
Lederer returned to Germany, and spent several months at his old 
home, and made an extended tour of the continent. In 1873 he 
formed a co-partnership with J. C. Knoblock again in the whole- 
sale and retail grocery business, which he continued until 1877. 
In 186S he also formed a partnership with A. T. Coquillard and W. 
H. Longley. They purchased large tracts of land in Boone county, 
Nebraska, and platted and laid out the village of St. Edwards. In 
August, 1876, they formed a stock company, known as " The 
St. Edward's Land and Emigration Company," of which Mr. Led- 
erer was elected at their first meeting vice president for the term 
of five years. In 1S79, in connection with others, he entered into 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 929 

a contract with the Northwestern Railway Company for the pur- 
chase of 25,000 acres of land in Wisconsin. He built a large 
business block on East Washington street, known as the " Blue 
Front," and a fine residence on Lafayette street, and now has in 
course of construction on Washington street one of the finest 
business blocks in the city, to be known as "Union Block." Mr. 
Lederer started in South Bend with $11 in gold, and has by 
persevering industry acquired a competence. He has been a 
a life-long Democrat. The Board of County Commissioners in 
1870 appointed him Commissioner of South Bend for the appraise- 
ment of property for benefits and damages. He has his office at 
86 Michigan street. A portrait of Mr. Lederer faces page 882. 

William H. Longley was born in Elkhart county, Ind., October 
3, 1846, and is the son of Andrew and Mary Longley, the former a 
native of Pennsylvania, and the latter of Indiana. His father came 
to this State in 1834, and located in Elkhart county, where he re- 
sided until 1S53; he then came to this county and located on Por- 
tage Prairie, and soon afterward moved to Sumption's Prairie, 
where he now resides. Mr. Longley remained at home on the farm 
until he Was 16 years old, then entered the University of Notre 
Dame, where he took a full commercial course, and graduated 
in 1867; he then entered the dry goods house of John Brownfield, 
Esq., where he has since been engaged as salesman and book- 
keeper. He was married in this city, to Miss Plelen L. Searle of 
the same place, December 14, 1871, a daughter of Richard Searle 
Esq., of this place, and was born in Pennsylvania in 1848; they 
have one son, born January 28, 187S. Mr. Longley is treasurer 
of the St. Edwards Land and Emigration Company, and also of 
the Wisconsin Land and Emigration Company of this city. 
Politically, he is a Democrat. His portrait faces page S10. 

Charges W. Martin was born in New Jersey in 1815, and is the 
sun of Charles and Mary Martin, who were natives of New Jersey, 
and of French descent; he learned the harness and saddlery trade 
when a boy; his education was limited to a few months' attendance 
at the district school. He left New Jersey when 19 years old, and 
went to Ohio, where he worked at his trade about one year, and 
then came to Indiana and located in South Bend, reaching this 
city in 1837. He at once engaged in the saddlery and harness 
business, which he has continued up to the present time. He 
located at No. 88 Michigan street. There was but one engaged in 
the business when he came here, and he is now the oldest pioneer 
in the harness trade in South Bend. He was married in this city 
in 1842 to Jane Buck, who was bojn in Ohio in 1821; they have 3 
children living: Horace, Silas and Mary. Mr. M. is a member of 
the Odd Fellows' order, and himself and wife are members of the 
Presbyterian Church. His son is now engaged with him and they 
carry on their business at the old stand, No. 88 Washington street. 
John A. McGiU, M. D., was born in New York in 1842, the son 
of Robert S. and McGill, natives of Massachusetts. He 



930 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

began the study of medicine when 25 years of age, and began the 
practice of the art while under the preceptorship of Dr. James 
Emmett, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., which he continued for five 
years. He then attended the Homeopathic Medical College of 
Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated at that institution in 1873, when 
he commenced the practice of medicine in Attica, N. Y. He 
came to Indiana in 1877 and settled in South Bend, where he 
has since resided and continued the practice of medicine and sur- 
gery. Dr. McGill was married in New York June 7, 1876, to 
Carrie M. Conley, daughter of Benjamin and Emily Conley, of 
New York; she was born in the same State in 1S48. He is a 
member of the order of Odd Fellows, and of the First Presbyte- 
rian Church, this city. 

A. B. Merritt, M. D., was born in Rutland county, Vermont, in 
1809. He is the son of Peter and Nancy Merritt, who were 
natives of the same State. His early life was spent at home and 
in attendance at school. He began the study of medicine at the 
Geneva (N. Y.) Medical College, and graduated at that institution 
in 1834, when he moved to Detroit, Mich., and began the practice 
of medicine. He came to South Bend in 1S38, where he has since 
resided, in the practice of medicine, with the exception of four 
years spent in California. He was a member of the first medical 
society formed in the city and was for some time treasurer of that 
body. The Doctor has been a member of the Masonic order for 
many years, and politically, he is a Republican. 

John C. Miller, M. D., was born in Ohio in 1851; he received a 
liberal education, and at the age of 19 began the study of medi- 
cine, and graduated at the medical college of Cleveland in 1874, 
where he practiced for a short time; came to this county in 1876 
and began the practice of medicine, where he has since resided. 
He has a large practice and is one of the rising young men in the 
healing art in South Bend. He was married in Wayne county, 
Ohio, in 1876, to Miss Kate Pontrus. The Doctor is the present 
Coroner of St. Joseph county. 

Joshua D. Miller was born in ISIS near Dayton, Montgomery 
county, Ohio, son of Aaron and Elizabeth (Ilardman) Miller, father 
a native of Virginia, and mother, of Pennsylvania, pioneers of that 
county; they moved to Wayne county, Ind., in 1S18, and to this 
county in 1831, settling about five miles north of South Bend. The 
subject of this sketch was brought up on a farm. Sept. 27, 1849, 
he married Lydia Ann, daughter of Samuel Good and a native of 
Ohio, whose parents were from Virginia, and they had 7 children, 
only one of whom is now living: Mary, residing at home. Followed 
carpentering about 20 years ; his farm consisted of 200 acres, on sees. 
32 and 33, German tp., which he sold in 1877; in 1S72 he moved into 
the city of South Bend, and now resides on La Porte avenue. Has 
held a number of local offices, — was School Director, Assessor, etc.; 
was a Whig in former years, but is now a Republican, and has been 
a member of the County Republican Central Committee about ten 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 931 

years. He is a member ofthe (Jniversalist Church, built the house 
of worship for that denomination in Greene tp., and is now enjoy- 
ing a retired life in comfort. 

William Miller, deceased, was the son of Tobias and Sarah (Hen- 
derson) Miller, father a native of Pennsylvania, and mother of 
Virginia. His father came- to this State from Virginia in 1833, 
and located in this county; afterward moved to La Porte, where he 
resided until the date of his death. He had 12 children, of which 
the subject of this notice was the 6th, and was born in Franklin 
county, Va., in 1809; came to Union county, Ind., with his parents 
when a small child; his education was such as the log school-houses 
of that early day afforded; he learned the tanner's trade when quite 
a young boy, and for a time followed that business, but afterward 
was engaged in business of various kinds during life. He was mar- 
ried in Union county. Ind., to Miss Maiy Miller, daughter of John 
and Nancy (Kepper) Miller, who came to this State from Virginia 
in 1810 and settled in Union county,where they resided during life. 
Mrs. M. was born in Union county, Ind., in 1811; they had 6 chil- 
dren: John F., born in 1831; Isaac N., born 1835; William H., born 
in 1838; Martha E., born in 1S39; Henry Clay, born in 1S44; and 
Horace G., born in 1849. Mr. Miller came to St. Joseph county 
in 1833 and engaged in farming, which he continued until 1S46, 
when he moved to the city of South Bend and engaged in mercan- 
tile and other business; was also a member of the Hydraulic Power 
Company. He filled many positions of trust and importance, and 
was one of South Bend's most honored citizens. 

A portrait of Mr. Miller will be found on page 829. 

William Miller, one of the pioneers of this county, was born 
March 16, 1821, in Pennsylvania. His ancestors were Germans 
and came to this country about the middle of the last century, dur- 
ing the prevalence of the religious wars that were at that time 
devastating that portion of Europe. At the time of his birth his 
native State had not yet inaugurated her liberal school system, and 
the only advantages of education he obtained were during the win- 
ter months at the very inferior district schools of the county. He 
left home at the age of 14 and entered a store as clerk in the city 
of Harrisburg, Penn., where he remained until 1S37, when he emi- 
grated with his father's family to this county, where he has made 
his home ever since. In 1849 he was one of the pioneers that 
crossed the plains to the gold fields of California. He returned to 
this city in 1852, and in 1853-'4 built railroads in Illinois under 
contract. In 1855 he engaged in the milling business in this 
county, and in 1869 he sold out his interest in that and commenced 
banking, which he still continues. He is at present cashier of the 
South Bend National Bank. In 1872 he was elected Mayor of 
South Bend, and re-elected to the office in 1874. He has also an 
interest in a mill at Mishawaka. 

Charles Morgan was born in the northeastern part of North 
Carolina Nov. 1, 1810. He remained at home on the farm until 
he was 21 , and then served an apprenticeship at the carpenter and 



932 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH 00UNT7. 

joiner's trade, which has heen his business ever since. He emi- 
grated to this State in 1S26, locating in Wayne county, where he 
resided until 1835, when he moved to South Bend, this county, 
where he has since resided. He was married in Wayne county, 
this State, in 1S2S, to Susan Moon, who was born in the western 
part of North Carolina. She died in. 1S33, and he was subse- 
quently married in this city to Sarah Shonnard, who was born in 
New jersey in 1814. They have 3 children by this marriage, and 
he has one by Ills first marriage. He belongs to the Odd Fellows 
order in this city. 

J. F. Morrill, M. D., was born at Cleveland, 0., in January, 
1852. His parents were Wooster and S. E. Morrill. He attended 
school until 17, when he left that and entered the drug business as 
an apprentice; after remaining two years in this he took up the 
study of medicine and graduated at the Eclectic Medical College at 
Cincinnati, Ohio. In March, 1879, he married Mary M. Plumb, of 
Austinburg, O.; one child has been born to them. In November, 
1879, he moved to this city (South Bend) from Three Rivers, Mich., 
and erected the mineral bath house. The water was one of the 
attractions of the place, and he has proved that the water is bene- 
ficial in the treatment of various diseases. The water comes from 
an aretsian well OS feet deep. It is strongly chalybeate, contains 
iron, magnesia and sodium, a little lime and sulphur. It is about 
40° Fahr. the year round. By bathing in the water at a tempera- 
ture of 100° to 110° it opens the pores of the skin and the iron 
contained in the water will stimulate. Rheumatism and various 
diseases of the blood are curable by this method, and in connection 
with electricity has a beneficial result on all diseases. 

Mrs. S. E. Morrill, M. D., was born in Twinsburg, Ohio, in 
September, 1828; her father, Perley Abbey, was an architect, and 
shortly after her birth moved to Cleveland, O., where she remained 
until 1S55 ; at 18 she was married to Wooster Morrill, of New 
Hampshire; five years afterward their only child was born. She 
was left a widow at 36, and since then has educated herself in the 
medical profession. She graduated at the Homeopathic College at 
Cleveland, Ohio, in 1868; since that time has been practicing in 
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Washington; has made a specialty of 
electricity as a remedial agent. Used it at first as an auxiliary 
to medicine only, but has discovered that it can be used to cure 
all acute and chronic diseases without medicine. She has invented 
a battery that will detect any disease, no matter where located, 
without asking the patient a question. The possibilities of elec- 
tricity as a remedial agent, she claims, are not dreamed of by the 
medical profession. She came to South Bend to avail herself of the 
mineral water. " God rules the universe with water and electricity, 
and with these same elements can doctors control disease." 

Hon. Charles Lefferts Murray, editor of the South Bend Herald, 
was born in 1S15, in Murraysville, Bradford county, Pa., his father 
of Scotch ancestry and his mother of English ; while very young 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 933 

his parents moved with him to Athens, Pa. ; in 1S2S he commenced 
to learn the printing business in Towanda, and continued in 
Columbus, O.; worked a year in Jacksonville, 111., where lived a 
relative of considerable note, Gen. Murray McConnell ; suffering 
from ague he returned to Columbus, where he remained until 1S34, 
in the newspaper business; editorially conducted the Piqua (0.) 
Courier for a time, being the first in the State in 1S35 to " run up" 
the name of Gen. Harrison; in 1837 he established the Goshen 
Express, the first newspaper in the county; was Postmaster at 
Goshen, under President Harrison; followed farming for awhile; 
reported for seven sessions the proceedings of the State Legis- 
lature for the State Journal, then owned by John D. Defrees; in 
1859 he was elected a Representative to the State Legislature on 
the Republican ticket, for Elkhart and Lagrange counties, by 900 
majority; in 1860 he was elected Senator bj' 1,200 majority. 

In the spring of 1861, President Lincoln having called for 
75,000 men to put down the Rebellion inaugurated by the "Con- 
federate States of the South," Governor Morton called an extra 
session of the Legislature, and issued a proclamation for the 
assembling of Indiana's quota of militia at Indianapolis, to join 
the Union forces. Mr. Murray being a member of the State 
Senate, before repairing to the capitol, issued a call for volunteers 
through the two newspapers of Goshen, made out the first muster- 
roll, and, beading it with his own name, left it at the Auditor*? 
office for signatures, which was soon filled beyond the complement 
allowed to single companies. On the evening of his departure he 
got them together at the court-house, nominated Milo S. Hascall 
for Captain, and E. R. Kerstetter for First Lieutenant, and then 
left on the night train for Indianapolis, and after taking his seat in 
the Senate, was soon followed by all the volunteers on his muster- 
roll. He went to war as a private, was promoted Orderly Sergeant, 
then Quartermaster of the 48th Ind. Vol. Inf., which position he 
resigned on account of sickness ; but on account of his efficiency as 
a soldier and officer, it was three months before his resignation was 
accepted. In lS62-'3 he resumed his seat in the Legislature, and 
after the expiration of his term he continued by all honora'ole 
means to sustain a vigorous prosecution of the efforts of the Govern- 
ment to suppress the Rebellion. In 1S70 he sold his farm and 
moved into Goshen, and subsequently contributed as a miscellaneous 
writer to the Democrat; in 1872 he took the stump for Greeley, 
having been appointed a member of the State Executive Com- 
mittee by the "Liberal" party; the next year he purchased the 
Goshen Democrat, and in December, 1874, he took possession of 
the South Bend Herald, with his son C. T. in charge; in 1876 he 
moved to this city and assumed the entire management. 

In July, 1836, he married Ann Maria Spriggs. of Kentucky. His 
children are Francis W., Charles T., Edward, Gordon JS T ., Harris 
F., Willis G., Emeline, Mary S. and Eliza O. 



934 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Cornelius H. Myers, M. D., was born in Wayne county, Ohio, 
in 1S52, and is the son ot'Enos and Mary Myers, who were natives 
of Pennsylvania. They settled in Elkhart county, this State, in 1852, 
where the subject of •'this sketch spent his early life with his parents 
on a farm, attending the district school during the winter months. 
He taught school for two years and then began the study of medi- 
cine in ISTiat Goshen, Ind., with Dr. W. A. Whipple, the most 
prominent homeopathic physician in Elkhart county. He attended 
the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago in 1875, graduated in 
1877, and began the practice of medicine in South Bend in 1876, in 
connection with Dr. Partridge, the leading homeopathic physician of 
Northern Indiana, with whom he has since continued in practice. 
He was married in 1870 to Miss Gertrude W. Harris, of this city. 
They are members of the Presbyterian Church. Politically, Mr. 
Myers is a Republican. 

Henri/ Nelville, If. D., was born in Ohio, Dec. 1-1, 1839; he re- 
mained at home and worked on the farm until twenty years old, 
receiving such education as the common schools of that day afforded. 
He then taught school for a number of years, and at the age of 29 
began the study of medicine in the Homeopathic College of Cleve- 
land, Ohio; graduated in 1S72, and soon began the practice of medi- 
cine and surgery in Randolph, New York, where he remained a 
short time and then moved to Albion, N. Y., where he continued 
his practice for three years. Dec. 30, 1S79, he came to this city 
and located, wdiere he now resides. He was married in 1868, in 
New York to Miss A. S. Jones, daughter, of Abner and Lydia S. 
Jones, natives of Vermont. She was born in New York in 1S44. 
She began the study of medicine in 1869, graduating at the Home- 
opathic College of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1S72, and has since been 
engaged in the practice of medicine in connection with her husband. 
They have 2 children: Pearl and Ruby. They are members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

J. M. Partridge, A. If.. 21. D. Dr. Partridge was born in Gus- 
tavus, Trumbull county, Ohio, May 17, 1S35, and is a son of Isaac 
and Elizabeth (Bailey) Partridge. His father, Isaac, was born in 
Connecticut in 1808, and in 1S20 removed with his grandfather, 
Thomas, to Ohio, where he still resides. His mother, a daughter 
of Ida Bailey, was a native of Vermont, and removed to Ohio about 
L825. She died in February, 1856. His grandfather, Thomas 
Partridge, served through the Revolutionary war, and took part in 
the engagement that resulted in the final surrender of the British 
forces tinder Lord Cornwallis. 

During his early years Dr. Partridge lived on a farm, where he 
received a good common-school education. At the age of 20 years 
he began teaching school in the winter, and assisted on his father's 
farm in the summer. Thus he continued for three years, when, 
yielding to an earnest desire for a classical education, at the age of 
23 he began his studies at Oberlin preparatory to a college, course. 
Here he encountered and overcame difficulties that would have 



•3«*w 




HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNT?. 937 

utterly discouraged many. A stranger and almost penniless he 
soon found employment, so that by working a few hours each day 
and studying, often till midnight, throughout the six years' course 
of study he paid all current expenses and kept up with his classes. 
During part of this time he was employed as teacher in the pre- 
paratory department of the college, 

In 1S63 he enlisted in the Ohio State Militia, an organization 
intended for home protection, but subject to the orders of the Gov- 
ernor. In April, 1864, during the darkest hours of the Rebellion, 
his regiment, the 150th Ohio, was ordered to the front and attached 
to the garrison holding the fortifications about the city of Wash- 
ington. His company (K) was garrisoning Fort Slocum at the 
time General Early attempted to take it in his attack upon Wash- 
ington, July 3, 1864, and which attack was signally repulsed. On 
the 15th of August following, his regiment was mustered out of the 
service at Cleveland, O., and he immediately returned to Oberlin, 
where he graduated with his class, receiving his diploma and title 
of A. B. Aug. 28, 1864. At this time Rev. John G. Fee, an earn- 
est anti-slavery reformer, had conceived the idea of establishing an 
academic school at the heretofore obscure town of Berea, in the 
backwoods of Kentucky. Pie asked Pres. Fairchild, of Oberlin 
College, to send him a teacher who had ability and courage to suc- 
cessfully assist him in this work. Dr. Partridge was recommended. 
He remained with Mr. Fee six months and organized the first 
classes in Greek, Latin and algebra that were ever taught in what 
is now Berea College. 

In the spring of 1865 the subject of our sketch entered the office 
of Dr. L. B. Dye, atGustavus, to pursue the study of medicine; 
the following September he entered as student in the office of Drs. 
Blair and Sanders, at Cleveland, O., and during the ensuing win- 
ter he attended the first course of lectures in the Cleveland Home- 
opathic College, both of his preceptors being Professors, and Dr. 
Sanders, President of the College. In November, 1S66, he com- 
menced medical practice, in partnership with Dr. Craig, at Niles, 
Mich., where he remained a year, and then attended a second 
course of lectures at the Hahnemann Medical College, of Chicago, 
where lie received a diploma in the spring of 1868. The preceding 
year he had received his second literary degree and title of A. M. 
from his alma mater at Oberlin. In March, 1868, he commenced 
practice in South Bend, where he has ever since remained, now 
having a partner in his business, Dr. C. H. Myers. He was the 
first physician to make homeopathy a success in this community, 
which he has most signally accomplished, not only in popularizing 
the merits of his system, but also in a pecuniary way. He has 
already added to the beautiful city of South Bend a fine block of 
residences, and made himself a comfortable home. His quiet and 
unassuming manner, his superior mental discipline, his sympathy 
with the afflicted and his excellent judgment in all cases of emer- 
gency draw to him an immense patronage who will be his firm friends 

58 



93S HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

• 

for life. Although a thoroughly educated homeopathist and a 
firm believer in that system of administering remedies, he is very 
liberal in his views toward other systems, cheerfully acknowledg- 
ing and thankfully employing the good he finds in any system. 
Dr. Partridge is a member of the Indiana Medical Institute, and 
frequently contributes to the medical press. His writing is char- 
acterized by that clearness of expression and condensed statement 
which is most desired in medical or scientific literature. Relig- 
iously the Dr. and his wife are Congregationalists. Politically, he 
he is a strong Republican, but owing to the pressing duties of his 
profession, he has taken no very active part in politics or political 
campaigns. 

On the 2Sth of October, 1866, on leaving Ohio for Niles, Mich., 
Dr. Partridge was married to Aurelia IT. Chapman, of Kingsville, 
Ohio, a native of Madison, in that State, and a daughter of Jedediah 
and Sarah E. (Osborne) Chapman. She also is a graduate of Oberlin 
College, class of '65, and at the time of her marriage was Precep- 
tress of Kingsville Academy; she is an educated Christian lady, an 
exemplary wife and mother. In the family of Dr. Partridge are 
5 daughters and one son, namely: Clara, Eloise, William Harvey, 
Charlotte, Anna and Katie, all residing at home. The family are of 
the very highest standing in the community. 

Dr. Partridge had two brothers, Harvey W. and George S., and 
five sisters, Esther, Mary, Minnie, Julia and Sarah. They are all 
now living excepting his brother, Capt. Harvey W. Partridge, who 
was killed in the bloody battle of Chickamauga while in command 
of Co. " I " of the 105th Ohio Regiment, and now lies buried in the 
"Soldiers' Cemetery," at Chattanooga, Tenn. His cousin, Col. Jas- 
per Partridge, of Carmi, 111., was at one time Aid to Gen. John F. 
Miller, formerly of South Bend. The Doctor's father, Isaac, now 
72 years of age, is the onlj' surviving member of a family of eight. 
There were five brothers, namely: Samuel, Jasper, Wakeman, David 
and William, and two sisters, Mary and Sarah. 

A portrait of Dr. Partridge accompanies this sketch. 

Benj. Robert Perkins was born in London, Eng., Dec. 25, 1S32, 
son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Wotham) Perkins, the former a 
wholesale tin and Japan-ware manufacturer during his life-time, 
employing some 600 hands at times; he is now dead, but his sons. 
James W. and Richard W., still carry on the business, under the 
firm name of " B. Perkins & Sons." The subject of this sketch 
obtained his education in what was called " the city of London 
school," where he finished the prescribed course; afterward he was 
for two years a member of the literary and scientific institution on 
Aldersgate street, Loudon, E. C. ; at 17 he was "articled" to Wm. 
Smith, gas engineer of Snow Hill, London, to learn the business; 
completed his articles at 21, and at the suggestion of his father, vis- 
ited this country, expecting to remain only one year, but it resulted 
in his becoming a citizen of this Republic. On ins first arrival he 
settled in New York city, where he was employed by Samuel 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 939 

Downs as a gas-meter manufacturer, afterward by the American 
Meter Company of Philadelphia; was subsequently sent out as 
their foreman to manage their branch works in Cincinnati, where 
he remained three years. During this time, in 1856, he married 
Mary M. "Westwood, daughter of John C. Westwood, then engineer 
ot the Cincinnati Gas Company; during 1 this year he was assistant 
inspector for that company. In 1857 he returned on a visit to 
London, which was extended to a ten-years' residence, during which, 
until 1861, he assisted his father in his business; he then opened an 
establishment on his own account, in gas engineering, fitting up a 
large portion of the famous Crystal Palace at Kensington, which 
had been used in the Great Exposition of 1862; in company with 
R. S. Parry, he assisted in fitting up that celebrated vessel, the 
" Great Eastern," with furniture, stores, etc., and sailed on the same 
when she made her trial trip. He was afterward engaged in the 
shipyard of his wife's uncle; at this place were built the largest 
class of iron-clad vessels, among them the " Resistance " and " War- 
rior." 

In 1S66 he returned to the United States and took a position with 
the Springfield (111.) Gas Company, which he resigned two years 
afterward and accepted a similar position at Peoria, 111.; in 1870 he 
left the latter place and until 1875 superintended the gas works at 
Franklin and Columbus, Ind.; he then came to South Bend, where 
he has been connected with the gas works to the present time; he 
is now superintendent. 

Mr. Perkins has now a family of 6 children. 

George Pflegler was born in the State of Pennsylvania in 1842. the 

son of George and (McConnell) Pflegler: educated at college; 

located in South Bend in 1861; he read law, and was admitted to 
the Indiana Bar in 1862, since which time he has been engaged in 
the practice of law in this city. He has formed a co-partnership 
with Hon. "William G.George, and the firm of George & Pflegler is 
one of the leading law firms in South Bend, and they have a large 
practice. Mr. Pflegler was elected a city judge in 1869, which posi- 
tion he held several years. In 1877 he was appointed Postmaster 
of South Bend by President Hayes, which position he still holds. 
He was married in 1864 in Pennsylvania to Louisa Hamilton, 

daughter of Isaac and Charlotte Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, 

where she was born in 1841. They have one son, "William G. Mr. 
Pflegler belongs to the Masonic fraternity, and is a staunch Repub- 
lican. 

Philias Phillion was born in Canada in 1837, and located in 
South Bend in 1860. He enlisted in the U. S. army in 1861; was 
in the service three months; he then re-enlisted in the 48th Ind. 
Vol. Inf. and served one year. In 1868 he commenced in the gro- 
cery trade in this city, on a capital of $200, and is now doing a 
large business. He was married in this county in 1862 to Miss Fanny 
Changoman, of this city, and they have 4 children now living. 



940 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Charles Polock, manager of Polock's cigar store. This institu- 
tion was opened in this city by Mr. Pollock in 1877, in the Oliver 
House block, and in December following he was burned out. He 
then reopened at 64 Washington street, where the business has 
since been continued. At the time this store was established Mr. 
Polock found he had much to contend with, the opposition in this 
line of trade being very great; but the citizens soon found he was 
a man of large experience and practical knowledge in this line of 
business, that his goods were always first-class, and that he carried 
a stock so much larger than his neighbors that he could give them 
a better quality of goods at lower prices than other dealers. He 
now carries a stock of $5,000 and upward, and by strict attention 
to business and fair dealing he has built up a very large trade, per- 
haps double that of any other dealer in the city. His stock of fine 
goods is without doubt the best in Northern Indiana. 

Benjamin F . Price was born in Pennsylvania Sept. 30, 1807, 
the son of Benjamin and Rebecca (Fisher) Price, natives of Vir- 
ginia, who moved to Pennsylvania in 1807. The subject of this 
sketch served his apprenticeship at the cabinet trade with Col. W. 
B. Roberts, of Uniontown, and came to South Bend in 1835 and 
engaged in the furniture business, which he still continues. He 
was the first man to apply water-power to the manufacture of fur- 
niture in South Bend. He is one of the owners and directors of 
Price's theater, of which he is now the manager. He also owns 
the building on Washington street where his son now carries on the 
undertaker's business, and a number of houses and lots in the city. 
He was for several terms Presideut of the Towm Board before the 
city was organized, and was president and manager of the " Odd 
Fellows Hall Association," which position he held for over 20 years; 
and the present beautiful hall of that order was built under his 
management and direction. He was married in Uniontown, Pa., in 
1832 to Miss Lucinda Welsh, and they have had 3 boys and 3 girls. 
Politically, Mr. Price is a Republican. 

Simon Raff,M. P., was born in Wittemberg, Germany, in 1804; 
came to this country in 1844, settling in Pennsylvania; in 1846 he 
settled in South Bend, where he now resides. He read medicine 
in the Innspruck Medical College, and graduated at that institu- 
tion in 1827; he continued the practice of medicine until 1846, 
since which time he has conducted a drug store in this city. He 
was married here in 1846 to Miss Sarah Fry, of this place, and 
they have 2 children, Louisa and Columbus. Politically, he is a 
Democrat. 

Lafayette Ringle, M. P., is the son of Levi and Charity Ringle, 
who were natives of Ohio; he was born in this county in 1851; re- 
ceived a classical education and commenced the study of medicine 
when 23 years of age, graduating in 1877. and in the same year he 
began the practice of medicine and surgery in this city, which he 
has continued ever since. The Doctor has a large and lucrative 
practice in the community. He was married in Logansport, Ind., 



041 

HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

in 1879, to Emma L. Hoechen. The, are members of the Presby. 

ten iSiwSoTr!fn Ohio in 1S06; located in Wayne eonnty 
M in 1817 and in 1S30 came to St Joseph county and settled on 
pl'^piike wbere he has continued ,„ Tcs.de -« He 

ESd^issssa!; 

born in Illinois in 1852. ... . 1701 . >,:„ par i v life 

Tnh n D Robertson was born in Virginia in 1791, nis eaii) me 

cleared up and entered Gove ,rnm nt lwd* Mr ^^ ^ ^ 

but little school advantages, hu tat ner Deing * v 

obliged to work hard and assist g^gPg o ^^^ * R 

in ngrinnltnril P™""'^^^™ mterwarol elected 

early industry. p OT ,7,svlvaniain 1822, and is the 

£=■ «£ ^SgfiKy; rsa 

?JSiSS. K sti, co Sea' he has erected = t of the 



942 

history of s T . j 0SE ph countt. 

JennieandEdvLd/lit™nbe 1 o 1 tV^ W l illiam S " ^ 
and politically, he is a Republics ° f the Presb yterian Church,' 

early life was spent at school untS 1 e 8&l ^ a ^ in 1829. His 
study of medicine in the Jefferson M*f ° ¥\Y ]iea he be g an ^ 
plna, and graduated in 185 I He -th£ t ^^ of P ? iladel - 
icine in Leesville, Ohio, where he 1" Sf 6 PmCtice of raed " 
moved to Williams county Ohio wle-1 ^ y f ars ' He the n 

medicine for 14 years KeYlt^ \ V™ lnned the P™*ice of 
in the drug trade and has one of ?h?fi ^ B&nd ' and e 'W<i 
In 1876 he'also resumed he IJl f *?$ St ° res in the ^y. 
office is located at 75 WastgCs^ef medlC1 " e - His ^ a » d 

Medical College, and graduated I i?5? if' at the ^ittember? 
and located in South Bend Ind ?n lift I 0ame t0 this C0Untl T 
tice of medicine and su^ger, which h ' 32 ~ m ™ enCed ^ praC 
married in this city in 1856 to MararS K co,ltl nues. He was 
many; they have 3 children Jlv K ™™g, a native oi Ger- 

Mler of this city R^ A^ThekK X* f'^? ° f F " M ' 
enjoyed a large and successful practice ^ D ° Ct ° r haS aI wa ^ s 

John F. Sell, M. D was hn™ ,\, ni • • , 

cation, and at the age of 1* W an t he 25? T^?- * Hberal edu ' 
delphia, where he graduated S? S f of ™ edl °' ne in PM«- 
1879, where he ha T since con tinned t„ ^ m Son ^-Ber.d in 

surgery, with fine success He I ^^ °X medi «™ and 
Miss Mary J. Keith who was^or^ SStolSu"^' 11 . 1878 t0 
dren are Minnie and Sarah lh54 " The,r 2 chil- 

' bo2^^^SnS8K rf ^ Sout ? Bend ^> ~ 

farm; at the age of 16 he commenced I;,"? ™ , bro ^ ht U P on a 
winters, whiclfhe followed ?oTsever a 1 SS^S ^ ^ ^^ the 
the farm during the summer month^ T» / 6 ie W -'' ked "P on 
South Bend having been s^peni d t Feb^rflSt ^" ^ 
ing month Mr. S occupied H L O ;t,,o+- ^eoiuaiy, 18S0, the ensu- 

further notice of ^Slf^t^J^ g'TZ ^f> ,* 
was born in Stark county O of r *rZ s fath er, Joel, 

Elizabeth, „„ Penrod, i a' natfve rman ^^ 8 try, and his mother 

English ancestry: in isl? they settled n'n^ T^' Pa > ^ 
now reside 7 Se " led Dear Osceola, where they 

^^:/l^^^^ nNovth Caroiinai - «* 

lived ten vears teamin ™af ) f Hen g C °? nt ^ Ind -> wuere ne 



HTSTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COTJHTY. 

to this State and located ^^^^^SSSt^ 
packing pork and the g ocery b .sine ss w m ^.^ 
time. He was married in this «tynl^ of ^ 

who was born in Ohio in 182-3. i±e nas as d Wabask 

riage 5 children now living. In 1840 he re o ^ 

mercantile pm s»it* In i^ he followed b ing d lup 

resided here. * ora ?™°^ ^J in the manufacture and sale of 
ping stock. In if^^^Xng in connection with his sons, the 

■ ni ssri^TS^?^» in York county ' ? a P Apr i l 

i?^. JCtoAort »r. aw i j steffey, also a native ot Pennsyl- 

27, 1821 and is ^/J^S'and^ Educated at Manchester Col- 
vania. He was reared on a larm a u f t] Q erman 

lege. He took a theological ^ourse -»^°™«^£ tbat deuoin . 
Evangelical Association. He ^^^^l since . He was 
ination in 1852, and has been m ^"emce ev ei > e 
Pastor of the Church at Dayton O, ^or Wjne *n ^ ln South 
large places He organized the Iff*™*™* He was Presid- 
Bend, and also organized the h t. W ayne .kj Wabash, 

ing Elder of the following districts fo fom year e rf ^ 

South Bend, Ft. Wayne and Elkhart Jie o 
Church at Elkhart in 1872, which charge he now ha. ^ ^ 
have been very successful He ^ carried arelivi viz . : 

Fisher, by whom he has had. 13 f^™.'^ w MUton M . and 
Martin L, Sarah J., Alice, Jos "•, ^ideon ^ 

Ida May. Five are married, and the two youu a e. , 

remain at home. daughter of James and Sarah 

tforoA J*. Stoekwell, M. V., « ^ > . F h and her 

Kocher, natives of Pennsylvania, her father ot * n 
mother of Welsh descent. She was ^g^^fl^S she 
Nov. 11, 1841; received a hb ^ t f^^rsUv of Michigan, and 
entered the medical department ot tJ^^S ° of me dirine and 
graduated in 1876. She commenced the prwtu« ot m ^ 

surgery in Buchanan, Mich where sh « ,XTra C tice of her profes- 
then «mo^to1to^«d^»»^^SS° Mld L has 
sion here. Her ofhce is at ^° w f 8 \™ d ?n 1857toJames Stock- 
an extensive patronage. . She *f s ™" lie Tbe y hav* 2 children- 
well, of Lagrange county this &tate. J- J born Sept . 6 , 1S61. 
Adelbert, born ^- ^ l^\Z^tT^hlLv Manufacturing 
Clement Stud^*^*^^^^) Studebaker, 
Company, is a son of John ana j* v ^ m 

natives of Pennsylvania; his at hei wa born ^^ 

that State, and moved to South Lend in lboi. 



944 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

spent his early life, working most of the time with his father in the 
blacksmith shop. His schooling consisted of a few months' attend- 
ance at the district school in the winter. In 1852 he came to 
Indiana with his father, locating in South Bend. His father engaged 
in blacksmithing and wagon-making, and continued this business 
here for many years. The subject of this sketch is the oldest of 
five brothers, and was the founder of the now celebrated " Stude- 
baker Bros. Manufacturing Company," who have the largest wagon 
and carriage manufactory in the world. He was connected with 
this institution for about seven years, when his health failed him 
and he was obliged to withdraw from the company. He then pur- 
chased a farm near South Bend, and has since been engaged in 
farming, having one of the best farms in the tp. He was married 
in this county in 1853 to Miss Susan, daughter of Samuel Stude- 
baker, who was one of the first settlers on the St. Joseph river. 
She died June 8, 1871. They had 6 children by this marriage. In 
1873 he was married to Miss Precilla Gresbaum, of Elkhart county, 
Ind. They have 3 children. Mr. S. is a self-made man. His 
father, being a poor man, could not give his children the advantages 
of an education, and the only legacy he left them was a thorough 
schooling in the blacksmith trade, and, when they started in busi- 
ness, gave them a set of blacksmith's tools. With this small begin- 
ning Henry Studebaker began life, and by strict attention to business, 
and untiring efforts, he laid the foundation for the mammoth 
Studebaker shops that are now the largest of the kind in the world. 
He has always been an ardent supporter of the Republican party, 
but has never taken an active part in political affairs. 

Peter E. Studebaker, of the firm of Studebaker Bros. Mfg. Co., 
wagon and carriage, manufacturers of South Bend, Ind., is a native 
of Ashland, Ohio, and was born April 1, 1836; was educated as a 
merchant. He came to South Bend in 1852, and clerked for a con- 
siderable time at fifteen dollars per month, boarding himself. When 
by dint of great economy he had saved one hundred dollars, he 
began merchandising as a peddlar. This he continued until his mar- 
riage, in 1S56, when he went to Goshen and entered into partnership 
as a merchant with his brother-in-law, P. A. Welch. In 18*10 he left 
that line of business and began handling wagons in Goshen for his 
brothers, and also dealing in horses. Being quite successful in 
introducing the Studebaker wagon, and pushing its acquaintance 
among the farmers in that section of Indiana, overtures were made 
to Mr. Stndebaker b} r his brothers, then the makers of the wagon, 
Clement Studebaker and J. M. Studebaker, to join them. These 
were accepted by him, and he became an equal partner with his 
brothers named in the business. This partnership was consum- 
mated in 1864, and in January, 1865, he went to St. Joseph, Mo., 
and opened at that point a branch, which proved a very important 
move for the firm, St. Joseph at that time being the great outfitting 
town for the mines and the far West. The foothold then obtained 
enabled the company to extend its trnde into all the States and 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 945 

Territories of the "West and Southwest. Mr. Studebaker returned 
from St. Joseph in 1872, and has since then filled the position of 
treasurer of the company in the home office. 

Mr. Studebaker was first married in October, 1S56, to Miss Dora 
Handley, a native of Ohio, brought up as an adopted daughter of 
Dr. Chase, of Cincinnati. She was a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Her death occurred in 1865, in South Bend, 
making motherless 3 children: Wilbur F., born in 1857; Mary R., 
1860, and Dora L., 1863. The two former were born in Goshen, 
the latter in South Bend. In 1S66 Mr. Studebaker married Mrs, 
Alice W. Mitchell, widow of Caleb B. Mitchell, a native of White 
Pigeon, Mich., and a daughter of Mr. "Woodbury, of the State of 
New York. She was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
and died in 1869. In 1872 the subject of this sketch married Mrs. 
Mary L. Guthrie, of South Bend, a native of Logansport, Ind., 
daughter of Judge Charles Ewing. Mrs. Studebaker is also a mem- 
ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

The Presidential campaign of 1880 was regarded by Mr. Stude- 
baker as an important one, involving the business interests and gen- 
eral prosperity of the country, and he therefore took earnest hold 
of the cause in favor of the election of the Republican nominees. 
He wrote for the press and delivered public addresses. One of his 
speeches, delivered especially to working men, in South Bend, about 
the middle of September, was copied by both Western and Eastern 
newspapers, and was widely circulated as a campaign document, no 
doubt assisting materially in bringing about the general awakening 
of business men everywhere in the country, especially noticeable 
toward the last of the campaign, and which resulted in the success 
of the Republican ticket. 

George W. Sumption was born in this county Feb. 20, 1832, the 
youngest son of George and Elizabeth (Rush) Sumption, the former 
a native of Lexington, Ky., and the latter of Somerset county, Pa.; 
has resided here all his life, and is now the oldest native resident of 
the county. He has therefore experienced all the phases of pioneer 
life elsewhere described in this volume. He was bronght up in 
farm life, but ever since he was 22 years of age he has been a mer- 
chant and salesman. He followed merchandising in South Bend 
for several years; was salesman for a wholesale house in New York 
for a time, and for the last 16 years he has been salesman for the 
Stndebakers. Politically, he is a Republican, and has been City 
Assessor, Deputy Sheriff, etc. He has voted at every election since 
he became of age. June 23, 1853, he married Sarah Jane Throck- 
morton, a native of Ohio. She died Sept. 26, 1863, in this county, 
leaving 3 children: Albert, born April 13, 185-1; Martha, Jan. 23, 
1856; and Bion, Feb. 1, 1858, all living, the two sons married and 
residing in South Bend. Jan. 24, 1865, Mr. S. married Miss Liz- 
zie, daughter of Miranda and Jane Peck, a native of Ohio, and the 
children by this marriage are now 2 in number, Orrie and Harry. 

Alexander N. Thomas was born in Pennsvlvania in 1839 and 



946 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

came to this county in 1S54. He is the son of Fred and Ann 
Thomas, natives of Pennsylvania. His early life was spent on the 
farm at home, attending school during the winter months. At the 
time of the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, he was attend- 
ing the Northern Indiana College, then located in this city. In 
1862 he enlisted in the 73d Ind. Vol. Inf., and was taken prisoner 
while on a raid and confined in Libby prison one year; was taken 
from there to Macon, Georgia, and then to Columbus, where he 
succeeded in making his escape and joined Sherman's forces in the 
rear of Savannah. After his return from the army he kept a 
grocery for a short time. In the fall of 1867 he was elected County 
Recorder, which position he held for two terms of four years each. 
He was Councilman for two years, and in 1876 was elected Mayor 
of South Bend, which office he held for two years. He was admit- 
ted to the Indiana Bar in 1876, and has since been engaged in the 
practice of law and general insurance business. Mr. Thomas has 
taken a deep interest in the Sunday-schools of South Bend, and has 
been identified with every movement in their behalf. He is one 
of the Elders of the Disciple Church in this city, and Superintendent 
of the Sunday-school connected with that denomination. 

Elliott Tutt was born April 7, 1812, in Culpepper county, Va., 
son of Charles M. and Joanah (Royston) Tutt, the former a native 
of Spottsylvania county, Va., born June 15, 1779, and died May 
4, 1825; the latter was born in Caroline county, Va., Aug. 17, 1778, 
and died in 1811. Mr. Elliott Tutt came to South Bend in Octo- 
ber, 1S32, with a sister (Mrs. Lewis) and several brothers, men- 
tioned on former pages. Having been a resident here ever since 
his immigration here, he must be counted among the oldest resi- 
dent pioneers. In his younger days he learned the tanner's trade, 
which, as well as farming, he prosecuted for a number of years, his 
farm being just east of the river. He has held the office of Town- 
ship Trustee for 20 years, that of School Trustee several years, and 
has been a member of the City Council. March 4, 1852, he was 
married by Rev. John L. Smith to Mrs. Sarah M. Monson, widow of 
Albert Monson and daughter of Samuel C. Sample, so well known 
in the history of this county, and their children are: Mary Howard, 
who died Feb. 22, 1854; Mary Katharine; Elizabeth Elliott, who 
died Sept. 15, 1860; Lucy Howard and Lillian Lewis. The second 
of these married Charles H. Fowler, and had 2 children, now de- 
ceased. Mr. Fowler also died, and she subsequently married Wm. 
H. Lewis, ot Indianapolis. Mr. Monson's children were Anna 
Rose, Walter Sample and Ella Albert; the latter died at the age of 
8 years, and the two former are married. Mrs. Tutt was born in 
Connersville, this State, her parents having moved there from 
Maryland in May, 1824. She is a member of the M. E. Church. 
Politically, Mr. Tutt is a Republican, and is a leading citizen, com- 
fortably situated in the southern suburbs of the city of South Bend. 

V. R. Tutt, brother of the above, is also one of the early settlers 
of South Bend. He was born in Virginia, July 25, 1810. He re- 
mained at home and worked on the farm up to the time of his 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 947 

father's death, which occurred when he was 14 years of age. He 
was then npprenticed by his guardian to a saddler, where he worked 
seven years. Having a dislike for the institutions of slavery, at 
the age of 21 he determined to remove to a free State, and went to 
Columbus, Ohio, where he opened a shop and worked at his 
trade for a short time. He then sold out, purchased a pony 
and started West on horseback, passing through Indianapolis, 
Logansport and Lafayette, then small villages, and reached the 
city of South Bend in the spring of 1832, where he located. In 
the fall of the same year, he returned to Ohio for his family. South 
Bend, at this time, was in its infancy, and Mr. Tutt took an active 
part in the improveinent and building up of the young town. 
He opened, and operated for two years, the first harness and saddle 
store in the place. In 1834 he was elected the first Asses- 
sor of the tp., which office he held one term. He was then 
elected Justice of the Peace for two terms of seven years each, 
and one term of four years. While acting as Justice he began 
the study of law, and resigning his office during the third 
term, he engaged in the active practice of law. He was admitted 
to the Bar in 1S50, and has been engaged in active practice since. 
Mr. Tutt is a self-made man; he began life without nroney, and 
with but little education, and by persistent efforts has acauired a 
large property and is a man of culture and refinement. He mar- 
ried Miss Martha, daughter of Obadiah and Grace (Cox) Hackney, 
and they have 3 children: Alice B., wife of Dr. Windle, of Des 
Moines, la.; Charles H. and Grace. He and wife are members of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is also a strong adherent 
of the Republican party. 

Thomas R. Tutt, one of the pioneers of this county, was born in 
Virginia in 1814. He came to Indiana in 1834, locating in this 
county. He was married in this county in 1837 to Miss Mary 
Hardy, who was born in Virginia in 1820, and they have 9 chil- 
dren. He is a member of the First M. E. Church in this city, and 
has a fine farm near the city limits. 

Israel Underwood, M. I)., was born in Wayne county, Ind., in 
1819. He is the son of John and Mary Underwood, natives of 
Pennsylvania. He came to this county in 1868, and located in South 
Bend in 1873. He began the study of medicine when 30 years of 
age, graduated at the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati in 
1853, and commenced the practice of medicine and surgery in La 
Porte county, this State, in 1854. The Doctor has a large practice 
in this city, and is one of the leading physicians of the place. He 
was married in La Porte county, Ind.. in 1854, to Catherine, daugh- 
ter of William and Patience Frederickson. They have one daughter, 
Clara L., wife of Frank P. Sturges, of Colorado. Mrs. Underwood 
is a graduate of a medical college in Philadelphia, and is also en- 
gaged in the practice of medicine. The Doctor and wife are mem- 
bers of the Baptist Church, and he is also a Freemason. 



948 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Martin L. Wenger was born in Lebanon, Pa., in 1820, and is 
the son of Martin and Elizabeth Wenger, natives of that State. His 
early life was spent on a farm, receiving such education as the com- 
mon schools of that day afforded. He located in this county in 1841, 
and for four years was engaged in threshing grain, running eight 
machines. He then bought a piece of timbered land and cleared up 
a farm of 160 acres. He lived on this farm for three years and then 
moved to the farm he now occupies, on sec. 13, Portage tp. He 
began his married life in a one-story frame house 16x18, where the 
first three years were spent. His present farm consists of 160 acres, 
upon which he has built a fine residence, at a cost of about $8,000. 
He was married Feb. IS, 1845, to Miss Christina, daughter of 
Samuel Studebaker. She was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, 
in 1S24. She came to this State with her parents in 1831. Her 
father entered and settled on the farm where she now lives. The 
first saw-mill in the county was erected by her father on what was 
then known as the •' Studebaker creek." They have two children 
living: Mary Etta and Charles M. They are members of the Ger- 
man Baptist Church. 

Alfred Wheeler, third son of Thomas and Eunice (Williams) 
Wheeler, was born in the town of Ridgeway, Orleans county, N. Y., 
Oct. 10, 1874. He came with his father and family to Quincy, 
Mich., in 1S35, and in 1836 they moved to Bristol, Ind. In 1840 
he left home, came to South Bend and entered the Free Press 
printing office as an apprentice. In the fall of 1843 he left on a 
" tramp," and from that time until the fall of 1857 resided in vari- 
ous places in the Northern and Southern States, engaged in various 
pursuits, such as fancy, chance or necessity dictated. In the fall of 
1851 he returned to South Bend, and from that time until the fall of 
1865 he was connected with the St. Joseph Valley Register, first as 
pressman and compositor, then as foreman, and afterward as associate 
editor and business partner with Hon. Schuyler Colfax, and then as 
editor and business partner with Alfred Hall. From 1867 to 1875 he 
held the office of County Auditor, elected on the Republican ticket; 
first term by 820 majority, second term by 1,010 majority; at each 
election polling many more votes than his party strength. In 1876 
he became a stock-holder in the South Bend Tribune Printing Com- 
pany, and for a time acted as treasurer and bookkeeper, but failing 
health soon compelled his retirement from active service. He was 
married at Bloomington, Ind., April 24, 1S49, to Elizabeth Ruth 
Garrison, by whom he has had S children; 7 of these are now living: 
1, Charles Robert, married and living in Oregon; 2, Agnes Irene; 
3, Frederick, married and living in Kansas; 4, Ada Inez, deceased; 
5, Richard Alfred; 6, Eunice Evelyn; 7, Almon; S, Brent Marshall. 
Mr. Wheeler is one of the enterprising, leading men of South Bend, 
and one of the prominent leaders of the Republican party in St. 
Joseph county. 

Orlando S. Witherell was born in Washington county, N. Y., 
April, 1824; in 1S3C he went with his parents to Auburn, N. Y., 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 949 

where he resided until 1842; he then went to Boston, where he 
resided three years, when he returned to Auburn and remained 
until 1850; then he removed to Owego, Tioga Co., and in 1855 
came to South Bend, where he has since resided. He followed mer- 
cantile business for a time, and was admitted to the Indiana 
Bar in 1855, and in 1S61 was appointed U. S. Paymaster, which 
position he held until November. 1865, when he was mustered out 
of the service. In 1867 he resumed the practice of law, in which 
business he has since been engaged. He held the office of Deputy 
Prosecuting Attorney from 1S6S to 1872, and acted as City Attor- 
ney from 1868 to 1870. Mr. Witherell has always taken an active 
part in political affairs, and has been a life-long Republican. He 
was married in the State of New York Oct. 30, 1847, to Mary D. 
Green, daughter of John H. Green, Esq.; she was born in New 
York in 1828. They have one daughter, Emma, wife of Dr. G. F. 
Nevins, of this city. 




sr<f 

» 



UNION TOWNSHIP. 

This township was organized in 1835, and it now contains about 
42 sections. Many of the old settlers, in passing through it on 
their way to some of the other townships, thought it an almost 
worthless tract of land on account of the marshes. During the 
wet season of the year it seemed as if the greater part of the 
country was a vast pond, with here and there a dry piece of land. 
It was not settled as early as some of the other townships in the 
county, on this account. When the Michigan road was put through 
the township, men began to settle along that; and as the western 
part is somewhat more rolling than the rest, they soon began to 
build their log cabins through there. As the country became 
cleared, and openings were made, the marsh land began to disap- 
pear, and in its place we find some of the finest farms that the 
county can now boast of. At present through the south central part 
there is a good deal of low and useless land. In every part of the 
township we find small swamps and marshes; but they are fast dis- 
appearing, and every year more of the low land is coming under 
cultivation. 

Just south of Lakeville are several small lakes, the largest of which 
are called Pleasant and Riddle's lakes. The ground around them 
is quite miry and mucky. One of them is said to be quite deep. 
Along the east part of the township a ridge runs across it. It is 
mostly a black, sandy soil. The Turkey creek road follows this 
ridge, through the township and along it are some very fine farms. 
On sections 6 and 8 have been found a great many Indian relics. 
Among other curiosities discovered by the removal of the surface 
of the earth are round holes dug in the ground and nicely walled 
up with stones in the shape of a common kettle. Some of them 
have been found to be four or five feet in depth. For what purpose 
they had been made the people of the neighborhood are unable to 
surmise. A great many arrowheads, tomahawks and other things 
of like nature have been found here and in other parts of the town- 
ship, tints bringing to our minds that but a short time ago another 
race of people inhabited this region, perhaps no less industrious in 
their way than the people who have just come and taken possession 
of the country. 

The first settlement in the township was in the spring of 1833, 
when Elijah Lineback moved his family here. He erected a cabin 
on section 35. The same year came John Henderson with his fam- 
ily and settled on section 25. John, Jacob and Mark Rector came 
on section 1 some time in 1833. Hubbard Henderson came in 
1834 and settled on section 35. In the fall of 1834 John Moon 

(950) 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 951 

came but staid only a short time. He returned in the spring of 
1835, accompanied by his brother James. John took up land on 
section 28, James on section 34. Eli Moon came some years later 
and entered laud in section 27. Although James Moon came in 
1835 he did not make it his permanent home till in 1841, when he 
removed with his family to the farm on which he now resides. 
James Annis came about 1836, on section 9, and Michael Hupp, 
Abijah Mills, William H. Robertson, Henry Hardy, Esau Lamb 
and Daniel Glenn settled here the same year. Amos Heston, 
Henry and John Riddle came in 1837. James Watson, John Shiv- 
ely, William Hughs, Joseph Morris, W. Nickelson, David Whit- 
inger, John Long, Mr. JByers and Mr. Gibson are among the old 
settlers. 

Thus we see that these sturdy pioneers have in less than 50years 
turned what then appeared to be an almost worthless country to a 
blooming garden, a country which is now prepared to support a 
dense population, in comparison with what it was then, in ease and 
prosperity. 

The greater part of the township was heavily timbered with wal- 
nut, ash, oak, hickory, white-wood and various other timber peculiar 
to this climate. Lumbering and milling, as a natural consequence, 
became quite a good business as the railroads opened up a market 
for their lumber. 

The township contains but one village, — Lakeville. It is a pleas- 
ant little village, located about the center of the township, and con- 
tains several hundred inhabitants. The people are kind, intelligent 
and social. Although they have no railroad, a large business is car- 
ried on by the merchants. The village contains two good country 
stores, a drug and hardware store, a hotel, a couple of shoe-shop 
and three or four blacksmith shops, a saw-mill and grist-mill, — all 
doing well. It has also two'churches, with a good school, while three 
M. D's attend to the afflicted in the town and vicinity. 

The first election was held in Earl's tavern, in April of 1836. 
All the voters in the township were present, and 30 votes were 
polled. John Henderson and Jacob Rector were elected for Justices 
of the Peace, and one supervisor was elected. Previous to this they 
had gone to South Bend to vote. 

THE SCHOOLS. 

The schools of this township are in an excellent condition. None 
but good teachers are hired, and to them fair wages are paid during 
the winter terms. Most of the people take a great pride in educa- 
tion, and consequently a great many of the young people have been 
and are now being educated in our colleges and normal schools. 
The school buildings are mostly in good condition. 

The first school-house in the township was a log structure built 
in 1S36, on the corner of James Moon's farm. It was a good house 
at that day, but would hardly fill the bill for one of our modern 



952 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

buildings. The first school was taught in the winter of lS36-'7, by 
James Roberson, of South Bend. This was a subscription school, 
and was attended by about 20 scholars. The second teacher was 
John Hardy. 

CHURCHES. 

The first church was built in 1843, by the Methodists, under the 
pastorship of Rev. Lawson Munson. It was built of hewed logs, 
on section 34, one mile north of Lakeville. This served for a place 
of worship until the present church was erected in Lakeville. The 
old house is still standing, and is occupied by a family for a dwell- 
ing house. The M. E. church building in Lakeville was commenced 
in 1S57 and finished in 1S5S. The trustees were John and James 
Moon, Hubbard Henderson, Martin Page and William Biglow. 
Mr. Harrison was the first traveling minister sent to this circuit. 
This was in 1839, and about the time that the society was organized. 
They then held their meetings in private houses, and among their 
members were Hubbard Henderson and wife, Milford Leonard and 
wife, George Hardy and wife, John D. Roberson and wife, John 
Price aud his sister. Their first class-leader was George Hardy. 
They have now about 50 members in their society. As this is in 
the same circuit as Sumption's Prairie, for a list of their ministers 
see sketch of that Church in the history of Greene township. 

About the same time that the Methodists started here. United 
Brethren ministers came in and began their labors. They soon 
formed a society abont two miles north of Lakeville. Here they 
continued to hold their meetings for a number of years, when they 
removed to Olive Branch and formed the society which is known 
by that name. They worshiped in the school-house till a few years 
ago. The new church at Olive Branch was commenced in April of 
1878 and finished in a short time. The trustees were: Joseph 
Shuppert, John H. Bennett, H. A. Manuel, W. Lower, Rev. N. F. 
Surface. John Todd was the Pastor at that time. The church is 
30 by 40, and is a very neat, pretty building. Its cost was about 
$1,000. The society numbers now about 50 members, is out of debt 
and flourishing. 

Another society was also organized a few years ago, on the 
Turkey creek road, at Annis' school- house. It, too, is prospering 
well. 

The Advent Church. — Previous to 1S62 this sect had held a 
few meetings in the school-house at Olive Branch. In August of 
that year they erected a tent and held meetings for two weeks, the 
ministers being J. W. Himes, D. R. Mansfield and Philip Holler. 
At the close of the meetings the following persons were baptized: 
Elijah Aultman and wife, Isaac Wright and wife, and Hattie 
Wright. These, with the following persons, who were members at 
that time, joined themselves together into a society at the close of 
the meetings: Edward Cordray and wife, Albert Cordray and wife, 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 053 

B. F. Cordray and wife. Edward Cordray was the Elder. He and 
Mr. Ferris have been the Elders in the society most of the time since. 
Two years later another tent meeting was held, with good suc- 
cess. They now number about 60 members, and have a fine 
church building well finished, in which to worship. It was com- 
menced about March 1, 1S80, with about $700 raised by subscrip- 
tion. Its size is 32 by -±6, and cost $1,162. On the day on which 
it was dedicated, July IS, 1830, they raised money enough to pay 
all debts and $100 over. 

The Christian Chnrch has a society in Lakeville, Mr. Suow being 
their present Pastor. They have a good building in the village 
and include in their membership many of the best citizens. 

The citizens of the northeastern part of the township, regardless 
of sect, erected a union church house in 1875. It is a good frame 
building, and speaks much for the enterprise of the people. 

In Lakeville there is a Masonic lodge. It was started in 1867 
with the following charter members: Robert Moor, W. Clenny, 
John Cunningham, Mahlon Heston, Michael Hupp, Isaac C. Price, 
Alexander Reynolds, Henry Van Lien, M. Mahon, W. Roberson. 
They now have a good society of about 52 members. 

PERS0N4L SKETCHES. 

Samuel Annis was born in June, 1851, in this tp. His father, 
Jehiel Annis, was among the old settlers of this count} 7 . He was 
married in the fall of 1875, to Harriet Lock, daughter of William 
Lock, of Portage Prairie, and they have one child, Irene. Mr. 
Annis is engaged in farming and lumbering sec 5; P.O., South Bend. 

John H. Bennett, son of Stephen and Catharine (Hoff) Bennett, 
was born in West Virginia Feb. 12, 1816. He left Virginia in 
May, 1S33, going to Morrow county, Ohio; here, in 1835, he married 
Elizabeth Flickey, and they had 10 children. Mrs. Bennett died 
in 1856, and he was married a second time, to Margaret Ann (Jones) 
Hardy, July 5, 1859; she was born in Shelby county, Ind., Jan. 6, 
1824. Her parents were Thomas and Polly (Burns) Jones, and 
were among the first to settle in Union tp. She had been married 
in 1845 to Joseph Hardy and by him had 6 children, 4 living, James 
Delilah, Emeline and Benjamin. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have had 
9 children, 7 of whom are living: Winfield, Charlottie, Ida, Ada. 
Rosa, Sherman and Naomi. Mr. Bennett had a son in the 96th O. 
V. in Co. O; Mrs. B. also had a son in the Rebellion 3 years, James 
Hardy. Mr. B. is a member of the U. B. Church at Olive Branch. 
Mr. Bennett came a poor boy to Ohio; he soon entered 80 acres of 
land in Morrow county. He got money to pay for it by splitting 
rails and clearing. After a few years he sold it for $1,S00, and 
coming to this county, bought his present farm of 103 acres, the 
present value of which is $5,000. 

Ruth Brock was born in North Carolina, June 7, 1802. When 
she was about three months old, her parents removed to Kentucky, 
and about the year 1806 they came to Montgomery county, O. ; in 

59 



954 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

1S09 they went to Xenia, in Greene county, ()., and after living 
there for about eight years they went to Ross county, O., near the 
city of Chillicothe. Her parents were William and Merah (An- 
thony) Frazier; the former died in Germantown, Ohio, in 1853, 
and the latter died in 1828, and is buried at Richmond, Ind. Mrs. 
Brock was married in Ross county, O., to Nathan Branson, of 
Highland county, in 1821. The children were: William, Mary, 
Jane and Nathan, all dead. Nathan married Elizabeth Ranful, of 
Randolph count} 7 , Ind., and they had 1 child, Jane BranSon, who 
married George Cook of this tp. in 1871; they have 2 children: 
Carrie Bell, born May 6, 1872, and Elias W., born Jan. 26, 1874. 
Mrs. Brock left Ohio in 1826, going to Wayne county, Ind., where 
her husband died Sept. 19, 1829. She then returned to Ohio and 
lived with her father. Some years afterward she returned to 
Wayne county, where her son Nathan died Dec. 6, 1854. She 
was married a second time, in Wayne county, Ind., Sept. 25, 1860, 
to Andrew Brock; they removed to Dewitt county, 111., where he 
died March 5, 1865; a few years later she removed to her farm in 
Liberty and Union tp. of this county, where she still resides. Mr. 
Brock was a native of North Carolina; they removed to Ohio in 
1804, from thence to Illinois, in 1S29, where he entered the land on 
which he was living at the time of his death. He was well 
acquainted with Mr. Lincoln when he was a young man. The 
Brock family are among the wealthy and influential men of Illinois. 
William Olermy was born Feb. 8, 1824, in Randolph couuty, Ind.; 
his maternal ancestors were of English descent, and came to America 
previous to the "achievement of our national independence; his pa- 
ternal grandfather moved from Pennsylvania to South Carolina pre- 
vious to the war, and about 1830 emigrated to Indiana, where he 
died. Both of his grandfathers were in the war. In 1801 his father 
emigrated to Warren county, Ohio, and thence to Wayne county, 
Ind., in 1807 or 1808; he was a native of North Carolina; he was 
married in Preblecounty, Ohio, April 12, 1813, to Mary Milner, who 
was born in Virginia, and their children were Martha and Elizabeth, 
twins, Catharine, Mary, Jane, William, Michael, Sarah A., John 
and Rebecca; all married and had families except Rebecca. He was 
in the war of 1812, and died Feb. 22, 1872. Mr. C.'s mother died 
in 1854; they were members of the Baptist Church. Mr. C. was 
married in 1849 to Sarah Garrett, daughter of Michael and Mary 
Garrett, of Randolph county, Ind., and their children were Mary E. 
and Martha, both dead. Mrs. C. died in December, 1858. In 1S59 
he married Mrs. Elizabeth (Biumfield) Branson, daughter of Jesse 
and Sarah Brumfield, and their children are Melissa, born in 1861, 
an infant, and William; the last two are dead. Mrs. Olenny had one 
child by Mr. Branson, named Sarah J., who married George 
Cook, son of Rev. E. Cook, and has Carrie Belle and Elias W.; she 
died a few years ago. Mr. Clenny left Randolph county, Ind., in 
the spring of 1853, coming to this county and buying his -farm 
south of Lakeville, which was then in the woods. He received his 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 95,5 

education in the public schools; aided his father on his farm until 
he attained his majority; then worked at the carpenter's trade for 
the next eight years. For several winters after he commenced his 
trade, he attended school, boarding with some of the neighbori-ng 
farmers and doing chores night and morning for his board. He 
moved to the village of Lakeville in 1873, and has long been one 
of the faithful workers in the M. E. Church and Sunday-schools at 
that place; he is also a Mason. By good, frugal and industrious 
habits, Mr. Clenny has raised himself from a poor boy to one of the 
influential citizens that reside in St. Joseph county. 

Edward Cordray, son of Nathan and Mary A. Cordray of this 
county, was born in Ohio July 7, 1830. May 18, 1S54, lie mar- 
ried Elizabeth Rinehart, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Rinehart, 
of Coshocton county, Ohio, whose native State is Pennsylvania. 
Their children are Almira Jane, born Jan. 25, 1855; Marv Ellen, 
March 15, 1857; Althea O, Dec. 18, 185S; Alice M., March 31, 
1862 ; Charley W., March 23, 1872. Almira married George Boyler ; 
Althea married William Skyles, Liberty tp. ; they are living with 
Mr. Cordray. Mr. C. owns 40 acres of good land in this tp.; he 
is a carpenter and teacher. P. O., Lakeville. 

Nathan Cordray was born on the north branch of the Potomac 
river, Alleghany Co., Md., Feb. 10, 1S00. He came with his father 
to Ohio in 1810, and settled in Coshocton county. His parents are 
Isaac and Mary (Henderson) Cordray; he was married Dec. 9, 1821, 
to Miss Mary Ann Officer, daughter of David Officer, of Holmes 
county, Ohio; their children are Elizabeth, deceased; Harry, 
Edward, Benjamin, Liddie Ann, Albert and Mary J., deceased. 
Mr. C. aided his father on his farm until he had attained his 
majority, when he apprenticed himself to David Carroll for 18 
months to learn the tinner's trade. At the expiration of that time 
he again apprenticed himself for three years to Jacob Bollzley to 
learn the carpenter's trade. He received his education in the sub- 
scription schools in Ohio, as did all of his children except Albert. 
He was one of the men in Ohio that got up a petition to have the 
German language taught in the public schools of that State, which 
was sent to Gov. Shannon and was granted; the law is still in effect 
in that State. Plis family are all well educated and are among the 
foremost citizens of the county. The boys are all carpenters except 
Benjamin. During the late war Edward was drafted, but he being 
unwell, his father feared that he could not long endure the fatigue of 
a soldier's life; so he went to South Bend and was examined by the 
officers there relative to taking his son's place in the army, but his 
wish was not granted, he being too old for the service: he then 
accompanied his son to Indianapolis; he staid over night in camp, 
and the next day, by paying §200, secured his son's discharge. He 
came to Union" tp." from Ohio in 1861. He is a Democrat; gave 
his first vote for Johnson. Residence, sec. 21; P. O., Lakeville. 

Daniel J. Fisher was born in Somerset county, Pa., Jan. 19, 
182L He left Pennsylvania in 1S30, going to Tuscarawas county, 



956 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Ohio; settled on his farm in Union tp. in 1855; his parents are 
Jonathan and Esther Fisher. In 1849 he was married in Holmes 
county, O., to Harriett McCulloy; they had 4 children, 3 living. 
Mrs. F. died in September, 1854, and April 19, 1855, he married 
Phebe E. Pickral. of Holmes county, O. The second wife died in 
1856 leaving no children. July 25, 1S56, he was again married to 
Elizabeth Snyder, of Marshall county, Iud., by whom he had 8 
children; she died, and he was married Nov. 30, 1875, to Agnes 
Rempsburger, of South Bend. Until he came to this county Mr. 
Fisher had been engaged in a woolen factory; but since coming 
here he has been carrying on a broom factory and farming; has a 
good farm of 235 acres in Union tp. P. O., Lakeville. 
— Valentine Fisher was born in Somerset county, Pa., Jan. 22, 
1822; he came with his parents, Peter and Mary (Johnson) Fisher, 
to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1824; in the fall of 1848 they 
removed to this tp. His parents were natives of Virginia, and 
were members of the Lutheran Church; they died in this county 
a few years since. Mr. Fisher was married in Ohio in August, 
1847, to Mary Penrod, daughter of John and Mary Penrod, of 
Tuscarawas county. Ohio, but formerly of Pennsylvania; she was 
born in August, 1S32; they have had 12 children, 7 of whom are 
yet living: Alfred, Oliver, Schuyler, Henry, Winfield, Eliza E. 
and Mary A. Mr. Fisher is a blacksmith, but since coming to the 
county, has been engaged in fanning; when he came here he had 
but $3 in money, and but one acquaintance in the county; he now 
owns a fine farm of about 200 acres, well improved, on sec. 24. P. 
O., Lakeville. 

Emanuel Frick, son of Abraham and Sarah Frick, of this county, 
was born in Stark county. Ohio, June, 1847. He came to this 
county when a young man; was married in 1871 to Mary Kreisher, 
daughter of William and Elizabeth Kreisher, of Centre tp. ; she was 
born in January, 183S, and they have 4 children: Allie, Willie, 
Emma and Clara. Mr. Frick was educated in the public schools of 
this county, is a farmer on sec. 12 and has been living in this tp. 
for about four years. P.O., Lakeville. 

Allen Hardy was born in Drake county, Ohio, October, 1826; 
came to Indiana with his parents when a small boy; they removed 
to Lakeville and settled on the Jackson farm in 1S35. Mr. Hardy 
was married Feb.20. 1S47, to Mary J. Meredith, daughter of Jona- 
than Meredith; they have two children, Lusina, born in 1850, and 
Ezra W., born in 1S51. Lusina married J. Boyler, and lives in 
Kansas. Mrs. Hardy died, and in the spring of 1856 he married 
Nancy Selby (Flucky), who had one child, Harriet J. Selby, born 
1855. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy have 4 children: Abigail, born 1857; 
Victoria, born Feb. 8, 1S59; Mary O, born Aug. 8, IS 63; Amara- 
zetta, born Sept, 16, 1868. Mrs. Hardy was born in November, 
! v 24. Mr. Hardy has been living on his farm on sec. 22 for 35 
years; they are both worthy members of the U. B. Church at Olive 
Branch. P. O., Lakeville. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. !»57 

Cyrus Hardy is the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Eake) Hardy, 
who were among the first to settle in St. Joseph county; his father 
was a native of Fredericton, Md., and died in Lakeville, in 1851, 
aged 74 years; his mother was born in Northumberland county,* 
Pa., and died in this tp., March 13, 1865, aged SI years. Mr. 
Hardy was born in Drake county, Ohio, August, 1S21 ; came with 
his parents to Indiana about 1831, and to Lakeville in 1835. He 
was married April 6, 1849, to Amanda Fisher, daughter of Samuel 
~"-^and Mary Fisher; they have 2 children: Mary E., born in 1852, 
and Albina J., born in 1858. They are members of the M. E. 
Church at Maple Grove; he has been a member of the church for -10 
years; owns 60 acres of land in sec. 22. P. O., Lakeville. 

Mahlon Heston, son of Amos and Nancy A. (Kurk) Heston, was 
born in Henry county, Ind., Sept. 5, 1826; his parents were natives 
of Pennsylvania; they moved to Berrien county, Mich., about 1838 
or 1839, and from there to this tp., coming to his present farm about 
1841, where he has been residing since, with the exception of a few 
years spent in South Bend. Mr. Heston was married Dec. 10, 1850, 
to Nancy Eastburn, daughter of John and Catharine Eastburn, at 
that time residents of Johnson county, Ind. He was married a 
second time to Harriet Barkley, daughter of Allen and Nancy Ross, 
who were natives of Pennsylvania. She was born in Westmore- 
land county, Pa., March 19, 1832. By her marriage with Mr. 
Barkley, she had 4 children: James W, born April 27, 1853; 
Franklin, born Nov. 22, 1854; Alice E., born March 21, 1858; Mil- 
ton C, born May 29, 1860; James and Franklin were born in 
Hamilton county, O.; Alice and Milton in Marshal county, Ind. 
Mr. Heston has a fine farm of 100 acres in sec. 10; he is a mem- 
ber of the Christian Church at Lakeville, also of the Masonic Lodge 
at the same place. P. O., Lakeville. 

Andrew Huggart, son of Moses and Mary Huggart, was born in 
Rockbridge county, Va., Jan. 16, 1816. He left Virginia in 1836, 
going first to Dayton, Ohio, and in a few years to Piqua, in Marion 
count)', O.; he came to this county in 1850. He was married July 
3, 1839, to Jane Clark, daughter of Cagerand Mary Clark, who was 
born in Amherst county, Va., in 1810; they have had 5 children: 
"Wesley, born Aug. 23, 1840; Mary A., deceased, born March 30, 
1842; James M., born Aug. 18, 1S43; Sarah M., born June 12, 
1850; Samuel M., born June 23, 1852. By trade, Mr. Huggart 
is a shoemaker, but has been engaged in farming since coming 
to this county. He joined the Baptist Church at Lancaster, Ohio, 
and is now a member at Sumption's Prairie. He has a well- 
improved farm of 80 acres on sec. 29. Their children are all mar- 
ried; James is living in South Bend; Wesley and Samuel are living 
on their farms in this tp. Mrs. H.'s paternal grandfather was a 
fifer in the war of the Revolution. P. O., South Bend. 

Joseph T. Jackson was born in Knox county, Ohio, January, 
1831. His parents, John and Elizabeth (Eager A Jackson, were 
natives of Columbia county, Pa., and were of Irish and Scotch 



958 HISTOET OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

descent; they left Pennsylvania in October, 182S, going to Ohio, 
and from there to this county in the spring of 1854. His father 
settled on the place on which Mr. Jackson is now living, in sees. 
1*3 and 18, of this tp. ; lie died here in the year of 1865, aged 59 
years; his mother died on Dec. 17, 1879, at the advanced age of 79 
years. In 1862 Mr. Jackson married Mary Hupp, daughter of 
Michael and Caroline Hupp, of this tp. ; they had 4 children: 
Edward, Carrie B., Grace and Maud. 

Mrs. J. died Nov. 18, 1877. and in June, 1879 he was married to 
Louisa Young, daughter of Philo and Susan Young, formerly of 
Marshall county, Ind., but living in Kansas. His son. Edward, is 
attending school at Valparaiso, Ind. Mr. Jackson is one of the 
successful farmers of this tp. ; has 315 acres of good farming land. 
P. O., Lakeville. 

A. H. Jester was born in North Carolina April S, 1824; his par- 
ents. James and Jane (Williams) Jester, were natives of the same 
place; he came from' there to Wayne county, Ind., in 1826. Dec. 
23, 1849, he married Phoebe Reynolds; they have 5 children: Cal- 
vin, born Nov. 18, 1850, married Sarah Snow, and is now living in 
South Bend; Mary E., born Sept. 7. 1852, married Henry Longaker, 
and is living in Marshall county; Jane A., born Dec. 2, 1854; Mil- 
ton, born Aug. 6, 1S56; Lilian, born Feb. 4, 1S70. Mr. J., when a 
young man, learned the hatter's trade and followed it for 10 or 12 
years; since then has been farming; has 85 acres in sec. 17. 

Aaron Reynolds, Mrs. Jester's father, was born in North Carolina 
April 6, 1798; he left there in 1836, going first to Parke county, then 
to Wayne county, Ind., and to this count}' in 1850, when he bought 
the farm Mr. Jester now owns. In 1852 he removed his family to 
this place. He was married when about 20 years of acje to Mary 
Pickett; they had 3 children: Ruth, Hannah and Malinda; Mrs. 
R. died in April, 1826; March 27, 1829, he married Elizabeth Har- 
way, daughter of Nathan and Agnes Harway. He came from 
Pennsylvania when he was yet a boy, and bought the land in North 
Carolina on which he lived and died. Mrs. R. was born July 3, 
1799. Their children are Phoebe, John M. and Mary. Mr. R. is 
a miller by trade; he is yet a hale and hearty old man, and lives 
with his daughter, Mrs. Jester. The family belong to the society 
of Friends. 

John A. Lamb was born Nov. 16, 1843, in this tp. ; his parents, 
John A. and Lovina (Hungerford) Lamb, were among the first to 
settle in this county, coming here when Indians and wolves still 
ruled the country. He was married Nov. 29, 1868, to Sarah E. 
Clay, daughter of A. J. and Nancy Clay, of this tp.; she was born 
Oct. 20, 1848; they have had 2 children: William, deceased, and 
George A., born Jan. 25, 1874. Mr. Lamb enlisted in 1861, in Co. 
K, 29th Reg. Ind. Vol. ; he was wounded at the battle of Stone River, 
got Ji is discharge and came home; after remaining at home for 
abouc a year he again enlisted with the nine-month men; he took 
part, in the Battle of Shiloh. Since the close of the war Mr. Lamb 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 959 

has been engaged in farming; he owns the farm on which he was 
born, in sec. 19. P. 0., South Bend. 

Frederic Losch, son of Solomon and Gustianna (Rupert) Losch, 
of the Province of Saxony in Prussia; was born March 7,1827; he 
left Saxony in May, 1S62, going to Racine, Wis.; in 1S69 he came 
from that place here. He was married in 1852 in Prussia, to Wil- 
helmina Rammelt. daughter of Samuel and Dora Rammelt, who 
was born June 4, 182-1; their children are Charley, born Jan, 26, 
1851; Osa, Feb. 28, 1857; Henry, Sept. 1, 1861. Charley married 
Hattie Skyles, of Liberty tp. Mr. Losch was educated in the old 
country, and when a young man learned the cabinet-maker's trade, 
which he followed until he came to Wisconsin, where he worked in 
a sash and blind factory. On coming to this tp. he engaged in 
farming and carpentering. During the late war he served in Co. 
H, 32d Reg. of Wis. Vol. He owns 86 acres in sec' 20. P. O., 
South Bend. 

Jonathan, Lineback was born Jan. 11, 1S30, son of Elijah Line- 
back, who was born in Madison county, Ind., in 1803, of German 
origin, and came to this country at an early day, settling in one of 
the Atlantic States. They soon scattered abroad, and some of them 
went to Kentucky. Mr. Lineback's father emigrated from Ken- 
tucky to Indiana while it was yet a Territory; he lived in Hancock 
county for fifteen or twenty years, and then moved to Iowa, where he 
died some years after. Mr. Elijah Lineback moved from Hancock 
county to Elkhart county, Inch, where he stopped for a short time and 
then moved to South Bend. He and his wife and child came on horse- 
back through the wilderness; and his wife, now the widow Rector, 
says she was frequently thrown from her horse while on the journey, 
but never hurt the baby. When they reached South Bend they 
found but three log cabins. Mr. L. went to work and erected his 
cabin, and engaged on the Michigan road as a laborer at $5 per 
month. He left South Bend some time after, and took up a quarter 
section of Michigan-road land about half a mile north of Lakeville, 
in Union tp., and for the first night he put up his bed under a sugar- 
maple tree, "And the next day," says Mrs. Rector, " I had to get din- 
ner for seven of the Michigan-road hands." They erected a two- 
faced camp, and were soon in comfortable quarters. This was in 
the spring of 1S33. They were the first family in the tp., and Mrs. 
Rector, formerly the wife of Mr. Lineback, is the oldest settler now 
living in the tp. 

Mr. Lineback married Elizabeth Little, who was born in January, 
1809, and was a native of Wayne county, Ind. Their family is as 
follows: Jacob, who died when a year old; Jonathan, the subject 
of this sketch; Rose Ann, who died in infancy; George R., born 
Nov. 9, 1833, and married Amanda J. Hibey, of Marshall county, 
Ind.; Mary, born Feb. 10, 1836, and married John Boyes, a native 
of New York; he was raised in Ohio and came to Indiana in 1S50; 
Nancy J., bom Nov. 8, 1838, and died when young. Mr. Lineback 
died July i, 1839, a worthy member of the U. B. Church, and 



960 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

highly respected by the community and all who knew him. His 
widow married Mark Rector, an old settler in St. Joseph county, 
and by him has had Irene, Isam and Harriet. Mr. Rector died in 
March, 1S53. He was one of the first settlers and earned his home- 
stead farm by working on the Michigan road at $5 per month. The 
subject of this sketch married Anna J. Moon, daughter of James 
Moon, of this tp. They have 10 children, 8 of whom are living: 
Irene, Mary J., James, Clara A., Franklin, Laura, Susan and Flor- 
ence. Irene married Douglas L. Rush, son of Squire L. Rush, for- 
merly of this township. They have one child. Mr. L. is engaged 
in farming. He was three years old when his father moved to this 
section, and well remembers the Indians and wild beasts that 
infested the country at that time. When he was 15 years of age 
he worked in Michigan at $5 per month until he had saved 
enough to buy 40 acres of land in sec. 36 of this tp., now owned by 
D. J. Fisher. He went to the Golden State in 1850, by the over- 
land route, when it took six months to tret there. He there engaged 
in mining, with a good deal of success, and returned in about four 
years. He has a good farm of SO acres in sec. 34. P. O., Lakeville. 
James Moon, sec. 34; P. O., Lakeville; was born in Wayne 
county, Ind., March, 6, 1816, of English origin; his first American 
ancestors came to this country nearly a century before the Revolu- 
tion, and settled first in New York, but soon scattered abroad into 
Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia. His grandfather was 
a Quaker, and consequently did not participate in the war. He 
married, and his children were James, John, Mary, Malachi, 
Simeon, Richard and William, all of whom emigrated to Ohio, 
married, and had families. Malachi married Mary Fisher, whose 
ancestors came from Scotland, and his children were Sarah, Eliza- 
beth, Hannah, Eliza, Susanna, James, John, Mary, Eli, Nancy, 
John and one who died in infancy. He settled in Wayne county, 
Ind., in 1811; his nearest white neighbors on the north were at 
Fort Wayne, 90 miles distant. During the Indian troubles in 1812, 
he left the county for six months, but returned and died there in 
1830. Mr. Moon, the subject of this notice, married Mary James 
in 1838. His children are: Ann J., who married Jonathan Line- 
back; John R., who volunteered in the 29th Ind. Reg. and died in 
camp in Kentucky ; David, who died unmarried, aged 23; Malachi, 
who died unmarried, aged 22; Ansel B., who married Amanda 
Hupp, whose children are Emma and Jennie; Calvin, born May 
16, 1849, and resides in Mishawaka. Mrs. Moon died in 1861, and 
Mr. Moon married Susanna Woentz. and by her has one son, Albion. 
He first came to this county in 1834, from Warren county, Ind., 
walking all the way. At this time there were but few villages 
between here and that place, and still fewer houses. When he 
arrived he had only $9, but he went to work for Mr. John Rush on 
the Michigan road, at si 4 per month. Although he was a stranger 
to Mr. Rush he entered his land for him, paying for it himself and 
waiting till Mr. Moon could earn it by work. Mr. M. continued 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 1*61 

to work in this section during the summer, returning to his home 
in Warren county in the winter. He removed his family here in 
184 L, and has since that time been a resident of this tp. He was 
Township Treasurer for nine or ten years, and held the office of 
Town Trustee for about the same length of time. He is well known 
and respected all over his county; has been a member of the M. E. 
Church since he was a young man. He is an earnest advocate for 
every enterprise that has for its object the advancement of his 
county. 

John Moon was born June 6, 1818, in New London tp., Wayne 
county, Ind. (For his ancestry see preceding sketch.) He was 
married Aug. 22, 1839, to Lydia James, daughter of David and 
Jane James, of Wayne county, Indiana, but formerly of 
North Carolina. They have 4 children living: Henrietta, 
born Sept. 14, 1843; Josiah, born Sept. 22, 1845; Nancy, 
born Jan. 18, 1852; and Louisa, born in January, 1854; Anderson 
was born in 1848 and died in Lakeville in 1S72; he served two 
years in the late war in the 128th Ind. Reg.; Elias died at the age 
of 19 in 1865. Jessie and Ada died when young. 

John Moore, M. D., Lakeville, Ind. 

Oliver H. Perry was born in Edwardsburg, Mich., Oct. 16, 
1836. His parents, Henry and Lorma Perry, were early settlers in 
this county; they removed to this tp. before the Turkey-Foot road 
was yet cut out. Mr. Perry was married Feb. 3, 1858, to Hannah 
Bayley, daughter of Louis Bayley, formerly of this county; they 
had 2 children, one of whom is living, namely, Horace. He was 
married a second time to Sally Bassett, daughter of George and 
Dorcas (Taylor) Bassett, of this county; they have 4 children: 
Lorma, George, Edith and Louisa. Mr. P. was in Co. 1, 155th Ind. 
Vol., in the late war; was out nine months. His father was in the 
service three years, in Co. H, 29th Ind. Vol. Mr. and Mrs. Perry are 
both worthy members of the IT. B. Church. Mr. P. commenced 
here in the woods with but little capital, except a persevering will 
to succeed; he now has a good home. 

Moses Pvmches was born in Fayette, Seneca county, N. Y., 
March 2, 1S22; his parents left New York in the fall of 1832, 
going to Geauga county, Ohio; here they lived for about three 
years, when they moved to Stark county, O., and from there, in the 
spring of 1841, to Seneca county, Ohio^ Here Mr. Pimches lived 
nntil he came to this tp., in the fall of 1855. He was married in 
April, 1851, in Seneca county, O., to Miss Jane Jackson, daughter 
of the late John and Elizabeth Jackson, of this tp.: she was born 
Oct. 27, 1825, in Columbia county, Pa., and their children are 
John J., born Feb. 15, 1852; Mary J., born in December, is:,6; 
Josephine, in September, 1854; Betsey, in January, 1858; Hiram 
B., in October, 1869. John J. was married Feb. 16, 1673, to 
Marietta Annis, of this tp., and has Amy M., Mary J.. Grace and 
Floyd. He lives in Marshall county and is engaged in milling. 
Mary J. married Levi Gears, and has Homer and Dora; he resides 
in Marshall county; Betsey married Ruins Cunningham, and is 



962 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

living in Marshall county. When the war broke out in 1861, Mr. 
Punches was among the first to respond to the call of his country, 
serving four years in Co. C, 48th Ind. Vol.; he participated in the 
battles of Champion Hills, Jackson, Vicksburg, and was with 
Sherman on his march to the sea. Has 80 acres of land. Busi- 
ness, (arming and blacksmithing. 

A. W. Shiddler was born in October, 1830, in Stark county, 
Ohio; his parents were George W. and Catharine (Wise) Shiddler, 
both natives of Washington county, Pa. Nov. 6, 1853, Mr. Shid- 
dler was married to Miss Kloffenstine, daughter of Christopher 
Kloft'enstine, of Stark county, Ohio, who was a native of France, 
coming to this country in 1826 or 1827. They have a family of 9 
children: Bell, Francis S., Emma L., Author, Schuyler, Alice, 
John W., Adam and Eleanor V. Mr. S. left Ohio in the spring of 
1854, coming to this tp. ; he built Ooquillard's Mill that summer, 
and ran it for about ten years. In 1864 he removed to his present 
farm, where he had a saw-mill until a few years ago, when he 
removed it to Marshall county. He has been engaged in farming 
and lumberin.g all his life. He looks at farming from an analyt- 
ical point, and makes it a study; and for his forethought and 
prudence he is amply rewarded in his abundant crops. On an 80- 
acre lot, during the last five years, he has raised each year from 
1,100 to 1,400 bushels of wheat, 600 to 900 bushels of corn, about 
300 bushels of oats and 20 to 25 tons of hay; he does not pasture 
any of this ground. In his business affairs Mr. S. has been quite 
successful. They are members of the Christian Church at Lake- 
ville. He is a Mason and a Republican. P. O., South Bend. 

Paul Shuppert, son of Joseph and Susanna Shuppert, of South 
Bend, was born Jan. 25, 1854, in this tp. May 1, 1873, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Minnie Steim, daughter of Frederic Steim,of this tp.; 
she was born in 1853; they have 4 children: Adam, deceased, Ida, 
Hattie, Egbert and an infant. Mr. S. was educated in the public 
schools of this tp., and is a farmer on sec. 29. P. O., South Bend. 

Ada in Snyder, farmer, sec. 21; P. O., Lakeville, was born in 
Coshocton county, Ohio, May 14, 1837; bis parents were Peter and 
Elizabeth (Lowery) Snyder, natives of Pennsylvania. He was mar- 
ried Dec. 4, 1859, to Elizabeth Moon, daughter of John and Eliza- 
beth (Rone) Moon, of Coshocton county, O.; they have 3 children: 
Leander, Nancy Ann and James E. Mr. Snyder removed from 
Ohio to this tp. in 1866; he commenced working at the carpenter's 
trade when 18 years of age. and followed it until a few years ago. 

Daniel Stonehill, son of Solomon and Catharine Stonehill, 
natives of Pennsylvania, was born in Stark county, Ohio, in Janu- 
ary, 1S25; he left that county in the spring of 1854, coining to 
this county and settling on the farm on which he now resides. He 
was married in June, 1850, to Miss Adaline Brothers, of Stark 
county, Ohio, who was born in June, 1828; they have 4 children: 
Elizabeth, Cynthia, Marion and Warren. Elizabeth married Mar- 
tin Miller, and resides in this tp. ; Cynthia married Calvin Moon, 



HISTOKY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 963 

and lives in Mishawaka. Mr. Stonehill served 6 months in Co. I, 
155th Ind. Keg., in the late Rebellion; he has a good farm in sec. 
30; P. O., South Bend. 

Alfred F. Stull, son of Conrad and Hester (Snyder) Stull, natives 
of Pennsylvania, and who were among the first to settle in Stark 
county, Ohio, was born in that county, June 26, 1838; he left 
Ohio in the spring of 1S58 and came to this county; here he 
engaged in milling and lumbering, and has been in that business 
ever since. He was married Oct. 20, 1859, to Susan Shively, daugh- 
ter of John and Margaret Shively, of Stark county. Ohio. They, 
also, were among the first to settle in Eastern Ohio. Her mother 
was a native of Maryland, and her father of Pennsylvania. Her 
great grandfather came from Germany. Their children are: Ellis 
B., deceased, born June 22, 1864; Judson L., born Oct. 9, 1862; 
Dwight M., born Jan. 28, 1868. Mr. Stull is a member of the 
Masonic lodge at Lakeville; has 124 acres of well-improved land 
in sec. 19; P. O., South Bend. 

Charles J. Siveezey, was born in Yates county, N. Y., June 3, 
1839 ; his parents were David and Elizabeth (Gillett) Sweezey, 
natives of Orange county, N. Y. ; his ancestors on his father's side 
were of Welsh descent, and on his mother's English, they having 
come to this country several generations ago. His great-grand- 
father was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. Mr. S. moved to 
Plymouth, Ind., in the fall of 1859. When the war broke out he 
enlisted and served three years in Co. K,29th Ind. Vol. ; was wounded 
and taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga, Ga. ; was paroled 
and taken to Camp Chase in Sept., 1863. At the close of the war 
he returned to Seneca county N. Y., where he lived till he removed 
to Mishawaka in the fall of 1869. July 4, 1865, he was married to 
Harriet E. Lyon, daughter of James and Sophia Lyon, of Mar- 
mount, Ind. Mr. S. came to Lakeville in 1875, and engaged in the 
mercantile business; he has a large country store and is doing a 
good business; has been Postmaster, but now holds the office of 
Township Trustee; he is a member of Monitor Lodge, I. O. O. 
F., No. 29, at Mishawaka; also member of the M. E. Church at 
Laktville. 

Mich-ael Trump was born in Stark county, Ohio, March 7, 1811; 
his parents, Michael and Margaret (Huffman) Trump, were natives 
of Adams county, Pa. He was married in March, 1834, to Sarah 
Simmons, of Stark county, Ohio. She was born in Pennsylvania 
June, 1814. Her parents were John and Susan (Brame) Sim- 
mons, of Pennsylvania. They have a family of 9 children: Silas, 
Amos, Margaret, Amanda, John, Sarah, Michael. Henry and 
Luetta; most of them are married. They came here from Stark 
county, O., in the spring of 1869. Mr. T. has a good farm of 80 
acres; they are worthy members of the U. B. Church; residence, 
sec. 16. 

Alpheus 0. VanLieu was born in Tipton county, Tennessee, 
Mav 19, 1849. The tradition is that his ancestors came from the 



06i BISTORT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Netherlands to America, among the first emigrants, and settled in 
New Jersey, and for four or five generations are interred in the 
cemetery of Middlebrush, near the city of Brunswick, in that State; 
his grandfather's family were Sansbury, Ogden, Henry, John, Ellen, 
Dennis, Julia and Dunbar. His father's family is as follows; 
Alpheus O., John, Julia E., Thomas, deceased, and Thomas L. 
John married Emma Robinson; has one child, Etta; and is a rail- 
road agent at Ada, Ohio. Mr. VanLieu married, June 2, 1872, 
Mary M. DuComb, daughter of Vincent and Harriet C. DuComb, 
formerly of this county; they have 3 children: Dora Maud, born 
April 12, 1S75; Aggie May, born June 14, 1877; Dan Foster, born 
Aug. 17, 1879. Mr. V. came to this county in January, 1867; he 
attended school in South Bend until 1870. July 5, 1871, he engaged 
in the drug business in Lakeville. He realized that if one would 
be successful in business, he must attend to it closely; and so 
attentively did he apply himself to his business that at one time he 
was not out of the village but a few times, and then but a couple of 
miles, for three years. He is now doing a good business in drugs 
and hardware. Mr. V. has been Township Trustee from 1876 to 
1880. 



WARREN TOWNSHIP 

This township borders on the Kankakee river and lies between 
Olive township on the west and German and Portage townships on 
the east, consisting of 26 whole and 17 fractional sections. Its 
width from east to west is 3J miles, and its extreme length from 
north to south is 10^ miles. Its surface is generally rolling. 
From the eminences of some of the knolls in the northwestern 
part, from which Terre Coupee Prairie can be viewed, a grand and 
magnificent view meets the eye. During the growing season one 
beholds verdant fields dotted over with fine farm residences, school- 
houses, etc. Before the hand of man had subdued these lands, 
and when the prairie and woodland were in their virgin State, the 
scenery from these eminences must have been supremely charming. 
"With its green, flowery carpet, its undulating surface, skirted by a 
beautiful growth of timber that more definitely marks the bound- 
aries, it must have presented to the eye of the lone traveler or new 
settler a scene most beautiful and sublimely grand. A little over 
half a century ago, the sound of the white man's ax had not been 
heard in these torests; the ringing of the anvil, the rattle of the 
reaper, the hum of the thresher, and the whistle of the engine 
would have been strange music to the ear of the wild Indian, whose 
song and war-whoop were the only sounds indicative of human 
existence. The soiil-stirring music of the band, the melodious 
tones of the organ, and the still sweeter voices of the choir would 
have been in strange contrast with the howl of the wolf or the 
scream of the panther as they roamed fearlessly over the spot 
which we now find thickly settled. The bark canoe and the 
majestic steamer, the rude wigwam and the stately mansion, the 
Indian pony and the iron horse, the slow messenger or courier and 
the lightning telegraph, but faintly illustrate the vast difference 
between the savages of that period 'and the civilization of to-day. 

But little is known of the history of Warren township prior to 
1831. Nov. 19 of that year Judge Eeynolds Dunn, by whom this 
township was named, settled upon the lands now owned by his son, 
J. T. Dunn. Other settlements were afterward made by W. W. 
Brick, Peter Wikoff, Geo. Witter and John Kingery, who came in 
1832 or '3, and opened farms. Walter Field settled on section 26 
in 1S33; Jesse Frame and his sons, William, Nathaniel, Cornelius, 
Isaac. David and Jesse, settled on section 22, on Portage Prairie, 
in 1S33. Nathaniel Willson also came this year, perhaps before 
Isaac W. Phillip settled on section 8, about 1833; Harry Buckles 
opened up a farm on section 3<; about 1836; James Dunbar, about 
the same time, and Joseph P. Jones took up lands on Portage 

(965) 



966 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

Prairie in 1835; Joseph Price was an early settler: Thomas Jack- 
son settled on section 22, and Calvin Myler on section 24; so also 
John Skiles, Theophilns Case, Jacob Mikesell, Geo. Dunnahoo, 
Abram Brown, Jonathan Platts and Win. Crumb were earlv 
settlers. 

To those who opened up and developed the wonderful resources 
of Warren township the present and coming generations will owe 
eternal gratitude. They suffered untold privations and incon- 
veniences, labored with unflagging energy and toil, receiving only 
a meager compensation; were far away from their friends and their 
old homes, and with scarcely any means of communication with 
them, the pioneers were encouraged and kept up with the hope of 
soon establishing comfortable homes. 

The children of these early settlers were not long without the 
instructions and discipline of the schoolmaster, for we find that as 
early as 1839 Dr. Howell taught school in a log house on section 
26; this rude structure, which was erected by the contribution of 
the labor of the pioneers, would not compare favorably with the 
modern, neat and tasteful frame and brick edifices that adorn many 
of the knolls through this section. 

There is but one church building in this township. It was 
erected in 1879, on section 30, at a cost of $1,000, by the Duukard 
society, which is a thrifty one, with 115 members. James H. Mil- 
ler is the present Pastor. 

During the late war, Warren proved loyal " to the core " and 
furnished many of her brave sous as a sacrifice to retain an 
undivided union. Many of those who went to the front, after 
enduring years of untold hardships and danger, were permitted to 
return to their homes, where they are now living to enjoy the 
liberties they so nobly fought for. Many of them, however, went 
to return no more. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

W. H. Barker was born June 8, 1854, in Hillsdale county 
Mich., and is the son of L. S. and Sophia Barker, natives of New 
York, who emigrated to Michigan about 1828, where they still re- 
side; W. H. was reared on the farm and received his education in 
the common schools. He learned telegraphing in 1872, and has 
been in the employ of the L. S. & M. S. R. R. Company since 
Jan. 13,1873, first taking charge of the office at Allen Station, 
which position he had only two months, when he was transferred 
to the Charleston office. In about three months he took charge of 
the present office at Warren Centre, where he has faithfully dis- 
charged his duty as telegraph operator and ticket and freight agent. 
He erected a neat farm residence last season. Mr. B. married 
Miss Emeline Mikesell Nov. 10, 1875, who was born in this county 
Sept. 10, 1855, and Elsie and Charles are their children. Post- 
office, Warren Centre. 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 967 

James T. Dunn, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser, was born 
in Greene county, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1829, and is the son of Judge 
Reynolds Dunn, a farmer and a native of Somerset county, N. J., 
who named this tp. after the tp. in Ohio from which he came. 
The Judge married Miss Phoebe Tatman, a native of Kentucky, 
and of Scotch descent. They settled in this county in 1832. James 
T. completed his education at the high school in South Bend. 
October 17, 1858, he married Ellen Umberger, a native ofDanphin 
county, Pa., of German ancestry, and a respected member of the 
Methodist Church. Of their 6 children 5 are living, 2 sons and 
3 daughters. Mr. Dunn has been successful in life. At one time 
he owned 400 acres of choice land in this tp. He now has 200 acres 
and his farm is a fine one. Cost of dwelling, $4,000. In politics 
Mr. Dunn is a Democrat. 

G. S . Dunnahoo was born in this tp. in 1839, and is the son of 
George and Catharine (Mikesell) Dunnahoo, the former a native ot 
Virginia, and of Scotch descent, and the latter a native of Ohio, 
and of German descent; received all his school education 
in this tp. and district No. 3; has always been a farmer, except 14 
years he was employed as track foreman by the L. S. & M. S. R. R. 
Company. In agriculture he has been successful, and now owns 
93 acres of land. He is a Democrat; has been Tp. Trustee two 
terms and School Director two years. In 1867 he married Phoebe 
Anna Ward, a native of this tp., and they have 4 sons and 2 daugh- 
ters living. 

Noah Early, farmer, was born Sept. 16, 1836, in Rockingham 
count)', Va., the son of Jacob and Mary Early, natives of Virginia, 
and of German descent, who moved to Allen county, Ohio, in 1842; 
in 1804 they moved to Piatt county, 111., but without unloading 
they returned to Ohio, where Mr. Jacob Early now resides. Noah 
received a common-school education. Feb. 10, 1859, he married 
Mary E. Vincent, who was born in Allen county, 0.,Feb. 10, 1841; 
of their 2 children only Emma L. is living. Mrs. E. died Oct. 17, 
1864; in 1873 Mr. E. came to this county; in January of this year 
he married Eunice Davenport, who was born May 7- 1841, in this 
county. Mr. E. served three years in the late war, in Co. E, 99th 
Ohio Inf. ; was wounded in the leg at Chickamauga; was also in 
the battle at Stone River and many other engagements. Mr. E. 
owns 161 acres of land. He and his wife are members of the 
German Baptist Church. They are bringing up an orphan boy 
named Hiram Shirk. P. O., South Bend. 

Stephen Fields, deceased, was born in Ohio in 1813, the son of 
"Walter and Sarah (Sears) Fields, natives of Pennsylvania, and of 
German descent; was brought by his parents to this county when 
12 years of age, settling in this tp.; received a common-school 
education; was married the first time to Charlotte Beyler, and 
thev had 2 children; was married the second time, Jan. 26, 1842, 
to Priscilla C. Buckles, and they had 4 sons and 4 daughters. They 
were both members of the Dunkard Church, and Mr. F was a 



968 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTS'. 

Democrat, as also are his sons. He was Justice of the Peace eight 
years, and was a strict temperance man, even using no tobacco. 
At the time of his deatli he owned 240 acres of land. 

Abntm Frame was born June 5, ISIS, in Preble county, Ohio, 
and the son of William and Nancy Frame, natives of Virginia, 
who migrated to Michigan in 1835 and to this tp. in 1S3S, where 
they resided until death. Abram was raised on the farm, and he 
has followed farming thus far through life. He married Miss 
Martha Poff, a native of Floyd county, Va., June 5, 1845; she was 
born March 1, 1824; of their 8 children 4 are living, to wit: 
Nathaniel A., Mary E., Daniel B. and John R. Mr. F. has been very 
successful financially, now owning 260 acres of No. 1 land, worth 
$75 per acre. Residence, sec. 23; P. O., South Bend. 

Nathaniel A. Frame was born in this county April 29, 1852, 
and is the son of Abram and Martha Frame, father a native of 
Ohio, and mother of Virginia; was reared on the farm and received 
a common-school education; Feb. 12, 1S74, married Miss Phoebe 
A. Chamberlain, who was born in this county Nov. 15, 1S55; they 
have had 3 children: Cora E., Albert and Marvin 0. Mr. F. has 
followed farming thus far through life, and now owns 105 acres of 
land. Mr. and Mrs. F. are members of the German Baptist 
Church. Residence, sec. 14; P. O., South Bend. 

George Kizer was born Oct. 12, 1839, in Wayne county, Ohio, 
and is the son of Ebenezer and Susannah Kizer, of German descent; 
was only six years old when his parents came to this county; was 
reared on the farm and has been a resident of this county all his 
life except eight years he lived in Michigan. He has been reason- 
ably successful in life. He married Miss Mary A. Cameron Oct. 
18, 1S60, who was born in Pennsylvania; of their S children 7 are 
living: Arbella C, Lula C, Minnie A., Efne L., Osborn, Arthur F. 
and Olive A. Residence, sec. 27; P. O., South Bend. 

Philip Korn, farmer, sec. 10; P. O., Buchanan, Mich.; was born 
April 15, 1829, in Baden, Germany, and is the son of Mike and 
Susan Korn; he came to America in 1S52 and landed at New 
York, where he staid five years, and thence came to Berrien county, 
Mich., where he resided until 186S, at which time he located in 
this tp. He married Miss Frances Summers, of Baden, Germany, 
April 2, 1854; she was born Feb. 15, 1830; they have had 9 chil- 
dren: Joseph, Mary, Carolina, John, Sophia, Frank, Ellen, Annie 
and Willie. Mrs. K. died Aug. 7, 1878. Mr. K. was formerly a 
tanner by trade, but at present his occupation is farming. He 
owns 144 acres of land. 

A. Lindley, farmer, sec. 27; P. O., South Bend; was born Jan. 
1, 1S30, in Wayne county, Ind., and is the son of Tence and Martha 
Lindley, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of 
Maryland. He was 14 years old when his parents moved from 
Wayne to Howard county, where he became of age; he was 
reared on the farm and received his education in the common 
schools. He married Miss Mary E. Huston Dec. 11, 1851, who 



HISTOKT OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 969 

was born July 16, 1S35, in this county, and they are parents of 10 
children, of whom 5 are living: Viretta J., Emma L., Harvey E., 
Adelle F. and Melville A. Mr. L. has been very successful in life, 
and now owns 193 acres of good farm land. He has held the office 
of Justice of the Peace, and was Enumerator of the Census in his 
tp. this year (1SS0). He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 

John C. Marble, sec. 15; P. O., Dayton, Mich.; was born Oct. 
2S, 1815, in "Washington county, Vermont, and is the son of Joseph 
and Annis Marble, the former a native of New Hampshire and the 
latter of Massachusetts. He emigrated to Michigan in 1831 and 
resided there until 1835, at which time he came to this county, and 
stopped a short time at Mishawaka, and visited several places; he 
located at Elkhart, where he was engaged in the lumbering and 
carpentering business for two years; he then in 1837 moved to Por- 
tage Prairie, where he followed barn building; he has built 96 
barns thus far in his life, and many dwelling houses; he moved to 
this tp. in 1843 or '4, and settled on the farm George Witter now 
owns. He married Miss Catharine Holmes, of Berrien county, 
Mich., in March, 1857; she was born Oct. 26, 1826; they never 
have had any children of their own, though they have reared 
to manhood 6 boys, and at present are rearing Clarissa and Lucy, 
his brother's orphan children. Mr. Marble is a land speculator, 
having bought and sold thousands of acres, and is now owning 
1,009 acres. His father was in the war of 1813, and grandfather 
in the Revolution, and wounded at Breed's Hill. 

Calvin Myler, sec. 24; P. O., South Bend; is a son of James 
and Olive Myler, and was born March 5, 1820, in Butler county, 
Ohio. His father was a native of "Westmoreland county, Pa., and 
was born in 1797; and his mother was a native of New York. They 
were married in Butler county, Ohio, and came to this county May 
11, 1836, and settled in this tp. Calvin Myler was married to Mary 
J. Scott March 26, 1842, who was born in Bartholomew county, 
Ind., Dec. 24, 1823, and they have had 9 children, to-wit: Wm. F., 
Catharine, formerly a school-teacher, Martha A., Sarah, E. J., Geo. 
L., who is also a teacher, John S., attending college at Valparaiso, 
Alexander and Charles. Mr. Myler commenced in life a poor boy, 
and to day he owns 221 acres of land, worth $90 per acre. 

D. R. Roehhill, farmer, sec. 14; P. O., South Bend; was born 
in this county March 3, 1853, and is the son of Wm. D. and Sarah 
Eockhill; father a native of Kentucky, and mother of Ohio, who 
came to this county in an early day. Thomas, a brother of D. R., 
was born Oct. 21, 1S55, also in this county. Thomas was married 
Dec. 12, 1878, to Miss Emma Lindley, who was born about 1860 in 
this county; they have one child, Clarence. These two brothers 
are farming in partnership on their father's farm of 226 acres, and 
are having good success. They are enterprising young men and 
are highly spoken of by all who know them. 

David Rose, a native of Dauphin county, Pa., was born Sept. 12, 
1S47, and is the son of John and Mary Rose, both natives of Penn- 

60 



970 HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 

sylvania; he came to this county in 1S70 and settled in this tp. the 
same year. May 22, 1S71, he married Miss Mary Frame, who was 
born in this county in 1849; they have 2 children: John A. and 
Edgar. Mr. Rose served four years and live months in the late 
war, first enlisting in Co. D, 47 th Pa. Vol. Inf., afterward in Co. 
M, 16th Pa. Cav. He formerly worked at the shoemaker's trade, 
but is now following farming, owning 110 acres of land on sec. 11. 
P. O., South Bend. 

Isaac Sellers, farmer, sec. 13; P. O., South Bend; was born in 
Union county, Pa., Dec. 29, 1825, and is the son of Henry and Eliz- 
abeth (Wells) Sellers. Henry was the son of Frederick and Eliza- 
beth Sellers, and Frederick's father was a native of Holland. Henry 
migrated to Pulaski county in 1847 and resided there until death. 
Isaac married Miss Elizabeth Shetterly May 1, 1S45; she was born 
in Union count}-, Pa., Aug. 28, 1827, and they have 13 children, of 
whom 7 are living, to-wit: Susanna, Henry F., Geo. W., R. M., 
¥m. W. and Milroy. Mr. S.'s life companion died March 9, 1876. 
He married Miss Mary Lower, a native of Northumberland county, 
Pa., Sept. 13, 1877; she was born Nov. 11, 1823, and is a member 
of the Reformed Church. Mr. S. lias been very successful in life, 
now owning 171 acres of land. He is liberal in his views. 

Peter Smith was born in Maryland in 1S29, the son of Christian 
and Catherine (Sensenbaugh) Smith, natives of Maryland, and of 
German descent; he received his education in the common schools 
of this county. By occupation he is a farmer. He was married in 
February, 1865, to Mary Ann Kaley, and they have had 6 children. 
He is a Republican. He came to St. Joseph county in 1S35, and 
settled in German tp. He owns 150 acres of land. 

Joseph Wells, farmer, sec. 10; P. O., Buchanan, Mich. ;\vasborn 
in Greene county, Ohio, Dec. 27, 1S20, and is the son of Charles 
and Susan "Wells, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter ot 
Virginia. They were married in Ohio, moved to Cass county, 
Mich., in 1830, and to Berrien county in 1834, where his father 
died in lS37,and mother in 1871 or '2. Joseph was reared on the 
farm, and carried on his father's farm 14 years. He also fol- 
lowed blacksmithing until 1853, at which time he rented his farm 
and devoted his time to his trade until 1868, when he quit his trade 
and returned to farming, which he has since followed with success. 
His brother is the model farmer in Berrien county, Mich. Joseph 
Wells was married Dec. 11, 1853, to Miss Sarah J. Jones, who was 
born in Butler count}-, Ohio, in September, 1S27; they have 6 
children living, to wit: Joseph, James L., Nannie, Libbie, Susie 
and John. Mr. W. bought land in this tp. in 1S54, but did not set- 
tle here until 1864, since which time he has highly improved his 
farm, building a residence at the cost of $2,200, and his barn is 
worth $1,000. His farm consists of 215 acres, worth $60 per acre. 
Mr. W. is a member of the Masonic lodge. 

George Witter, farmer, sec. 23; P. O., South Bend; was born 
Oct. 23. 1817. in Union countv, Ind.. son of John and Annie 



HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY. 971 

(Mover) Witter, natives of Lancaster county, Pa., who came to this 
State about 1800; mother died in Union county in 1832, father 
came to St. Joseph county the next year, settling on Portage 
Prairie, German tp., where he lived until his death, May 23, 1864. 
George Witter was reared on the farm; Feb. 16, 1840, he married 
Sarah Miller, who was born in Wayne county, Ind., Nov. 1, 1822, 
and of their 12 children 8 are living: Aaron, Adeline, Lucinda, 
Albert, Caroline, Martin, George and Harrison. Mr. W. came to 
this county in 1860; has served three years as Township Trustee, 
and he and his wife are members of the German Baptist Church. 
He owns 275 acres of land. 

W. B. Zigler, farmer, sec. 25; P. O., South Bend; was . born 
May 13, 1829, in Botetourt county, Va., and is the son of Samuel 
and Margaret Zigler, also natives of Virginia, who moved to this 
county in 1832, settling in Centre tp., where they resided about 
two years; thence they moved to Penn tp., where they remained 
eleven years, and then moved to German tp., where the subject of 
our sketch gained his majority. Mr. Z. was reared on the farm; 
went to Iowa in 185-4, where he remained only about nine months; 
while there he taught one term of school and also worked at the 
nursery business; soon after or shortly before this trip he went to 
California, where he remained a short time, and on account of bad 
health he returned home, where we find him busily engaged in farm- 
ing, which he carries on with success. He owns 19S acres of land. 
He married Miss E. O. Miller Oct. 29, 1858, who was born in 1834; 
they had one child, now deceased. Mr. Z.'s life companion died, 
and he married Lorinda Miller Feb. 20, 1860, who was born May 
2, 1837, and also in this county. Their child is Maggie J. He and 
wife are members of the M. E. Church. 




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